Danish Embassy in Bangkok: Working hard to increase visa processing capacity

“The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the Danish Embassy in Bangkok, is working hard to increase our, as well as VFS Global’s, capacity in order to reduce the general waiting times,” says the Danish Embassy in Bangkok in a written response to the questions raised by ScandAsia yesterday.

The Embassy explains the reason why is it suddenly so difficult to get an appointment at VFS Global with the unusually high number of appliactions.

“This has led to longer processing times and fewer available appointment slots at VFS Global,” the Embassy writes.

The Embassy adds, that the increasing demand for visas to Denmark/Iceland is also noticeable on a global scale.

“After several years with the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, more and more countries are reopening, and as a result, an increase in travel activity is seen worldwide.”

“It is not only the Danish embassies that are impacted by the increase in global travel activity. Several countries in the Schengen cooperation experience unusually high demand for visas to Schengen. As a result, visa processing times and VFS appointment slots are also affected.”

What are good advice for applicants?

“The best advice for applicants is to plan ahead and apply as early as possible. It is possible to apply up to 6 months before the desired entry into Schengen. In addition, we have seen some applicants successfully acquiring an earlier time slot by contacting VFS directly to check potential appointment cancellations from other applicants.”

What the Embassy is referring to in the last remark, is the possibility for an applicant to go unanounced to the VFS Global office and pay an additional fee to be able to submit their application right away without having to make an appointment through the system. The time available for these additional slots at the VFS Global office can be found in case another aplicant does not show up or if the office has concluded processing of previous applicants with a time reservation earlier than expected that day. The Thai applicants call this option “Prime Time”.

 

About Gregers Møller

Editor-in-Chief • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok, Thailand

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