Many Moroccans who want to travel to the Netherlands or another Schengen country have had great difficulties in getting a visa for some time. Scheduling an appointment for an application can take months and scammers are active. They buy up all available agreements and then illegally resell them.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs took anti-fraud measures last year, but there has been no improvement.

One of the measures is that appointments are registered. A resale should not be possible. But in the city of Fez, seven people who sold the dates for a lot of money were recently arrested. Appointments will also continue to be offered on social media.

Normally, a visa application costs 40 euros. Traders charge prices of up to 200 euros just for the appointment at the visa office.

powerless

Natalia El Habachi, 61, of Rabat, has been trying to book an appointment with VFS Global, the office to which Foreign Affairs has outsourced visa applications, since April. “I want to hug my grandchildren again,” she says, crying.

El Habachi feels powerless as she threatens to miss her grandchildren’s birthdays this month. At the Dutch embassy she was told that there was nothing she could do and that she had to go to VFS Global.

The intention was precisely to make appointment processes run more smoothly. For example, Moroccan citizens must make an appointment through the VFS Global website in order to complete their visa application. The files are then forwarded; the Ministry usually decides within 15 calendar days.

But over the past year, many complaints have been pouring in about the company. The review website Trustpilot is full of negative reactions mainly from Moroccan Dutch people. They want the Dutch government to do something about the problems.

Intermediaries are now promoting appointments at various embassies in Morocco, including the Dutch one, on social media. They buy the dates as soon as they are on the site and make the requests for people willing to pay.

It is not clear how the mediators manage to reach agreements. We asked VFS Global in Morocco about it, but got no answer.

For El Habachi and her family, engaging a mediator is out of the question. “The official government authorities warn against these practices. We don’t want to get in trouble. But we’re at our wits’ end.”

The story of the El Habachi family is not unique. The same problem applies to visa applications for other Schengen countries. Soufian, 29, has been trying to get through for a year but now has his sights set on a visa to Canada.

“You can forget the Schengen visa,” he says. Whether it’s for Spain, France or the Netherlands, it’s impossible to get one.” Scheduling a visa application for Canada was instant with VFS Global. “I hope they accept my proposal.”

Strict residence requirements

According to Natalia El Habachi and her daughter Amina, there is discrimination because they apply for a visa from Morocco. They think that as Moroccan citizens they are not welcome in the Netherlands.

Strict regulations apply to a short stay in the Netherlands. For example, you must be able to prove that you have a job or a home in Morocco. It can also be helpful if someone in the Netherlands can give you a guarantee and is willing to take financial responsibility for you. This gives wealthy Moroccans in particular a chance of getting a visa.

“My sister has lived in the Netherlands for twenty years and we always had difficulties applying for a visa,” says El Habachi. “But we’ve never had it as bad as it is now that you can’t even make an appointment.”