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Switzerland has seen a nearly 8 per cent increase in visa applications from India in the first six months of 2023 compared to 2019, reinforcing the destination’s appeal among Indians.
“The Embassy of Switzerland in India has not suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indians tour groups. We have almost 800 daily appointments. These include 22 groups,” an Embassy spokesperson said on Thursday.
The growth in visa applications comes amid a surge in outbound travel and a slew of measures to cut down on processing time.
“We have surpassed our pre-pandemic times processing level. From January until June, we handled 129,446 applications, as against 120,071 during the same period in 2019 – a 7.8 per cent increase,” the Embassy said.
Measures to streamline visa applications this year include increasing overall processing capacity and setting up a visa application centre in Lucknow. Also, the window for submitting applications has been increased from one month to six months.
“Currently, it takes no more than 13 working days between the appointment by our partner VFS and the Embassy’s decision on the application,” the spokesperson said.
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