The EU Commission has decided to increase visa fees from 80 to 90 euros. The fees for obtaining a visa for the Schengen area were first increased from 60 to 80 euros in 2020. The reason given for the increase is the EU-wide inflation rate over the last three years.
The increase also means that service providers, such as vfs Global, which arrange appointments for visa applications and accept visa applications, can also increase their fees. This is because the service providers may increase half of the visa fees as a service fee. Accordingly, the fee will increase from 40 to 45 euros.
For comparison: in the USA, the visa fee is the equivalent of 172 euros, in the UK 115 euros, in Canada 130 euros, in Australia 117 euros and in India 150 euros. China, on the other hand, suspended the visa requirement for German nationals on 1 December 2023, meaning that there are no visa fees at all. Studies by the World Travel and Tourism Council show that visa requirements have a significant impact on travel behaviour and therefore on trade and the economy.
The visa process in Germany is still paper-based and therefore very cumbersome, costly and time-consuming. Digitalisation of the visa process is therefore urgently needed to simplify entry from countries requiring a visa.
In 2023, more than 22,000 exhibiting companies and their employees came to Germany to take part in international trade fairs from the key exhibitor countries with visa requirements alone: China (ranked first), Turkey (ranked third) and India (ranked ninth).
