The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Ghana, Jeroen Verheul, has said that the reason why so many Ghanians are having their Dutch Schengen visa applications rejected is because of incomplete and incorrect information.
This statement from Ambassador Verheul comes after nationals of Ghana expressed concerns about the high rejection rate and complained of mistreatment, Schengen.News reports.
Dismissing claims that the Netherlands and other Schengen member states are blocking visa applications for passport holders of Ghana, Ambassador Verheu stressed that it is a logical process to reject applications that are not complete.
I see that a lot of those visa requests are rejected because the applications are not complete. If you don’t fill out your visa application correctly, then it is denied. That is the logical process.
In addition to incomplete applications, Ambassador Verheul pointed out that embassies also receive fake documents, among which fraudulent bank statements and birth certificates, leading to immediate rejection, My Joy Online explains.
Concerned about this, Ambassador Verheul explained that the practice of submitting fake documents is not affecting only these particular applicants who are not following the rules.
This practice, according to him, is slowing down the processing of all applications, meaning that applicants who are meeting all the requirements are also being affected.
Ambassador Calls for Strengthened Cooperation to Accelerate Visa Processing
To be able to accelerate the visa processing, Ambassador Verheul called for improved cooperation between the two parties.
According to Ambassador Verheul, it is very time consuming to check documents and detect fraud, leading to delays. To ensure that nationals of Ghana receive a decision on their Dutch Schengen visa application within a shorter period of time, he suggested that steps be taken by the Dutch and Ghanaian authorities.
If we can improve that process, that would mean fewer rejections, and that would also mean that we can speed up the processing of other applications.
The same stressed that the increased cooperation on the matter would benefit both parties.
Statistics from SchengenVisaInfo show that the Netherlands received a total of 14,858 Schengen visa applications by Ghana passport holders in 2023.
Despite such a large number of Ghanaians applying for a Dutch visa, only a proportion of them received a positive response.
Figures show that the Netherlands granted only 5,589 visas to nationals of Ghana and rejected 8,981 of them in 2023.
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