BISHKEK (24.kg) – The Kyrgyz are among the top three countries of the former USSR citizens of which are most often denied a tourist Schengen visa, Deutsche Welle reported.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Russian citizens most often travel to Germany. Over the period from 2008 to 2017, Russians filed more than 3.5 mln applications for German tourist visas. They are followed by the citizens of Belarus and Kazakhstan — 635,000 and 367,000 applications respectively. They are the least of all refused visa.

Citizens of Armenia are most frequently denied a Schengen visa. From 2008 to 2017, at least 120,490 people have applied for visas. About 8.4% of them were rejected. Uzbekistan takes the 2^nd place in the number of visa rejections. At least 7.8% out of 41,049 visa applications were denied.

Kyrgyzstan takes the third place in the number Schengen tourist visa rejections. About 7.3% out of 79,431 applications for the tourist visa were denied.

“A number of studies indicate that Western countries often decide to issue a visa on the basis of unofficial criteria. In particular, the reasons for the refusal are the unfavourable internal political and economic situation, high rates of emigration or an increased level of terrorist threat in this country”, the report says.