Countries that got visa facilitation agreements with the European Union in the last decade include Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Cape Verde, which had their visa requirements facilitated in 2014.
Visa facilitation agreements of the EU with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Cape Verde didn’t include visa waiver necessarily, but Schengen visa fees were reduced from €80 to €35 for nationals of Armenia and Azerbaijan, while for Cape Verdeans, with which the agreement was reached only in 2021, no fee changes have been made, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Azerbaijan nationals spent €17.2 million in visa applications between 2009 and 2014, with applicants who had their visas denied witnessing €913,760 going to waste. On average, €3.4 million was spent on visa applications by Azerbaijani in this five-year period. Based on these calculations, Azerbaijanis are saving up to €18.9 million in total since they are paying less in visa application fees.
Similarly, Armenians are saving up to €22.1 million in total or around €2.2 million yearly by reducing their visa fees to €35. This means visa fees cost around €1.7 million (considering the same amount of applications filed as in the 2009-2014 period) instead of paying €4 million as Armenians would have to if there was no visa facilitation agreement.
Besart Bajrami, the founder of SchengenVisaInfo.com, has pointed out that the average number of visa applications filed by Armenians was particularly higher in 2013, with 108,362 visa applications.
“Armenians have spent €8.6 million in 2013 alone, with the average amount spent on visa applications from 2009 to 2012 (€2.8 million) being only one-third of the spending that was recorded in 2013,” Bajrami explained.
However, controlled spending isn’t the case for Cabo Verdeans, who remain subject to the same fees, unlike Armenians, indicating that the amounts spent for visa applications are considerably high, especially compared to the other two nationalities.
In fact, data from Schengen Statistics show that 17,572 visa applications were filed from this nationality in 2022, which is evidently higher than the number of requests submitted in 2010 – 13,393, also known as the highest recorded during this period.
More specifically, Cabo Verdeans have spent €1.4 million in visa Schengen fees, with €404,400 going up in smoke as 5,055 applications were rejected, as 28.7 per cent of all applications received a negative answer.
Since 2009, Cabo Verdeans are estimated to have spent €4.2 million in total or around €302,120 every year in denied applications. Spending is even more expensive for visa applications in general, as €15.4 million are estimated to be spent.
By paying €80 per application and having an average of 13,818 applications filed in a year, the amount of money spent for visa application annually can reach €1.1 million for Cabo Verdeans.