Turkish nationals wanting to obtain a Schengen visa for the purpose of entering the bloc are complaining about the difficulties in securing appointments.
Amid the high demand for Schengen visas among this nationality, it has been found out that intermediaries are exploiting appointments, making it impossible for genuine applicants to book slots via official channels, Schengen.News reports.
As Hürriyet Daily News explains, intermediaries are using automated software and bots to identify the availability of appointment slots.
As soon as some appointments are made available, the bots secure and block them. The intermediaries then resell the blocked slots on the black market for large amounts of money.
While there are still some cases when appointments do not get blocked by bots, it is very hard to book them even if individuals spend days tracking them.
Since it has become very difficult to secure appointments via the official channels, many Turkish nationals who are not willing to wait for long periods of time resort to intermediaries.
The managing director of a visa services company, Orhan İşcil, said that some intermediaries are selling Schengen visa appointments between €500 and €1,000, and in some cases as much as €3,000.
Some agents are demanding between 500 and 1,000 euros, sometimes even as much as 3,000 euros.
He further said that the market is unregulated and called on Turkish nationals not to trust advertisements on social media. According to him, many of these advertisements are fake, with applicants being ignored once they hand in the money.
VFS Global Has Implemented a Number of Countermeasures, Regional Head Said
In an attempt to prevent illegal activities and the blocking of appointments, VFS Global’s Deputy Regional Head for Türkiye and Azerbaijan, Sertan Aslantürk, said that the visa outsourcing company has implemented a series of countermeasures.
Aslantürk noted that they take action every day, and at the same time, explained that they had introduced virtual point-of-sale systems to prevent bot interference.
Initially, we introduced virtual point-of-sale systems due to bot interference. Subsequently, we implemented virtual keyboards, IP address restrictions, and blocked VPN-based access.
In addition to the above-mentioned, Aslantürk said that they have introduced a digital waiting room mechanism for Schengen visa applicants. The aim of this mechanism is to put an end to the exploitative tactics of intermediaries.
According to statistics published by SchengenVisaInfoTurkish passport holders were granted significantly more Schengen visas in 2024. This nationality submitted a total of 1,173,917 visa applications last year. Of the applicants, 993,875 were granted a visa, whereas 170,129 had their applications rejected.