Schengen Visa Rejection Statistics 2026: What 12 Million Applications Reveal
Every rejected visa application has a number attached to it. Ninety euros, to start — the standard Schengen application fee, which is not refunded when the answer is no. Add the service-centre charge, the travel insurance bought in advance, the day off work for the appointment. And for a surprisingly large group of applicants, add the biggest number of all: a non-refundable plane ticket purchased before the decision came back.
Visa statistics usually get reported as percentages. But behind the percentages is a very concrete question every applicant faces: how much money am I risking on an application that might be refused? The latest full-year data — published by the European Commission in May 2026, covering all of 2025 — gives that question an unusually precise answer.
Short answer: Schengen consulates received 12.06 million short-stay visa applications in 2025 and refused 14.6% of them — roughly 1.76 million applications. At €90 per application, refused applicants lost more than €157 million in non-refundable fees alone, before counting service charges or pre-booked travel. Rejection rates vary enormously by nationality: from around 4% for Chinese applicants to over 50% for applicants from Senegal and Burundi. The data points to one clear, avoidable mistake — paying for a full-price plane ticket before the visa is approved. Consulates accept a verifiable flight reservation instead, and several explicitly advise applicants not to buy tickets in advance.
The headline numbers for 2025
The European Commission publishes complete Schengen visa statistics each spring for the previous calendar year. The 2025 dataset, released in May 2026, is the most recent full-year picture — and the numbers are substantial.
| Indicator | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Applications received | 12.06 million | 11.7 million |
| Visas issued | 10.3 million | 9.7 million |
| Global refusal rate | 14.6% | 14.8% |
| Applications refused (approx.) | ~1.76 million | ~1.7 million |
| Application fee (non-refundable) | €90 | €80–90 |
| Fees lost to refusals (est.) | €157 million | €145 million |
Three things stand out. First, demand keeps growing — applications rose 4.3% year over year, though they remain well below the 17 million recorded in 2019. Second, the refusal rate barely moved: one in every seven applications is still refused. Third, the money involved keeps climbing: independent analyses of the Commission's data put the fees lost to refused applications at roughly €130 million in 2023, €145 million in 2024 and €157 million in 2025 — a cumulative €432 million in three years, paid by people who received nothing in return.
The primary source is the Commission's own statistics hub: short-stay visas issued by Schengen countries.
Rejection rates by nationality: a 13× difference
The global average of 14.6% hides the most important fact in the dataset: your realistic refusal risk depends heavily on the passport you hold.
| Applicant nationality | Refusal rate (2025) |
|---|---|
| Burundi | 53.4% |
| Senegal | 51.9% |
| Nigeria | ~48% |
| Algeria | 31% |
| Global average | 14.6% |
| Thailand | ~6% |
| Russia | 6.4% |
| Saudi Arabia | ~6% |
| China | ~4% |
An applicant from Burundi is refused more often than accepted. An applicant from China is refused roughly once in 25 applications. Analyses of the Commission's data have repeatedly found that African applicants are several times more likely to be refused than Asian applicants — and because fees are charged per application regardless of outcome, the cost of rejection lands hardest on the countries with the highest refusal rates. Around a third of all fee losses come from just four countries: Türkiye, Algeria, India and Morocco.
The five largest applicant pools in 2025 were China (1.9 million applications), Türkiye (1.26 million), India (1.15 million), Russia (679,000) and Morocco (620,000). If you hold one of these passports, the statistics above are the baseline you are applying against — before a single document of yours is examined.
Rejection rates by destination country
Where you apply matters too. The country-level breakdown (2024, the latest complete destination dataset) shows a wide spread between the strictest and most lenient Schengen consular networks:
Highest refusal rates: Malta (38.5%), Estonia (27.2%), Belgium (24.6%)
Around the average: France (15.8% — while processing over 3 million applications, the largest volume in the system)
Lowest refusal rates: Slovakia (~9.6%), with Lithuania and several smaller consular networks also well below average
Two cautions before reading too much into this table. Consulates decide applications case by case — a low national average doesn't make a weak file strong. And the "apply to the easiest country" tactic breaks a formal rule: you must apply to the consulate of your main destination (or first entry, if stays are equal). An itinerary engineered around a lenient consulate that doesn't match your real travel plan is itself a refusal reason.
Why applications actually get refused
Aggregated refusal-reason data assembled from consular reporting shows a consistent pattern year after year:
Insufficient financial means — roughly 21% of refusals. Bank statements that don't plausibly cover the declared trip.
Non-compliant travel insurance — roughly 15%. Wrong coverage amount, wrong dates, or missing entirely.
Unclear purpose of travel — roughly 12%. The declared purpose, the itinerary and the documents don't tell one coherent story.
Doubts about intention to return — roughly 12%. The officer isn't convinced the applicant will leave the Schengen Area on time.
Look at the last two categories: nearly a quarter of all refusals come down to coherence — whether the file, taken together, describes a believable round trip. Flight documentation sits at the centre of that assessment. An application with no exit booking, or with flight dates that contradict the hotel reservation, feeds exactly the doubts that refusal categories three and four describe. This is why every Schengen checklist asks for a flight reservation — and why the reservation needs to be real and consistent with the rest of the file. Our Schengen flight reservation guide covers the country-by-country expectations in detail.
The hidden multiplier: what a rejection really costs
The €90 fee is only the visible part of a refused application. Independent estimates that include service-centre charges put the average all-in cost of a rejected file at roughly €185 — over €300 million per year across all refused applicants. The full bill typically stacks up like this:
Application fee: €90, non-refundable by regulation.
Service centre (VFS/TLS) charge: typically €30–45, non-refundable.
Travel insurance: bought before the appointment as a required document; refund policies vary.
Pre-booked flights: €300–2,000+ if bought as real tickets — the single largest and most avoidable loss.
Every item on that list except one is either mandatory or small. The plane ticket is neither. Nothing in the Schengen Visa Code requires a paid ticket at application time — Article 14 asks for proof of a reservation of return or onward transport, and several consulates (France explicitly, in its applicant guidance) advise against buying tickets before approval. With a 14.6% average refusal rate — and far higher for many nationalities — buying a non-refundable €600 ticket before the decision is a gamble the numbers simply don't support.
A verifiable flight reservation — a real booking with a live PNR in an airline's system, generated for a small fee — satisfies the documentary requirement without the exposure. If the visa is approved, you buy the real ticket with your dates confirmed. If it's refused or delayed, you've lost the price of a coffee, not a transatlantic fare. The mechanics of why this works are covered in how a verifiable flight reservation actually works.
What the data says you should do
Know your baseline. Check the refusal rate for your nationality before applying — it calibrates how carefully you should prepare, not whether you should apply at all. A strong, coherent file from a high-refusal country beats a careless file from a low-refusal one.
Fix the coherence failures first. Funds, insurance, purpose, return intent — the four data-backed refusal reasons. Make the bank statement match the trip, the insurance match the dates, and every document tell the same story.
Never buy the ticket before the decision. The regulation doesn't require it, consulates advise against it, and the refusal statistics quantify exactly what you're risking. Use a verifiable reservation for the application; buy the real fare after approval.
Time the reservation correctly. Reservations are held in airline systems for a limited window (typically 24–48 hours). Generate yours close to the appointment or submission date so it's live when checked — a stale, auto-released booking helps no one.
If you're refused, the fee is gone — the trip doesn't have to be. You can appeal, or reapply with a corrected file. A fresh application means fresh documents, including a fresh reservation with updated dates. The broader documentation picture — for Schengen and everywhere else — is in our complete guide to proof of onward travel.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of Schengen visa applications were rejected in 2025? 14.6% globally, according to European Commission data published in May 2026 — roughly 1.76 million refusals out of 12.06 million applications. The rate was 14.8% in 2024.
How much money do rejected applicants lose? More than €157 million in application fees alone in 2025, based on independent analyses of the Commission's data. Estimates that include service-centre charges put the average total at roughly €185 per rejected file — and that's before any pre-booked, non-refundable travel.
Which nationalities face the highest Schengen rejection rates? In the 2025 data: Burundi (53.4%), Senegal (51.9%) and Nigeria (~48%) were among the highest; Algeria stood at 31%. The lowest rates were for Chinese (~4%), Saudi, Thai and Russian (6.4%) applicants.
Which Schengen country rejects the most visa applications? By refusal rate, Malta has led recent country-level data (38.5% in 2024), followed by Estonia and Belgium. But you can't simply choose a lenient consulate — you must apply to the country of your main destination.
Do I need a paid flight ticket for a Schengen visa application? No. The Schengen Visa Code (Regulation 810/2009, Article 14) requires proof of a transport reservation, not a purchased ticket, and consulates including France explicitly advise applicants not to buy tickets before the visa is approved. A verifiable reservation with a real PNR satisfies the requirement — see our complete dummy ticket guide for how this works in practice.
What happens to my plane ticket if my visa is refused? Nothing good. Airlines are under no obligation to refund a ticket because a visa was denied — it's treated as the passenger's risk. Non-refundable fares are lost outright; "flexible" fares typically still carry €100–200 change or cancellation penalties. This is the single largest avoidable cost in the entire application process.
Is the number of applications going up? Yes — 12.06 million in 2025, up 4.3% from 2024 and the third consecutive annual increase, though still well below the 17 million peak of 2019. More applications at a stable refusal rate means the total cost of rejection keeps rising each year.
Written by the iReturnTicket Travel Team — frequent travelers who have personally navigated visa applications, one-way check-ins and border documentation requirements across dozens of countries. Statistics from the European Commission's 2025 Schengen visa dataset (published May 2026) and independent analyses of the same data; figures rounded where noted.
Preparing a Schengen application? A verifiable flight reservation with a real PNR gives the consulate the document it asks for — without betting a full ticket on a 14.6% refusal rate. Delivered by email in minutes, from $9.99.
