These Countries Are Most & Least Likely to Approve Your Schengen Visa in 2024

Iceland leads the way in Schengen visa approvals, boasting a 97.8 percent approval rate in 2023. Of the 22,500 visa requests directed to Iceland, over 21,000 were approved, with just 474 rejections. This high approval rate suggests that applicants to Iceland are more likely to have their visas granted.

On average, Schengen states issued visas for 84 percent of all applications, approving 8.4 million out of 10.3 million requests. Malta, however, had the lowest approval rates, with only 63 percent of the 33,000 applications received being approved in 2023, amounting to over 20,000 visas.

Data from the European Commission indicates that Iceland, Switzerland, and Latvia were the easiest countries to obtain a Schengen visa in 2023. Following Iceland’s leading approval rate of 97.8 percent, Switzerland and Latvia had high approval rates of 89.3 and 88.3 percent, respectively. Swiss authorities approved over 506,000 of the 603,000 visa applications received. Latvia approved 88.3 percent of the 19,000 requests it received. Italy and Luxembourg followed, with approval rates of 88 percent and 87.3 percent, respectively.

Lithuania and Slovakia also made the list of countries where obtaining a Schengen visa was relatively easy, approving 87.2 percent and 87.1 percent of applications, respectively. Applicants to German, Austrian, and Greek visa centers had favorable chances, with approval rates of 85.7 percent for both Germany and Austria, and 85.3 percent for Greece, surpassing the Schengen average of 84 percent.

Conversely, Malta was the least likely to approve Schengen visa applications in 2024, approving only 62 percent of the 33,000 applications received in 2023. Estonia and Belgium followed, with approval rates of 66.9 percent and 73.5 percent, respectively.

Applicants in Sweden, Denmark, and Croatia also faced lower chances of visa approval, as these countries had approval rates below the EU average of 84 percent.

According to the data by the EU Commission, “Malta is the toughest country to grant applicants a visa for the year.” This was closely followed by Estonia and Belgium, with Sweden, Denmark, and Croatia also having lower approval rates than the EU average.

By fLEXI tEAM