Dakar, May 8 (APS) – At least 62% of short-stay Schengen visa applications received by French consular services in Senegal are granted, we learned on Wednesday from the French ambassador to Dakar, Christine Fages. .
”The acceptance rate for short-stay Schengen visas is above 62%,” she said.
Speaking on the occasion of the celebration of Europe Day, Ms. Fages said that the French consulate general in Dakar received around 43,000 visa applications in 2022 and some 46,000 in 2023.
Two thirds of these requests concern short-stay Schengen visas, the remainder being made up of long-stay visas, according to her.
The processing time for short-stay Schengen visas is two to three weeks, reported the French ambassador to Senegal.
French consular services issued 5,300 visas to Senegalese students in 2023, a record, she said.
Christine Fages adds that ”the number of Senegalese students living in France has increased by 62% in five years”.
With some 15,000 students, Senegal has the fifth largest foreign student community in France, behind Morocco, China, Algeria and Italy, according to Ms. Fages.
The Belgian ambassador to Senegal, Hélène De Bock, declares that European Union countries have issued around 30,000 new residence permits to Senegalese nationals in 2022.
”This is more than the number of residence permits issued to Senegalese over the previous three years,” she said during the celebration of Europe Day.
CS/ESF
 – Senegalese press agency){kind=link}