Nationals of China planning to visit Europe now that the Coronavirus travel restrictions have been lifted may face long waiting times of up to eight weeks when applying for Schengen visas due to the high demand.

The number of Chinese travellers and business people applying for Schengen visas started to increase significantly once the restrictions were dropped.

However, since the different embassies and consulates were caught off guard as well as understaffed, most of those planning to travel in the next weeks for tourism or business purposes will be unable to do so. As informed by a news report in Schengen Visa.

The head of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, Joerg Wuttke, said that all nationals of China would be subject to long waiting times, including those who need to travel to the EU for business purposes.

Wuttke stressed that currently, some Chinese executives are waiting from six to eight weeks to get a business visa to travel to the EU. At the same time, Wuttke pointed out that during the pre-pandemic period, applications were processed within days, suggesting that the authorities should take measures to accelerate the process.

In terms of business relations with China, it has been explained that those planning to reach Germany have been the most affected. For this reason, the Chinese authorities have already called on Germany to speed up the processing time.

Regarding those planning to travel to the EU for tourism purposes, the authorities have not revealed any specific figures. Still, it is believed that the majority of Schengen Area countries have registered a high number of visa applications lodged by nationals of China.

All nationals of China are required to obtain a Schengen visa in order to be able to travel to the bloc since the country has not reached a visa-liberalisation in the Schengen Area member states.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that permits its holder to stay in the Schengen Area for a maximum of 90 days within a 6-month period for tourism and business purposes.