Spain : More that 200,000 visas were issued in Morocco in 2018

Spanish consulates in Morocco issued 220,929 visas last year, a particularly significant increase compared to 2017.

According to data relayed by Spanish news agency EFE, Morocco was the third country in the world to receive Spanish visas, after Russia and China in 2018. With the exception of public holidays and weekends, Spanish consulates issued an average of 1,000 visas per day.

In Morocco, Spain and France are the two countries that have granted the most Schengen visas : In 2017, France issued 323,670 visas, compared to 180,918 ones for Spain, according to data provided by the European Commission.

While in Russia or China, all visas are short-term ones, usually for tourists or business trips, in Morocco the number of long-term visas reached 59,000 last year. This figure includes student visas (nearly 6,000 in 2018), those granted for family reunification (more than 15,000) and, above all, for professional reasons.

The number of work visas was 34,105, 15,000 of them were granted to seasonal workers in the province of Huelva.