One of the most sought-after locations for Schengen visa applicants is the Netherlands. The nation receives hundreds of applications annually.

Turkish nationals accounted for the majority of the 669,291 visa applications the Netherlands received in 2023, according to data released by Schengen Visa Info.

The primary countries of origin for candidates, however, have changed during the past six years, according to data gathered between 2018 and 2023. Prior to the epidemic, Indians, Chinese, and Turks were clearly the most common applicants; but, in 2020 and 2022, Filipinos submitted the majority of applications for Schengen visas to the Netherlands.

In correct order, the main visa applicants to the Netherlands between 2018 and 2023 are:

• Indians, with 337,628 visa applications filed
• Turks (330,851)
• Filipinos (245,014)
• Chinese (226,245)
• Indonesians (179,318)

In the article below, Schengen.News has delved deeper into which nationalities have repeatedly applied for Schengen visas to the Netherlands between 2018 and 2023, which would include the two-year period prior to the pandemic, during and the post-pandemic years.

Indians have been the top visa applicants to the Netherlands for the past 6 years

Between 2018 and 2023, Indians will be the most common applicants for Netherlands visas, according to statistics released by Schengen Statistics. Over the course of these six years, 337,628 visa applications have been submitted by Indian candidates.

The high volume of visa applications that Indians submitted before to the COVID-19 outbreak, namely in 2018 and 2019, may be one of the factors contributing to their recent rise as the most popular visa applicants.

In 2018, Indians submitted 80,244 applications, 7.8% less than Chinese applicants (74,408). The similar trend was seen in 2019 when Chinese, the second-largest applicant group, filed 85,859 visa applications, a 9.2% decline from the 93,812 Indians who filed.

Filipinos became top visa applicants during the pandemic as Chinese numbers fell

In 2020 and 2021, the Philippines became one of the most popular countries of origin for those applying for Schengen visas to the Netherlands. Prior to the pandemic, the nation was in the top ten, but during the COVID-19 epidemic, Filipinos dominated the visa application rates because of a dramatic drop in Chinese visa applications.

Filipinos applied for 28,329 visas in 2020, which is 30.7% fewer than the 19,605 visas that Turks applied for in the same year.

In the same way, Filipinos submitted 36,613 visa applications in 2021, which is 76.1% more than Turkish nationals' 20,783 visa requests.

Turks have consistently remained top visa applicants to the Netherlands

According to the data, Turks continue to be the most popular nationality group in terms of the quantity of visa applications filed, making them the top applicants to the Netherlands.

Between 2018 and 2023, Turkish applicants submitted 330,851 visa applications, which is 2.04% fewer than the number of Indian applicants throughout this time frame.

However, since they were the third-largest nationality group for visas submitted in 2018 and 2019, Turks have risen even higher on the list of top visa applicants in the post-pandemic period.

During the pandemic years, including the 2020 and 2021 years, Turks ranked second, falling after Filipinos. A similar trend continued in 2022, but in 2023, they became the largest nationality group for visa applications – filing 93,870 visa requests. That is 10.9 per cent less than the number of visa applications submitted by Indians, which peaked at 83,556.