There are numerous examples of people who have struggled to get a visa for a work meeting, artists who cannot make it to festivals, journalists who cannot report from certain countries, colleagues who are banned from some countries because of existing visas on their passports, or people who marry a ‘third country national’ and cannot live or go on holiday together.

Schengen countries, that make up the European Union’s ‘passport-free zone’, have agreed on a common short-stay visa regime. This allows third-country nationals to travel to any member of the Schengen Area for up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes. This provides a common standard to the application process as well as precious data to better understand what happens to visa applications.

However, the Schengen visa rejection rate is especially high for African countries. This, according to critics, points to a fundamental failure of a system designed to be reciprocal and to facilitate, not hinder short-term and temporary visits.

We speak to Emma Bashford, a United Kingdom based Immigration Consultant.