The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia has warned citizens of third countries about this
On May 20, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia announced an increase in visa fees for processing Schengen visas from June 11. “The European Commission has decided to increase the cost of a short-term Schengen visa (type C visa) worldwide by 12%. The increase will be applied worldwide from June 11, 2024. The cost of a new Schengen visa will be 90 euros for adults and 45 euros for children aged 6 to 12 years,” the ministry said in a statement. The European Union Commission has not yet made any statements regarding the date of the increase, but is expected to publish the change in its Official Journal by the end of this week. Recall that the corresponding draft on increasing visa fees was submitted in February 2024. Every three years, the EU Commission is tasked with assessing whether visa fees need to be reviewed, taking into account “objective criteria” such as the EU inflation rate and average salaries of civil servants. According to the European Commission, there are such criteria this year, therefore, due to the level of inflation in the EU, the revision of fees is overdue. According to the European Commission, even despite the increase, visa fees for the Schengen area are “still relatively low” compared to other countries. For example, a visa to the USA costs 185 euros or 172 euros; for the UK — from 115 pounds (134 euros); for Canada — $ 100 plus $ 85 for biometrics, or 130 euros; for Australia — 190 US dollars, which is equivalent to 117 euros. According to the EC, the total number of applications submitted for Schengen last year in different countries of the world exceeded 10.3 million, which is 37% more than in 2022. Chinese citizens applied for a visa most often (1.1 million), Russia closed the TOP 5 (520 thousand applications).In 2023, almost 449 thousand Schengen visas were issued to Russians, including 221 thousand multiple-entry visas (49.2%). In 10% of cases, Russian applicants were refused a visa.
