Imagine the excitement: you've booked your flights to Barcelona, ready to soak up the sun and culture. Then comes the dreaded email – your Schengen visa application has been denied. For Joel Anyaegbu, a Nigerian gaming consultant, this wasn't a one-off. Despite providing more than the required documents – bank statements, proof of property ownership – his second attempt also ended in rejection. The reason? A vague checklist stating his justification for the trip wasn't "reliable." Humiliated and forced to cancel crucial business meetings, Joel's experience is far from unique.
CNN's eye-opening report delves into the staggering reality of Schengen visa rejections for Africans. Last year alone, a jaw-dropping 50,376 short-stay Schengen visa applications from Nigeria were turned down – nearly half of all submissions! Now, here's the kicker: applicants pay a non-refundable fee of 90 euros (around $100). Do the math, and Nigerians collectively lost over 4.5 million euros (about $5 million) just for the chance to visit the 29 European countries in the Schengen Area.
But Nigeria's story is just one piece of a much larger, and frankly, infuriating puzzle. Analysis from the LAGO Collective reveals that African countries, in total, shelled out a staggering 60 million euros ($67.5 million) in rejected Schengen visa fees in 2024. This London-based research and arts organization, which has been tracking European short-term visa data since 2022, paints a stark picture: Africa is the continent hit hardest by the financial burden of visa rejections.
Marta Foresti, the founder of the LAGO Collective, doesn't mince her words. "The poorest countries in the world pay the richest countries in the world money for not getting visas," she told CNN. Her analysis further suggests a disturbing trend: "As in 2023, the poorer the country of application, the higher the rejection rates. African countries are disproportionately affected with rejection rates as high as 40-50% for countries like Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria." Foresti argues that this points to "inbuilt discrimination and bias" within the application process.
When contacted by CNN, a European Commission spokesperson offered a standard response, stating that member states assess each visa application individually. "Each file is assessed by experienced decision-makers on its own merits, in particular regarding the purpose of stay, sufficient means of subsistence, and the applicants’ will to return to their country of residence after a visit to the EU," the spokesperson explained via email.
However, the experiences shared by Africans paint a different, often frustrating, picture of inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary decisions. Jean Mboulé, a Cameroonian born in France, recounted his baffling experience in 2022. Applying for a visa alongside his unemployed wife with similar documentation, his application was rejected while hers was approved – simply because she held a South African passport. "The embassy said they refused my application because my documents were fake, and they weren’t sure I would come back to South Africa, where I am a permanent resident, if I went to France," he told CNN.
Jean refused to accept this. He took legal action in French courts and won, forcing the French embassy in Johannesburg to grant his visa and pay him a fine. He successfully argued before an administrative tribunal that the embassy's decision was "tainted by insufficient reasoning," highlighting his strong ties to South Africa, including his wife, daughter, and property ownership. Ironically, after his hard-won visa approval, Jean chose to spend his money in Mauritius instead, a clear message of his frustration.
Jean's victory is rare. Many Africans facing Schengen visa rejections, like Joel Anyaegbu, often don't appeal. Instead, they frequently reapply, sinking more money into a system that seems stacked against them. Jean himself, despite multiple trips to the UK and other African nations, faced two Schengen rejections.
Read More On This Topic
Read More On This Topic
Foresti from the LAGO Collective highlights the sheer financial absurdity of the situation: "The financial cost of rejected visas is just staggering; you can think of them as ‘reverse remittances,’ money flowing from poor to rich countries, which we never hear about." The increase in Schengen visa fees in July 2024, from 80 to 90 euros, only exacerbates this financial drain on applicants from poorer nations.
Interestingly, South African management lecturer Sikhumbuzo Maisela offered a slightly different perspective. While acknowledging the challenges, he suggested that the rejection rates for Africans were perhaps lower than one might expect. He posited that "the visa vetting process seems to be shaped less by outright prejudice and more by historical patterns of behaviour." He argued that instances of visa holders overstaying or violating terms in the past have influenced how future applications are scrutinized.
Maisela urged Africans to view visas as "an act of trust and hospitality" and to strictly adhere to the rules. "When one person violates these principles, it impacts all of us," he said. "It makes it harder for the next applicant — someone who may be fully compliant — to be granted the same opportunity. So, in a way, those who break the rules contribute to the very discrimination others face."
While younger Africans often voice their frustrations with visa rejections online, older applicants face similar hurdles. Julius Musimeenta, a 57-year-old Ugandan engineer, applied for a visa to attend an engineering fair in Munich with his family last year. Despite their entire family having a history of previous travel to Europe, all six of their applications were rejected. "Africans contribute a lot to funding these embassies through these rejections. They always think negatively about us travelling to their countries," he lamented to CNN.
The European Commission maintains that it doesn't comment on individual cases, but points out that EU law allows applicants to appeal negative decisions if they believe the refusal was unjustified. They cited reasons for refusal such as the submission of false documents and weak socio-economic ties to the applicant's country of residence, suggesting a heightened risk of irregular migration.
It's not just the Schengen Area causing headaches. African applicants to the UK report similar access challenges, with UK visa fees also seeing significant increases. The LAGO Collective estimates a substantial spike in the cost of rejected UK visas in 2024, with Nigerians alone paying millions in their attempts to travel to their former colonial power.
The question remains: is the high rate of Schengen visa rejections for Africans simply a matter of stricter scrutiny due to past overstays, or is there a deeper, more systemic bias at play? The millions of euros lost in non-refundable fees certainly add a painful financial dimension to the disappointment of denied dreams.
