Algerians to benefit from a 20% reduction of “Schengen Visa” cost
European embassies that belong to the “Schengen” space in Algeria, reduce the cost of obtaining a visa to enter the zone by 20% in the context of new facilities that will be announced by the European Commission, in the last few days.
Official sources from the French embassy in Algiers told Echorouk; “European Commission intends to facilitate obtaining the visa Schengen to enter the zone through new facilities, for those wishing to get a short and long term Visa Schengen, as it was decided that the study of requests and responding to them will be in less than a week, with reducing the visa costs and fees to 6,000 instead of 9,000 dinars.
New facilities also include the possibility of getting a short term visa at border posts, as well as “Schengen Visas” for three years.
Compulsory health insurance for citizens coming from countries outside the European Union will be canceled as well, which is an expensive and arduous measure.
These new procedures will enable the largest category of Algerians from obtaining visas for short-stay and visas for free movement, with the expansion of its availability in all European countries that fall under the Convention on “Schengen” space, especially with the procedures of reducing the number of rejected applications and reducing the costs of the visa, that are paid the day of filing the files, especially as official figures regarding the rejected files by some embassies are mostly filled by Algerians.
Figures show that Algerians are losing more than 80 billion centimes, without access to “Visa” in 2013, as its owners paid more than a million centimes without compensation, and with a simple operation, the French Treasury has benefited from five million euros without calculating the value of the incomes of the 180.000 visas that were granted to foreigners and funds that it gained after adopting the new system, through the filing of applications and the granting of visas via a billed phone system that belonging to the French Embassy or the filing of the application through Internet.
Same thing is applied for the costs that are imposed by the Spanish Embassy of in Algiers, as well as a health insurance document that covers all risks during the period of residence in countries that organize of the convention “Schengen” and that are 30,000 dollars.