8.5 Million Schengen Visas Issued in 2023 – Schengen Visa Statistics

The good news is that tourism has recovered in the Schengen zone as the number of Schengen visas issued reached 8.5 million last year. Overall, 10.3 million uniform visa applications were submitted by people from around the world. The average visa rejection rate remained at 16% from all the countries together.

According to the EU Council, the summary of the Schengen visa statistics for 2023 is:

• Schengen countries combined received 10.3 million visa applications in 2023;
• A total of 8.5 million uniform visas were issued;
• The visa approval rate was 84%;
• Most of the visa applications (65 percent) were submitted to the consulates and embassies of France, Germany, Spain, and Italy;
• Most of the visas were issued by Germany, France and Italy;
• Third countries, whose nationals submitted most of the visa applications were China, Türkiye, India, Morocco, and Russia (4 million combined); and
• Most visas issued to third countries were Tükiye, China, and India.

10.3 Million People Applied for the Schengen Visa in 2023

The number of Schengen visa applications increased by 37% compared to the previous year to 2023. About 10,327,572 uniform visa applications were submitted to the consulates and embassies of the Schengen countries around the world. The overall visa issuance reached 8.5 for the categories short-term, multiple entry, on-border, and LTV visas. After the pandemic, the statistics have recovered so far well. And the number of applications has increased 3 times since then.

EU Council issued Schengen visa statistics (multiple entry and uniform visas) on 15 May 2024 showing complete insights for 2023.

Visa Applications and Approvals (2019-2023)

Schengen countries with highest visa approval rate

Iceland remained the top country as far as the highest visa approval rate is concerned. The country issued 21,000 visas directly and set a 97.8% success rate.

Switzerland surprisingly grabbed the second position where its visa approval rate reached 89.3% against the 603,261 submitted visa applications. Following are the top five countries in this category:

Country	Applications received	Visa approval in %
Iceland	22,541	97.8
Switzerland	603,261	89.3
Latvia	18,897	88.3
Luxembourg	11,227	87.3
Lithuania	30,668	87.2

Schengen countries with the highest visa refusal rate

The highest visa application refusal rates have been observed obviously where the most visa applications were submitted, these are as follows:

France (26.7%),

Spain (15.3%),

Germany (12.7%),

Italy (8.17%), and

the Netherlands (6.9%).

Furthermore, countries such as Finland, Austria, and Belgium also showed high refusal rates. Some countries in 2023 refused more visa applications than they did in previous years. The Netherlands showed an increase of 61.9% in number of visa rejections. Whereas Greece also set a high record for change of visa refusals (61.5%). Malta refused 38 percent of the visa applications submitted whereas Estonia 33.1%.

Countries that received the most applications and issued visas

In the consulates and embassies abroad, most of the Schengen visa applications were submitted for France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc. The top 5 countries in these countries remained almost the same as in previous years. France dominated the list where 2,625,846 people applied for its short-term visa. This is almost 25% of the whole visas applied for the zone.

Most of the uniform multiple-entry visas were issued by Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Below is the complete list of these countries and the visas they issued:

Schengen Countries	Uniform visas applied for	Multiple entry uniform visas (MEVs) issued	Total LTVs issued	Uniform visas not issued
Germany	1,459,560	1,115,424	12,517	208,155
France	2,625,846	791,417	6,312	436,893
Italy	1,108,035	680,794	4,467	133,495
Switzerland	603,261	349,862	32,365	64,397
Greece	627,008	344,668	8,610	91,379
Netherlands	669,291	326,018	2,146	114,269
Spain	1,413,222	297,215	14,139	251,470
Austria	229,613	147,021	2,418	32,922
Belgium	225,951	94,854	401	60,148
Portugal	207,654	92,414	613	33,220
Hungary	215,799	79,105	198	32,641
Poland	124,057	56,103	1,298	18,564
Czech Republic	138,840	39,359	552	24,218
Denmark	107,872	36,576	99	21,509
Sweden	169,151	31,732	5,069	38,680
Norway	108,536	20,594	1,282	17,457
Croatia	38,511	18,454	376	7,561
Lithuania	30,668	15,227	396	3,911
Finland	92,078	14,702	4,034	16,602
Latvia	18,897	9,124	295	2,208
Iceland	22,541	8,549	6	474
Malta	33,306	8,223	41	12,261
Slovenia	19,990	7,529	4,112	3,097
Slovakia	13,468	5,943	203	1,752
Luxembourg	11,227	5,362	140	1,354
Estonia	13,190	4,865	696	4,347
Total	10,327,572	4,601,134	102,785	1,632,984

Third countries whose nationals submitted most applications and got visas approved

China got back to its position as it was in 2019. Its 1,117,365 nationals applied for the uniform visa. Citizens of Türkiye remained at number 2, where 1,055,885 visa applications were submitted by them. Indian nationals secured the number three position with an increase of 43% compared to the previous year and reached 966,687 applications.

Most of the Schengen visas are issued to countries such as Türkiye, China, India, Morocco, and Russia. Below is a complete list of all countries whose nationals got Schengen visas against a number of submitted applications:

Country where the consulate is located	Uniform visas applied for	Multiple entry uniform visas (MEVs) issued	Total LTVs issued	Uniform visas not issued
CHINA	1,117,365	435,623	442	60,554
TÜRKIYE	1,055,885	612,841	13,611	169,514
INDIA	966,687	505,053	352	151,752
MOROCCO	591,401	233,018	766	136,367
RUSSIAN FEDERATION	520,387	220,928	10,308	54,293
ALGERIA	474,032	86,787	2,215	166,260
SAUDI ARABIA	428,954	357,508	973	25,672
UNITED KINGDOM	405,631	185,720	670	22,767
THAILAND	270,504	112,468	77	18,082
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	233,932	90,650	1,612	52,485
INDONESIA	207,977	75,987	161	11,467
SOUTH AFRICA	204,221	134,339	61	9,711
PHILIPPINES	200,973	125,517	38	11,762
EGYPT	188,581	73,983	622	46,931
KUWAIT	179,444	130,585	325	12,069
USA	174,258	82,142	5,824	6,651
BELARUS	163,979	138,018	90	5,519
IRAN	162,026	41,756	2,246	48,343
TUNISIA	159,740	75,446	298	38,893
KAZAKHSTAN	159,072	57,355	159	14,285
KOSOVO	120,573	61,006	41,276	15,338
LEBANON	117,401	50,485	2,167	21,346
NIGERIA	105,926	25,065	207	42,940
QATAR	103,778	65,143	496	15,216
VIETNAM	103,501	25,199	131	12,510
ECUADOR	93,415	23,285	63	22,250
PAKISTAN	86,698	19,811	1,702	41,798
ARMENIA	80,356	30,192	104	10,531
AZERBAIJAN	78,955	29,894	77	6,645
ANGOLA	72,549	26,260	8	20,427
COTE D’IVOIRE	71,414	18,651	64	24,733
SENEGAL	64,392	12,665	37	26,497
JORDAN	64,303	30,339	778	11,234
IRAQ	58,165	17,555	559	20,189
KENYA	56,187	15,835	454	12,954
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	52,699	12,535	10	13,268
CUBA	47,792	8,772	32	12,079
UZBEKISTAN	46,503	13,314	358	7,654
GHANA	45,421	9,558	22	21,226
CONGO (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC)	41,317	16,873	1,572	10,488
BANGLADESH	39,729	10,972	61	17,015
CAMEROON	39,031	8,298	28	12,155
OMAN	38,876	30,077	30	3,925
SINGAPORE	35,643	16,783	161	1,486
CANADA	35,087	15,730	100	1,854
IRELAND	32,380	16,074	36	474
ISRAEL	28,203	9,006	874	3,492
KYRGYZSTAN	27,163	6,725	49	5,104
ETHIOPIA	24,665	3,880	359	8,168
SRI LANKA	24,654	5,584	142	9,320
LIBYA	24,428	10,798	463	5,676
MAURITANIA	23,253	6,752	62	8,289
BAHRAIN	22,709	18,946	2	1,914
CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE)	21,778	2,918	135	7,315
MONGOLIA	20,865	5,127	0	4,338
BOLIVIA	20,802	2,337	2	7,368
MALI	20,760	3,572	54	9,637
MOZAMBIQUE	20,313	3,805	5	1,723
SURINAME	19,891	7,620	11	3,049
GABON	19,300	4,783	4	4,942
CAPE VERDE	18,341	7,976	2	4,380
MADAGASCAR	16,683	5,442	5	5,424
UGANDA	15,936	3,483	45	4,754
BENIN	15,758	2,883	16	4,398
AUSTRALIA	14,855	6,769	25	415
GUINEA	14,155	1,764	8	6,021
TANZANIA	13,030	2,975	76	2,525
HONG KONG S.A.R.	12,908	5,593	2	370
SERBIA	12,174	4,704	57	862
CAMBODIA	12,118	2,952	0	1,375
RWANDA	11,668	2,509	57	3,147
BURKINA FASO	11,656	3,600	11	3,105
JAPAN	11,590	3,439	17	637
EQUATORIAL GUINEA	11,368	1,700	653	3,190
CYPRUS	10,876	3,979	56	1,343
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE	9,582	653	17	340
TOGO	8,801	2,068	0	2,839
NORTH MACEDONIA	8,560	1,198	6,396	1,104
CHAD	8,380	1,896	1	2,095
NEPAL	8,165	3,320	1	2,928
ZIMBABWE	7,856	2,721	6	851
MYANMAR	7,012	3,130	12	1,169
HAITI	6,721	410	0	2,780
GEORGIA	6,385	1,730	125	1,236
UKRAINE	6,131	1,471	17	796
ROMANIA	6,053	2,556	22	643
TURKMENISTAN	6,029	2,314	378	527
NIGER	5,689	1,343	49	1,177
NAMIBIA	5,575	3,709	4	271
GUINEA-BISSAU	5,493	716	1	2,634
BULGARIA	5,459	3,126	32	235
MALAYSIA	5,384	1,881	9	1,026
JAMAICA	5,018	1,907	0	325
GREECE	4,894	676	6	2,744
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY	4,780	3,175	54	477
DJIBOUTI	4,661	1,017	1	1,137
TAJIKISTAN	4,629	1,248	109	1,487
LAOS	4,327	2,013	0	496
SYRIA	4,185	587	13	1,924
MONTENEGRO	4,142	1,790	38	311
SOUTH KOREA	3,818	525	4	451
BURUNDI	3,774	685	0	1,391
COMOROS	3,768	372	4	2,174
ERITREA	3,317	638	8	650
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA	2,731	1,886	412	110
ZAMBIA	2,659	714	2	360
COLOMBIA	2,491	584	5	618
SUDAN	2,452	430	44	997
NEW ZEALAND	2,277	1,004	2	82
MEXICO	2,252	753	4	149
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC	2,211	378	0	527
CHILE	1,931	738	10	360
BRAZIL	1,931	580	28	354
BOTSWANA	1,884	682	0	120
DENMARK	1,867	630	2	3
MOLDOVA	1,676	699	7	65
ALBANIA	1,365	706	264	107
TAIWAN	1,255	531	2	59
PANAMA	1,183	328	2	106
PERU	1,059	400	3	160
ARGENTINA	1,047	263	5	185
NETHERLANDS	1,034	476	6	92
MAURITIUS	729	419	0	48
AUSTRIA	521	486	3	3
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO	500	171	0	12
VENEZUELA	361	47	17	77
GUATEMALA	351	97	0	3
COSTA RICA	318	143	3	2
MACAO S.A.R.	309	96	0	27
SPAIN	268	118	2	9
GERMANY	261	173	10	13
ANDORRA	255	32	0	16
URUGUAY	236	26	5	33
VANUATU	231	5	6	2
SWEDEN	196	92	3	16
SAINT LUCIA	168	34	0	17
FRANCE	164	69	3	3
LUXEMBOURG	160	24	2	1
ITALY	159	41	10	12
SAN MARINO	146	143	0	2
SLOVENIA	135	69	10	55
LIBERIA	121	17	0	0
PARAGUAY	115	40	0	10
POLAND	112	53	1	9
SLOVAKIA	105	77	5	4
SWITZERLAND	95	31	5	5
TIMOR-LESTE	80	24	0	0
BELGIUM	79	33	3	5
CROATIA	69	41	8	8
LITHUANIA	66	49	2	11
HONDURAS	62	4	0	6
NICARAGUA	57	17	0	5
EL SALVADOR	56	31	0	1
PORTUGAL	31	17	6	1
ICELAND	29	5	0	0
FINLAND	28	7	0	3
HUNGARY	20	14	0	2
MALTA	19	4	1	0
NORWAY	12	8	0	0
CZECH REPUBLIC	10	2	0	1
LATVIA	3	1	0	0
ESTONIA	2	1	0	0
Total	10,327,572	4,601,134	102,785	1,632,984