2. Most common problems with Schengen visas

The greatest risk when applying for a Schengen visa is usually due to formal errors or deliberate inaction on the part of the embassy . While it does happen that applicants do not meet the requirements (e.g., lack of intent to return for a Schengen visa), this is relatively rare. Most visa problems abroad are caused by actual or perceived time pressure. Particularly in Asian and African countries, as well as some countries in the Middle East, embassy staff are very unreliable, slow, and often unwilling to process applications lawfully. The fact that many embassy staff are not German civil servants and that the diplomatic missions are not located in Germany often leads to a feeling of invulnerability among the staff. They frequently simply do not feel bound by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Furthermore, the foreign mission's external communication is significantly more restrictive than required by law . Embassies actually have a duty to advise and inform (see Section 25 of the Administrative Procedure Act), which mandates supporting applicants. In practice, however, the exact opposite occurs: foreign missions frequently attempt to persuade applicants to withdraw their applications or not submit them in the first place by providing misleading, false, or even no information at all. A particularly common phenomenon is that applications are not even "accepted," even though embassies have no say in which applications they process.

As a result, many visa applications (from a lawyer's perspective) don't necessarily suffer from a lack of eligibility, but rather from the fact that German embassies and consulates feel only partially bound by German law. This leads to various consequences and problems for applicants in the administrative process at the embassies, which can often only be countered with extremely meticulous and painstaking procedures. Every document must be perfect (even if the law doesn't explicitly require it), applicants must provide more than is legally required in the interview regarding their reasons for applying (even if there's no legal basis for this), and they must be accommodating to embassy staff at every turn to avoid provoking any grounds for rejection. While this isn't strictly legal, from a purely economic standpoint, this "cooperation-driven" visa application process is often more efficient.