Ongoing struggles
ANJA WRITES:
I’m reaching out to bring attention to an ongoing and deeply frustrating issue: the near-impossible task of securing a Schengen visa appointment through the German Embassy in Windhoek.
The embassy currently manages visa appointments through two options – one for those travelling to Germany as their main destination, and another for applicants travelling to other Schengen states as their main destination, for which Germany handles visa processing. These are Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The appointment system website currently states the following:
Appointments can only be scheduled for up to 5 weeks in advance. Should you not be able to schedule an appointment due to no slot being available, please continue trying on a daily basis.
Please ensure that you book an appointment for each visit and for each person. Example: two members of one family want to apply for a new passport. Two appointments need to be booked.
If no appointment is available online, we are fully booked. Please check regularly online whether an appointment becomes available due to cancellation by another person.
The problem lies with extremely limited appointment availability. One must check and refresh the online system constantly – often every five minutes – hoping to pick up an appointment slot. This is incredibly time-consuming and frustrating, and inaccessible for many. For example, I have been trying to get appointments for a family of five travelling to the Netherlands since 08 April and have not been able to pick up even one slot to date. To add to the problem, this family specifically lives 300 km from Windhoek and has children in school. They cannot possibly come in one by one to attend appointments. Since we haven’t even been able to secure one appointment, how on earth are we ever going to get five on the same day?
Trying to book well in advance is of no use; it doesn’t matter – appointments remain unavailable.
The embassy states that applicants can apply via the Embassies in South Africa, but this means the applicants must, in most cases, travel to South Africa just to apply for their visas, as they must appear in person to supply biometrics. Needless to say, this means incurring significant costs just to attend a visa appointment – flights, accommodation, and time off work – on top of the visa fee itself.
It begs the question: if the German Embassy in Namibia cannot manage the volume of applications on behalf of the Schengen states it represents, is there no way to outsource biometric collection within Namibia?
This is a pressing issue and growing concern for travellers wanting to visit any of the aforementioned Schengen countries, and I am hoping your publication may be interested in investigating this further.
* Rubrieke, meningstukke, briewe en SMS’e deur lesers en meningvormers weerspieël nie noodwendig die siening van Republikein of Network Media Hub (NMH) nie. As mediahuis onderskryf NMH die etiese kode vir Namibiese media, soos toegepas deur die Media-ombudsman.
I’m reaching out to bring attention to an ongoing and deeply frustrating issue: the near-impossible task of securing a Schengen visa appointment through the German Embassy in Windhoek.
The embassy currently manages visa appointments through two options – one for those travelling to Germany as their main destination, and another for applicants travelling to other Schengen states as their main destination, for which Germany handles visa processing. These are Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
The appointment system website currently states the following:
Appointments can only be scheduled for up to 5 weeks in advance. Should you not be able to schedule an appointment due to no slot being available, please continue trying on a daily basis.
Please ensure that you book an appointment for each visit and for each person. Example: two members of one family want to apply for a new passport. Two appointments need to be booked.
If no appointment is available online, we are fully booked. Please check regularly online whether an appointment becomes available due to cancellation by another person.
The problem lies with extremely limited appointment availability. One must check and refresh the online system constantly – often every five minutes – hoping to pick up an appointment slot. This is incredibly time-consuming and frustrating, and inaccessible for many. For example, I have been trying to get appointments for a family of five travelling to the Netherlands since 08 April and have not been able to pick up even one slot to date. To add to the problem, this family specifically lives 300 km from Windhoek and has children in school. They cannot possibly come in one by one to attend appointments. Since we haven’t even been able to secure one appointment, how on earth are we ever going to get five on the same day?
Trying to book well in advance is of no use; it doesn’t matter – appointments remain unavailable.
The embassy states that applicants can apply via the Embassies in South Africa, but this means the applicants must, in most cases, travel to South Africa just to apply for their visas, as they must appear in person to supply biometrics. Needless to say, this means incurring significant costs just to attend a visa appointment – flights, accommodation, and time off work – on top of the visa fee itself.
It begs the question: if the German Embassy in Namibia cannot manage the volume of applications on behalf of the Schengen states it represents, is there no way to outsource biometric collection within Namibia?
This is a pressing issue and growing concern for travellers wanting to visit any of the aforementioned Schengen countries, and I am hoping your publication may be interested in investigating this further.
* Rubrieke, meningstukke, briewe en SMS’e deur lesers en meningvormers weerspieël nie noodwendig die siening van Republikein of Network Media Hub (NMH) nie. As mediahuis onderskryf NMH die etiese kode vir Namibiese media, soos toegepas deur die Media-ombudsman.
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