How the European Commission's Schengen visa statistics are collected, and how to read them without fooling yourself
The most reliable public data on visa outcomes anywhere in the world, and almost nobody reads the notes.
What is published
Each year the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs releases a workbook of "Visa statistics for consulates" for the previous year, alongside a companion file for visas issued at external border crossing points. The consulate workbook's "Data for consulates" sheet lists every Schengen state's every consulate worldwide with, for uniform (type C) visas: applications, visas issued (including multiple-entry), multiple-entry visas issued, share of MEVs, visas not issued and the not-issued rate; airport transit visas in the same layout; and limited-territorial-validity visas issued. Further sheets total by Schengen state and by third country (the country where consulates are located), and rank third countries by volume.
Definitions that matter
- Application: one file lodged and admissible. A person refused and later issued in the same year is two applications.
- Not issued: refused after examination. Applications withdrawn or pending are neither issued nor not issued, which is why applied minus issued minus not-issued is sometimes positive.
- Not-issued rate: not issued divided by applied. This is the "refusal rate" on our pages, recomputed from the counts.
- By consulate location, not nationality: "India" means applications lodged at consulates in India, whoever lodged them. Almost all are Indian passport holders, but the data cannot say how many.
- Uniform visas only in the headline columns; national long-stay visas are not in this dataset at all.
The traps
- Comparing a consulate with 200 applications to one with 200,000 on rate alone. We apply a floor of 1,000 applications before ranking.
- Reading a missing consulate as zero. If a state closes or centralises, the row disappears; that is not a rate of zero.
- Treating the "share of MEVs" as a share of applications; it is a share of visas issued.
- Averaging consulate rates to get a country rate. The correct country rate is refusals summed over applications summed; a simple average of consulate rates weights a tiny consulate as heavily as a huge one.
- Reading 2020 and 2021 as normal years.
Why this dataset is worth trusting
It is produced by the states themselves from the Visa Information System and consular records, published in the same structure every year, and it reconciles: on this site the sum of the India consulate rows equals the Commission's India total to the unit for 2024 and 2025. That is more than can be said for almost any private "success rate" you will read.
FAQ
Where does the Schengen visa refusal data come from?
From the European Commission's annual "Visa statistics for consulates" workbook, compiled from Schengen states' consular records.
Does the data show refusal reasons?
No. It shows counts and rates by consulate; grounds for refusal are not published.
Is the data by nationality?
No; by the country where the consulate is located. "Applications lodged in India" is the accurate phrase.
Questions this page answers
Where does the Schengen visa refusal data come from?
From the European Commission's annual "Visa statistics for consulates" workbook, compiled from Schengen states' consular records.
Does the data show refusal reasons?
No. It shows counts and rates by consulate; grounds for refusal are not published.
Is the data by nationality?
No; by the country where the consulate is located. "Applications lodged in India" is the accurate phrase.