Schengen Visas For Belarusians May Become More Expensive

By how much?

The European Commission has proposed to raise the basic fee for Schengen visa by 12%. If the initiative is supported, the cost of document processing will increase already this year. This is stated in the relevant proposal on the EC website.

Every three years the EU Commission is tasked to assess whether it is necessary to revise visa fees, taking into account "objective criteria", such as the inflation rate in the EU and the average salaries of civil servants. According to the European Commission, there are such criteria this year, so a review of fees is overdue because of the level of inflation in the EU.

The initiative involves raising the fee for those countries that are not ready to cooperate with the EU on returning their citizens deported from Schengen countries for illegal migration and visa violations. Thus, the cost of visa for citizens of these countries will increase from 120 euros to 135, and in some cases from 160 euros to 180 euros.

The initiative does not affect those countries that have already reached agreements on visa facilitation. However, such an agreement with Belarus was partially suspended in November 2021 due to the migrant crisis on the borders of Belarus with the EU countries.

Currently, the Schengen (regardless of the country, which issues the visa) costs €35 for Belarusians.

We remind you, earlier Poland announced about the increase in the cost of visas.