Chinese nationals have been top applicants for French visas for the last six years despite application rates experiencing a steep drop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data by Schengen Statistics reveals that between 2017 and 2022, Chinese nationals have filed 2.3 million visa applications, and the majority of those were filed before the outbreak, but application rates are gradually recovering in 2022, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
With more than two million visa applications filed, Algerians take the second spot for Schengen visa applications filed at French consulates located in four Algerian cities: Algier, Annaba, Hydra and Oran. One of the reasons why Algerians apply for French visas can be related to language proficiency, as one-third of the Algerian population can speak it, and this North African country was a former French colony.
Although Algerians have been top applicants historically, their popularity rose particularly after the pandemic, while Chinese were particularly more interested in French visas in pre-pandemic times.
COVID-19 Impact: Application Rates Drop Among Chinese, Vietnamese & Russians
Comparing the 2022 application rates to those in 2019, it is evident that visa applications are lower among all applicants – 96.2 per cent for Chinese applicants, 57.5 per cent for Moroccans and 49.8 per cent for Algerians.
While Chinese were the leading nationality to file applications in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Algerians snatched this position in the three following years, while an interest in French visas was also noticed among Turks, Saudi Arabians, Lebanese, Cote D’Ivorians and Brits.
Except for Chinese and Algerian nationals, the top visa applicants to France for this period have been Moroccans, Russians, Indians and Tunisians, while the interest of Vietnamese nationals has almost completely disappeared.
Application rates have dropped by 46.6 per cent in post-pandemic times, with the number of applications filed decreasing from 76,727 to 40,936. On the other hand, the interest of Turkish nationals in French visas has increased as now this nationality is listed in the top five nationalities to file visas, while before the COVID-19 pandemic, it used to be in the top ten.
Visa applications filed by Russians have also fluctuated enormously in the last six years; while this nationality was among the top three applicants between 2017 and 2020, in 2021, application rates dropped to 6,034 from 143,366 filed in the previous year and even lower compared to 2019 levels when applications from Russians peaked at 498,851.
Lebanon is also another country that started filing more applications in post-pandemic, entering the top ten applicant countries of origin in 2020 and has never left this list ever since.