The Swiss embassy in India says it has not suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups. Press reports from the South Asian nation suggested it had.
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“The Embassy of Switzerland in India has not suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups,” a spokesperson for the embassy told SWI swissinfo.ch in a written statement. “We have almost 800 daily appointments through the end of September 2023. These include 22 groups.”
People-to-people contact is at the core of Swiss-Indian relationship, it added.
The Embassy of Switzerland in India says in 2023 it processed more visa applications than it did in 2019, surpassing its pre-pandemic processing levels. From January until June, it handled 129,446 applications, compared to 120,071 during the same period in 2019 – a 7.8% increase.
The spokesperson also pointed to several measures that were introduced this year to further ease the visa application process for Indian applicants. It is now possible for applicants to request a visa six months before their date of travel, instead of just one month as was the case in the past. So, someone wishing to travel in June can already apply for a visa in January.
Second, the embassy has increased overall visa processing capacity in India. With a new Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Lucknow, there are now 13 VACs all over India, where applications can be submitted. It now takes no more than 13 working days to have the embassy’s decision on an application.
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