Best Schengen countries for South Africans to obtain visas
Travelling to Europe with SA passports? See which European countries are least likely to reject your Schengen visa.
South African passport holders need entry visas if they want to travel to a number of destinations all over the world. Read here to see which countries in Europe are your best bet for securing Schengen visas for trips to Europe.
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SCHENGEN VISA REQUIREMENTS
SA’s passport does indeed carry more passport power than passports of a number of other countries on the African continent.
That said, South African passport holders still need to obtain visas for a great many destinations.
When travelling to countries in Europe, SA passport holders must secure Schengen visas ahead of their trips to countries in the Schengen zone.
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SCHENGEN AREA
The Schengen Area is a zone comprising 27 European countries that have abolished their internal borders. This enables unrestricted movement of people, in harmony with common rules for controlling external borders.
This area covers most of the European Union (EU) countries, except Ireland. The countries that are soon to be part of the Schengen Area include Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus.
Although not members of the EU, countries like Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein are also part of the Schengen zone.
BEST COUNTRIES FOR VISA APPLICATIONS
While SA passport holders do apply for visas from a great number of countries in the Schengen Area, some countries have rather low visa rejection rates.
According to Schengenvisainfo, Slovakia rejected just one applicant from South Africa in 2022.
Hungary rejected only 23 applications, putting the rejection rate for SA nationals at 2.74%.
Schengenvisainfo reports that Greek consulates rejected only 3.1 percent of visa applications from South Africa in 2022. This translates to a total of 371 SA applicants.
Furthermore, the Czech Republic rejected a total of 20 applications or 1.6 percent of total requests lodged by South African applicants.
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SA PASSPORT
South Africa’s passport is not the worst in the world. It offers visa-free entry or visa-on arrival access to over 100 countries.
However, this number is far off the number of visa-free destinations for passport holders of countries such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
These nationals can pass through the borders of close to 200 countries without hindrance.
GREEN MAMBA
The undesirability factor of South African passports is commonly felt when SA nationals wish to visit developed nations such as the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
South Africa’s passport is often called “the Green Mamba”, which is the name of a dangerous local snake species.
The passport is referred to as such because of the barriers to entry experienced by SA passport holders.