Morocco is among the top 5 countries with the most Schengen visa applications for 2021, according to Schengen Visa Info.
In 2021, Moroccans filed 157,100 Schengen visa applications, despite a 77.7% drop in the number of applications filed compared to 2019, when 705,293 applications were registered.
According to data from Schengen Visa Info, of the 157,100 applications filed in 2021 in Morocco, 39,520 were rejected, making up a 27.6% rejection rate, which is well above the global average rejection rate of Schengen applications, set at 13.5%.
Spain leads the list of destinations receiving visa applications submitted by Moroccans with more than half of the applications issued (84,499 applications).
The Iberian country is followed by France with 58,310 applications, while the remaining applications are spread across Belgium (1,991), Germany (794), Italy (4,266), the Netherlands (4,811), and other Eastern European countries.
According to Besart Bajrami, founder of Schengen Visa Info, the reason for the drop in the number of Schengen visa applications worldwide from 16,955,541 in 2019 to 2,926,104 in 2021 is the closure of borders by Schengen countries in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, this decline was also fueled by France’s decision to limit the visas it allows for Moroccan applicants.
In 2019, France granted more than 340,000 visas to Morocco. Since then, the figure has dropped significantly, following the decision last September to cut the visas awarded to Moroccans in half.
On September 28, 2021, the French government announced the reduction of visas to Morocco and Algeria by 50%, while visas granted to Tunisia were reduced by 30%.
For French authorities, this was a “decision made necessary by the fact that these countries do not agree to take back nationals that we do not want and can not keep in France,” as stated by the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal.
This decision was said to be “unjustified for several reasons,” according to the head of Moroccan diplomacy, Nasser Bourita.
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