How not to blow a major chunk of your travel budget on visas

Rejection of visas can impact your travel costs, especially when you have to cancel flight and hotel bookings

- Shipra Singh

Three months ago, Mumbai based Devanshi Ashar was getting ready for her much awaited holiday in Europe. Her travel destination and itinerary had been planned months in advance, and the flight tickets and hotels booked. Ashar's employer had also approved her leave! And then, disaster struck. Her Schengen visa application for France was rejected. She reapplied, but it was rejected again. Ashar says the reason given by the French embassy for rejecting the visa was vague.

"The rejection letter said the reason for my travel was not justified. I'm not sure what that even means. The purpose of a tourist visa is tourism, so what more reasons do they need?" said Ashar, a research analyst and content strategist.

The visa rejection not only wrecked her travel plans but also cost her about 47,000 in visa costs and agent fees as well as the charges for cancellation of flight tickets and hotel bookings. To add to her woes, the travel insurance was non-refundable.

Ashar's monetary loss was equal to what she had paid for the round-trip flight tickets. Ashar is not the only person whose Schengen visa application has been rejected thus far. Data from Schengen Visa Info shows that about 18% of the total 671,928 applications for Schen-1 gen visa (including tourist and business visas) from India were rejected in 2022. That year, India had the third largest number of Schengen visa applications among 167 countries.