The processing time for Schengen visa for travelling to Germany has been brought down to eight weeks and efforts are on to reduce it further, Georg Enzweiler, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy here, said Wednesday.

“Visa is an important issue. We are striving to get better with application times. The thing is, we would like to change it from today to tomorrow but bureaucracy takes its toll. We are working on that through various means. We have increased our staff substantially in Mumbai and I think the waiting time has substantially gone down.

“We are at roughly eight weeks now. We hope to get better with regard to that because of course it is what we want. We don’t want to invite you here to promote tourism of Indians to Germany and then ask them apply for a visa three years in advance then you’ll have a good chance,” Georg Enzweiler said in response to a question at a press conference here.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay (up to 90 days) visa that allows a person to travel to any member of the 27-country Schengen Area of Europe for tourism or business purposes.

The delays in visa processing have been a dampener for Europe travel.

The German Embassy had in April issued an advisory saying, “due to a sharp increase in demand for Schengen visas, longer waiting times for appointments and longer visa processing times apply”. “If you are planning to travel to Germany in the near future, please make an appointment with our external service provider VFS in time,” it said.

“The processing time for Schengen visa starts only once the application reaches the Consulate. This might take up to six working days depending on the delivery conditions and public holidays.

“Therefore, please account for delays in the visa processing time… if your travel date is imminent or lies within two weeks of application date, please check if you can postpone your trip. In general, neither the German mission nor the service provider can expedite the process. Requests for preferential treatment cannot be honoured,” the advisory added.

According to new data from the German National Tourist Board, Indian tourists spent more than 6.23 lakh nights in Germany in 2022, a 209 per cent increase compared to the previous year, but the number was still 65 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels .