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Turkish citizens planning trips to Europe are getting caught up in a growing Schengen visa crisis marked by appointment shortages, rising black-market fees and online scams as the summer holiday season draws near, sector representatives told Turkish media.
Many applicants reported struggling to secure appointment slots through official visa platforms, where users frequently encounter "no available dates" warnings.
With available appointments pushed back by months, some travelers have turned to intermediaries advertising "fast-track appointments," "VIP processing," and "guaranteed visas" through social media and messaging apps.
The standard Schengen application fee of around €90 ($104.8)-100 has surged in the black market, where expedited appointments now reportedly start at €300 per person and climb to as much as €1,000 ($1,164) during peak travel periods, according to Turkish daily Sabah.
The disruption has also spread to hotel reservations submitted during visa applications, with some consulates reportedly rejecting group bookings over incomplete documentation.
Sector representatives warned that "appointment hunter" bots scanning visa systems around the clock through multiple accounts and IP addresses have become a major driver of the bottleneck, snapping up newly opened or canceled slots within seconds.
While regular users search manually, automated systems move much faster, leaving many applicants unable to secure appointments.
Appointments secured through bot systems were later resold at inflated prices, forming the backbone of the growing black market, Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), cautioned, adding that the crisis has begun to weigh heavily on the tourism sector.
Türkiye remained one of the world’s largest sources of Schengen visa applications in 2025, ranking second after China with more than 1.26 million applications filed.
Around 1 million visas were issued to Turkish applicants, while more than 183,000 applications were rejected, highlighting continued pressure on the system as demand for travel to Europe remained strong.
During the same period, outbound tourism by Turkish citizens rose 4.5% year-on-year to 11.9 million travelers, while total spending abroad jumped 24% to $9.6 billion, reflecting resilient demand for overseas travel, with European countries remaining among the top destinations for Turkish tourists.
The European Union also introduced a new "cascade rule" for Turkish citizens in July 2025, easing access to longer-term Schengen visas for frequent travelers with a reliable visa history.
Under the system, Turkish applicants who properly used previous Schengen visas may qualify for multiple-entry visas valid for one, three, or five years.
The move was seen as an effort to ease travel between Türkiye and the EU despite ongoing appointment shortages and visa access problems.
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