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Travelers from certain countries, including Turkey, India, South Africa, and China, face expensive, time-consuming, and anxiety-inducing visa processes when visiting Europe's Schengen Area. The process requires in-person appointments and hard copies of legal documents, which have been scarce recently. Visa processing times have been longer than usual, and some applicants have been denied visas altogether.
For most travelers from the United States, going to Europe is a relatively smooth experience, without the need to apply for visas or pay steep fees for short visits. But for people like Duygu Yildirim, that isn’t the case. Yildirim, 36, holds a Turkish passport and lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Within Europe’s Schengen Area, a border-free zone allowing free movement among 27 European countries, citizens of Turkey and dozens of other countries, including India, South Africa and China, must apply
Travelers who require a short-term visas to visit Europe say they face monthslong delays, jeopardizing their travel plans and making an already unpredictable system worse.
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