There is some good news for Indian passport holders who need to travel to European states at a short notice. As per the media reports, the Schengen states that include 26 European countries, may soon offer priority visas to holders of the Indian passport.
As reported by a national daily TOI, travelling to Europe may soon get much easier as the Schengen priority charges are likely to be much lower than the rates for UK. As of now, Indian citizens have to shell out an additional amount of Rs 90,000 to priority visas from UK.
The super priority visa category was started by UK for businessmen travelling from India to UK on short notice for business related dealings and matters.
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The Schengen priority visa is not to be confused with the one offered by the UK. The ‘priority’ visas offered by the UK amount to an additional Rs 20,000 and take less than a week to be issued.
Currently, a normal visa to the Schengen states takes around 15 to 30 days to be issued. It will be a welcome move for Indian passport-holders who will be able to access the Schengen states faster than what it takes now.
The 26 countries that make the Schengen states are:
Switzerland, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Finland and Sweden.
