These Are 5 Nationalities That Have Historically Applied the Most for Netherlands’ Visa
However, data collected between 2018 and 2023 reveals that the main countries of origin for applicants have fluctuated over the last six years. It is evident that Indians, Chinese and Turks were top applicants before the pandemic, while in 2020 and 2022, Filipinos filed most Schengen visa applications to the Netherlands.
In correct order, the main visa applicants to the Netherlands between 2018 and 2023 are:
- Indians, with 337,628 visa applications filed
- Turks (330,851)
- Filipinos (245,014)
- Chinese (226,245)
- Indonesians (179,318)
In the article below, AtoZSerwisPlus has delved deeper into which nationalities have repeatedly applied for Schengen visas to the Netherlands between 2018 and 2023, which would include the two-year period prior to the pandemic, during and the post-pandemic years.
Indians Are The Top Visa Applicants to the Netherlands for the Last 6 Years
According to data published by Schengen Statistics, Indians are the leading visa applicants for Netherlands visas between 2018 and 2023. During this six-year period, Indian applicants have filed 337,628 visa applications.
One of the reasons why Indians have emerged as top visa applicants can be related to the large number of visa applications that Indians used to file before the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating 2018 and 2019.
Indians filed 80,244 applications in 2018, which is 7.8 per cent less than the Chinese who filed 74,408. The same pattern occurred in 2019 when Indians filed 93,812 visa applications while Chinese, as the second-largest applicant group, filed 85,859 – which is a decrease of 9.2 per cent.
Filipinos Became Top Visa Applicants During the Pandemic Thanks to the Downfall of Chinese
The Philippines emerged as a top country of origin for Schengen visa applicants to the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021. The country has been in the top ten even before the pandemic, but due to a sharp decrease in the number of visa applications from China, Filipinos led the visa application rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Filipinos filed 28,329 visa applications, which is 30.7 per cent less than the number of visas that Turks submitted in the same year (19,605).
Similarly, the number of visa applications that Filipinos filed in 2021 reached 36,613 – 76.1 per cent more than 20,783 visa requests filed by Turkish nationals.
Turks Have Steadily Remained Top Visa Applicants to the Netherlands
As the data reveals, Turks have remained the top visa applicants to the Netherlands, being the second-largest nationality group in terms of the number of visa applications submitted.
Turkish applicants have filed 330,851 visa applications between 2018 and 2023 – 2.04 per cent less than Indians, the number one visa applicants recorded during this period.
However, Turks have climbed even higher on the list of top visa applicants in the post-pandemic period since they were the third-largest nationality group for visas filed in 2018 and 2019.
During the pandemic years, including the 2020 and 2021 years, Turks ranked second, falling after Filipinos. A similar trend continued in 2022, but in 2023, they became the largest nationality group for visa applications – filing 93,870 visa requests. That is 10.9 per cent less than the number of visa applications submitted by Indians, which peaked at 83,556.