For Indian foreign skilled workers, the German government has slashed the processing time for visas by a large margin. According to a report by Schengen Visa News, the waiting period for long-term visas has been cut from nine months to just two weeks.
The German Foreign Minister verified the story and stated that her administration wants to shorten the wait times for 400,000 individuals who are impacted by lengthy wait times when they apply for national visas, according to the report.
The Federal Agency for Foreign Affairs is currently the largest visa office for national visas globally, according to Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Additionally, we desperately need skilled laborers who can assist this here. Thus, we have in Delhi, India.
In order to overcome labor shortages, German firms rely on quick visa issuance, particularly for conferences and training sessions. In a similar vein, Indian businesses investing in Germany rely on quick visa processing to guarantee that their experts can be sent to the EU nation right away.
With 570,000 job openings indicated by the German Institute (IW) for 2023, Germany is in desperate need of additional labor. The lack of workers is having an effect on the nation's economy, which could expand and improve more quickly with more workers.
Speed up immigration procedures would allow workers to enter Germany and contribute to the country's suffering economy. The potential production loss is expected to reach €74 billion by 2027, according to IW.
In January and June of 2024, Germany issued 80,000 work visas, according to the Federal Foreign Office (Schengen visa news report). Since they accounted for half of all national visas issued during this time (40,000), skilled workers were the primary beneficiaries of these visas. Compared to the first half of 2023, that represents 3,000 extra visas.
