Embassy of Switzerland in India has on Thursday sought to clarify that it hasn’t suspended Schengen visa appointments for Indian tour groups.

“We have almost 800 daily appointments through the end of September 2023. These include 22 groups. People-to-people contact is at the core of Swiss-Indian relationship,” said spokesperson, Embassy of Switzerland in India.

In 2023, the Embassy of Switzerland in India said it has processed more visa applications than it did in 2019. “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% increase,” said the embassy.

The embassy said it has taken measures for easier visa application process for Indian applicants, including being able to apply for visa six months before travel instead of one month. 

“The following measures have been implemented since the beginning of this year to further ease the visa application process for Indian applicants – First, it is possible for the applicants to apply for their visa six months before their date of travel, as against one month in the past. So, someone wishing to travel in June can already apply for a visa in January. Second, the Embassy has increased its overall capacity in India,” said the embassy.

It also said that with a new Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Lucknow, there are now 13 VACs all over India, where applications can be submitted. 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 embassy’s spokesperson said.

Earlier, several publications ran the news that Switzerland has stopped accepting Schengen visa applications for Indian tour groups until October due to a high volume of pending applications. These articles cited the news to SchengenVisaInfo.com.