Germany Reduces Visa Processing Time To 2 Weeks For Skilled Workers
The German government has reduced the visa processing time for Indian foreign skilled workers. As per the Schengen Visa news, the waiting period for long-term visas has been reduced from nine months to just two weeks.
As per the report, the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock also pointed out that the government aims to reduce the waiting time for nearly 400,000 people affected by long waiting times while they apply for national visas. “And we urgently need skilled workers also here who can continue to support this. In India, in Delhi, we have thus been able to reduce waiting times for national visas to two weeks. That used to take nine months”, she said.
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The German foreign minister said that today, the Federal Agency for Foreign Affairs is the biggest visa office for national visas worldwide. German businesses rely on swift visa issuance to address the shortage of labor, especially for training programs and conferences. Indian companies investing in Germany also want prompt visa processing to ensure that specialists can reach the EU countries without delay.
As per the German Insititute (IW) report, 570,000 new job vacancies were available in 2023. The shortage is expectedly going to impact the country’s economy which has higher chances to grow more rapidly with a larger workforce. The faster visa processing would enable the workforce to reach to the Germany and help to revive its economy. As per the IW report, the potential loss in production projected to reach Euro 74 billion by 2027.
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As per the Federal Foreign Office, Germany has granted 80,000 visas for the employment purposes from January to June 2024, the Schengen visa news reported. The skilled workers were the main beneficiairies of the national visas for the period as half of the visas were issued to them. This year’s visa clearence was 3,000 more than the first half of 2023.
