France remains one of the most popular destinations for tourists from all over the world, including Senegal passport holders.
In order for nationals of Senegal to be able to enter the territory of the Schengen Areathey need to hold a Schengen visa. However, it has not been easy for many to find available appointment slots and secure the document, Schengen.News reports.
According to Senegalese applicants, currently, it is nearly impossible to make an appointment via the official website of VFS Global, which is the outsourcing company responsible for accepting appointments on behalf of France and some other Schengen member states in Senegal.
Due to this many of them are resorting to intermediaries, paying high amounts of money for an appointment.
Expressing concern about the system and the long waiting times, a Senegalese national applying for a French Schengen visa said that they have tried to log into the appointment website at different times and everything in between.
Nonetheless, nothing worked, so they had to pay intermediaries, which have been accused of blocking appointments and then selling them on the black market.
I’ve tried everything. I log in every day at different times, but nothing works.
The same applicant also said that the same message, “Sorry, but no appointment slots are currently available. Please try again later” has been displaying on the official website when trying to book an appointment since mid-December 2024, Le Monde explains.
Intermediaries Charging Up to €228 for a French Visa Appointment
Several other applicants have had a similar experience. A teacher from Senegal said that she had been trying for several months to secure an appointment slot, but in the end, had to pay intermediaries.
As she disclosed, she paid around €152 for intermediaries to find her an available French visa appointment.
Another applicant said that they were required by the intermediaries to pay around €228 for the appointment, making it very expensive for them to obtain the document.
There are cases when intermediaries charge lower or even higher fees, but it all depends on whether the demand is very high an if there are already available appointments on the official website.
Fed up with the long waiting times to secure an appointment and with intermediaries blocking the system, applicants have been requiring the authorities to take necessary measures. Nonetheless, no steps on the matter have been taken so far.
Senegal is not the only country in which intermediaries are blocking appointments and then selling them for a large amount of money. Schengen visa applicants in Morocco, Bangladesh, and Kuwait, among many others, have also complained about such practices that are making it difficult for them to secure a visa and reach the bloc.
Statistics published by SchengenVisaInfo show that passport holders of Senegal filed 64,392 Schengen visa applications in 2023. Of the total number of applicants, only 36,403 of them were granted a visa.