The statistics released by the Schengen Visa Info show that South Africans are highly interested to visit the Schengen zone. As these statistics show the number of Schengen visa applications in this country has climbed higher than it could be expected.
While in 2016, 170,436 South Africa citizens applied for a Schengen visa, last year this number jumped at 201, 786 applications, an increase of 21%.
- Schengen visa applications in South Africa grew by 21% between 2016 and 2017
- Italy grants the highest number of Schengen visas to South Africa citizens
- 100% of Schengen visas at Netherlands embassies awarded to South Africa citizens were MEV[Multi-Entry Visas] visas
- Austrian embassies awarded the most LTV visas in South Africa in 2017
Italian embassies located in the capital Johannesburg, and in Pretoria and Cape Town collected the highest number of applications continuing this way the tradition for the second consecutive year.
Their main consulate in Johannesburg received 26,091 Schengen uniform visa applications during 2017. Likewise, the number of visa grants at this consulate was at 25,419 visas.
Their French embassies were also loaded a significant amount of Schengen visa applications. According to statistics, at this embassy citizens of South Africa filed exactly 24,130 Schengen uniform visa applications.
Listed third, the German embassy accumulated 20,379 Schengen uniform visa applications in 2017. Their consulate in Pretoria issued 20,127 Schengen visas.
A worth-mentioning note to make here is that the complete visa grants of this embassy were MEV visas, while 12 of these successful applicants were only allowed to move within particular countries stated in their application, therefore they took an LTV [Limited Territorial Visa] visa.
The chart finds Lithuanian and Slovakian embassy listed at the bottom. In 2017 the first received 218 Schengen uniform visa applications as opposed to 200 such applications filed in the Slovakian consulate.