Schengen visas dropped by 84%, but the situation will get better in 2021

Yelena Ivanova

Citizens stopped traveling to Europe in 2020. We understood this and so, but having familiarized ourselves with the statistics, it became clear how much the trips were reduced. According to Shengenvisa.info, in 2019 just over 4 million 133 thousand Russians applied for a Schengen visa. In 2020, there were slightly less than 654 thousand such applications. First of all, tourists and those who flew to European countries on business suffered. The ban affected not only Russian citizens. The year before the pandemic, the Schengen countries issued 17 million visas, in 2020 there were just over three million.

Shkurta Januzi, editor-in-chief of Shengenvisa.info, said that even if Russian citizens wanted to apply for a visa, they simply could not do it - the embassies and consulates of the Schengen Union were closed:

"In March 2020, the member states of the Schengen Union, before the European Commission published its recommendations, closed their borders to entry. Moreover, all the embassies and consulates worked for 3 months".

It is difficult to say how many applications were filed after the restrictions were imposed on Europe. Obviously, most of the visas issued come before the pandemic. Only a few embassies and consulates began to open in June last year. In addition, each European country regulated the entry of citizens in its own way. In fact, there was no united Europe as such after the spring lockdown. The borders between the countries themselves were closed for a long time, only movement was allowed for those Europeans who worked in the border areas in neighboring countries. The removal of checkpoints on the Oder bridge separating Frankfurt an der Oder and Polish Slubice, when Poles and Germans hugged and celebrated "reunification", was shown as a big event on German TV channels.

For everyone else, the road to Europe was much more difficult, says Shkurta Yanutsi:

"In Russia, several embassies and consulates of the Schengen Union opened in June 2020, but not everyone could apply for a visa. The applications of those who applied for a visa for family reasons, whose husband or wife lived in Europe, those who went to receive treatment were considered positively. We issued visas to diplomats, employees of international organizations, humanitarian missions, transit passengers".

Even those who came to the Schengen countries for treatment were very difficult, says Nikolay Krasnyansky. For many years, Nikolai has been engaged in medical tourism in Munich and helps critical patients to be treated in the best clinics in Germany. They received their first patient on May 9 from Ukraine. Then there were only very rich patients, those who can afford to fly in on their own plane or charter.

- The number of patients has not recovered so far. Now they come only out of necessity, those who have diseases, and they cannot postpone treatment until later. This is oncology, trauma and orthopedics, when the operation cannot be postponed. Previously, 40% came for a check-up, to check their health. There is no such thing anymore, there are 5 percent left. These are the most daring, and whom we transport using our capabilities.

I must say that the problem was not only with visas. Clinics were closed to receive patients. They opened recently. The patients themselves said that a visa could only be obtained by medical invitations and then if the diagnosis was very serious.

"Now all clinics are open, and everyone who wants to be treated can come, however, from day to day everything changes with us. Here they take one week, the next week everything is covered up, but if someone got treatment, and the documents entered the clinic, then the patient will arrive in any case. The only condition is a 5-day quarantine in some clinics. Now everyone can come for treatment, just contact the person who organizes the treatment. We will explain everything, because we know the situation, and we will find a way out”, - says Nikolay Krasnyansky.

Unlike many other borders, some border crossings on the Russian-Finnish border remained open. Therefore, the Finnish consulate in St. Petersburg remains the most demanded for obtaining Schengen visas in the entire Schengen Union. The number of processed applications from citizens decreased by 7 times - from 645 thousand in 2019 to 97 thousand in the past. The Italian consulate in Moscow reviewed only 85 thousand visa applications in 2020, the French - 73 thousand.

But even on the transitions to Finland, life practically stopped. In November 2020, only three people a day crossed the border in the Murmansk region. In total, 195 people from Russia entered Lapland in a month.

After almost a year of closed borders, the European Union began to open its doors to citizens of other countries. Nobody wants a repeat of the summer of 2020, says Shkurta Yanutsi, when hotels and restaurants were empty and the authorities pumped in billions to support business:

"Some European countries, for example, Greece, have already allowed entry for Russian citizens if they have a vaccine, or they have had covid, or they have a negative covid test. Iceland, which is not a member of the EU, also opened its borders, but there is a condition: those entering must be vaccinated with one of the drugs allowed in the EU. Unfortunately, Sputnik V is not among them. The EU encouraged its members to open borders to citizens of other countries and left it up to each country to recognize vaccines that are not EU approved or not".

Another important message for tourists: several embassies and consulates of the Schengen area have opened visa centers in Russia. The Italian embassy allowed Russians whose visas expired after January 1, 2020, to extend them in a simplified manner.

If nothing changes, this summer Russians will again be able to return to Europe, and not only because of illness, but simply because we all miss Montmartre, the azure beaches of the Mediterranean and Viennese and Roman cafes. So let's spit over our left shoulder!