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Schengen visa statistics for India, 2025

How Indian applicants actually fare with Schengen short-stay (Type C) visas, from the European Commission's own numbers: applications, refusals, and refusal rates by destination country and consulate.

1,153,748
Applications
966,529
Issued
181,111
Refused
15.78%
Refusal rate

India, all Schengen consulates, 2025. Source: European Commission (see method below).

The five-year trend

Applications from India recovered roughly 8.8x from the 2021 pandemic low. The refusal rate fell steadily through 2024, then ticked back up in 2025 - and the absolute number of refusals is at a five-year high.

YearApplicationsRefusedRefusal rate
2021130,42729,70523.25%
2022671,928121,18818.29%
2023966,687151,75215.75%
20241,108,239165,26614.96%
20251,153,748181,11115.78%

Which embassies are toughest for Indians

Refusal rates vary widely by destination. Ranked among high-volume destinations (over 15,000 India applications in 2025), so the rates rest on real sample sizes.

Toughest
  • 1Greece33.19%
  • 2Austria22.12%
  • 3Netherlands20.73%
  • 4Portugal20.35%
  • 5Czech Republic20.09%
Easiest
  • 1Denmark7.08%
  • 2Belgium7.82%
  • 3Germany10.55%
  • 4Sweden11.53%
  • 5Italy12.75%

Every destination, 2025

All 28 Schengen states with consulates in India, by application volume. Rows marked with an asterisk had under 15,000 applications, so treat their rate as indicative only.

DestinationAppliedIssuedRefusedRefusal rate
Switzerland226,044195,36930,630
13.55%
France204,184172,07231,058
15.29%
Germany153,179136,67416,126
10.55%
Netherlands97,65077,05720,156
20.73%
Spain90,72075,90613,825
15.41%
Italy53,42346,6136,810
12.75%
Austria48,76137,11710,543
22.12%
Greece41,00927,23213,526
33.19%
Belgium33,33330,4342,581
7.82%
Sweden32,53628,5643,723
11.53%
Norway29,10424,8404,264
14.65%
Czech Republic27,38821,8855,501
20.09%
Finland17,56415,1322,450
13.93%
Denmark17,03815,4511,178
7.08%
Hungary16,25114,0242,106
13.06%
Portugal15,42212,2843,138
20.35%
Iceland *10,9068,0612,793
25.73%
Poland *9,6738,0221,640
16.97%
Malta *8,5875,7552,720
32.09%
Slovenia *3,9102,0751,803
46.49%
Luxembourg *3,6842,727814
22.99%
Bulgaria *3,4352,0821,270
37.89%
Croatia *2,6151,721709
29.18%
Romania *1,9311,574350
18.19%
Estonia *1,7061,193513
30.07%
Slovakia *1,437988303
23.47%
Latvia *1,3141,070244
18.57%
Lithuania *944607337
35.7%

The consulate you apply at matters

The same country can refuse very differently city to city, because your consulate is fixed by where you live, not where you would prefer to apply.

  • France: New Delhi refused 27.4% of India applications in 2025, while Bangalore refused just 7.9% - the same visa, more than three times the refusal rate.
  • Germany: Mumbai handled 130,562 applications at 10.8%, and its Bangalore consulate was the single most lenient in the dataset at 1.5%.
  • Spain: Mumbai refused 11.7% versus New Delhi at 20.0%.

Why Schengen applications get refused

Every refusal is issued on the same standard form, citing one or more grounds from Article 32 of the Schengen Visa Code. The Commission does not publish which ground is most common for India, so no ranking is implied here - but most are about documents, funds, and intent to return, which is exactly what a careful pre-check can catch.

  • The purpose and conditions of the trip could not be established (weak or inconsistent itinerary, bookings, or invitation).
  • Insufficient proof of funds for the stay, or of a reliable source of those funds.
  • Justifying documents were missing, unreliable, or inconsistent across the file.
  • Doubt that the applicant will leave before the visa expires (weak ties to home, unclear return).
  • Travel medical insurance was missing or did not cover the full stay and the required amount.
  • The 90-days-in-180 short-stay limit was already used up.
  • A travel document that was false, counterfeit, or forged.
  • An alert in the Schengen Information System, or a threat to public policy or security.
Visa fee
EUR 90 for adults since 11 June 2024 (up from EUR 80).
Decision time
Usually 15 days, up to 30, and in rare cases 60.
When to apply
From 6 months before travel, up to 15 working days ahead.

Roughly one in six applications is refused. Most are avoidable.

We check your pack against the mistakes that get applications refused - funds, dates, insurance, the right consulate, names that must match across every document - before you submit at VFS. We never guarantee approval; the embassy decides that. What we guarantee is catching the checkable mistakes we have a rule for.

Check your application free

Source and method

All figures are from the European Commission, DG Migration and Home Affairs, Short-stay visas issued by Schengen countries. The 2025 dataset was published 28 May 2026; the numbers here are read from the consulate spreadsheet and cross-checked against the Commission's own India totals.

  • "Refused" follows the EC's "not issued" count, which includes a small number of withdrawn or discontinued applications, not only rejections. The refusal rate is not-issued divided by decisions taken (issued + not issued), the Commission's own formula.
  • The trend covers 25 Schengen states for 2021-2023 and 28 for 2024-2025 (Bulgaria and Romania joined the full Schengen area in March 2024, Croatia in 2023). The three added states are about 0.7% of India's 2025 volume, so the trend is not materially affected.
  • The ₹1.36 billion in lost fees widely cited for India refers to 2024 and is a derived estimate, not an official EC figure.

Last updated July 2026.