New data published by the European Commission show that the consulates of the EU countries and Schengen Associated Countries received around 3 million applications for short-stay visas in 2021. The impact of Covid also felt with schengen visas. The global travel restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 continued to drastically depress the demand for Schengen visas worldwide. As a result, the level of visa operations stayed low 2.4 million visa issued (2.5 million visas issued in 2020).
Worldwide, 13.4% of all visa applications were refused, the same percentage as in 2020. 1.7 million or 71 % of the 2.4 million visas issued in 2021 allow for multiple entries into the Schengen area, a share that despite the overall decline in the numbers of applications remained stable compared to the share in previous years.
In addition to the 2.4 million visas issued abroad, in 2021 the Schengen States also issued 69 401 uniform visas directly at the external borders.
Total Schengen Visas
| Schengen State | Uniform visas applied for | Total uniform visas issued (including MEV) | Multiple entry uniform visas (MEVs) issued | Total LTVs issued | Uniform visas not issued |
| France | 6,52,331 | 4,80,057 | 2,56,048 | 1,561 | 1,28,672 |
| Spain | 4,83,469 | 3,77,440 | 2,22,707 | 3,490 | 69,863 |
| Greece | 2,95,634 | 2,69,287 | 2,39,711 | 5,549 | 18,545 |
| Germany | 3,46,284 | 2,67,757 | 2,53,021 | 18,774 | 53,987 |
| Czech Republic | 2,07,470 | 2,00,053 | 1,21,919 | 403 | 6,916 |
| Italy | 2,12,806 | 1,90,451 | 1,66,212 | 1,425 | 20,930 |
| Netherlands | 1,37,866 | 1,17,162 | 86,259 | 784 | 18,409 |
| Switzerland | 1,14,025 | 84,417 | 69,087 | 14,838 | 14,770 |
| Hungary | 70,269 | 66,294 | 30,669 | 103 | 3,320 |
| Finland | 61,015 | 54,337 | 45,540 | 1,545 | 2,745 |
| Portugal | 47,415 | 40,243 | 29,308 | 466 | 5,610 |
| Austria | 44,616 | 39,393 | 36,551 | 785 | 4,438 |
| Poland | 41,891 | 39,362 | 31,994 | 553 | 2,350 |
| Estonia | 40,657 | 38,372 | 36,219 | 17 | 2,210 |
| Belgium | 50,796 | 34,710 | 23,913 | 192 | 8,971 |
| Lithuania | 24,764 | 23,973 | 20,612 | 25 | 683 |
| Denmark | 26,469 | 19,265 | 10,562 | 246 | 5,212 |
| Latvia | 16,764 | 15,972 | 14,338 | 210 | 582 |
| Sweden | 22,260 | 14,174 | 7,146 | 887 | 6,654 |
| Norway | 9,895 | 6,858 | 3,944 | 1,028 | 2,795 |
| Slovenia | 6,109 | 4,772 | 4,632 | 844 | 459 |
| Slovakia | 3,886 | 3,718 | 2,540 | 88 | 107 |
| Malta | 4,295 | 3,557 | 2,233 | 20 | 691 |
| Iceland | 2,735 | 2,369 | 431 | 41 | 259 |
| Luxembourg | 2,383 | 2,286 | 2,013 | 10 | 29 |
| Total Result | 29,26,104 | 23,96,279 | 17,17,609 | 53,884 | 3,79,207 |
Source: European Commission Data
Refusal Rate
Sweden is the No.1 country for refusing the most number of visa applications for 2021, refusing one third of applications, followed by Norway and France. Luxembourg refused only 1.2% of schengen visa applications (easiest to obtain).
| Schengen state | Refusal % |
| Sweden | 30.60% |
| Norway | 26.20% |
| France | 21.10% |
| Denmark | 21.10% |
| Belgium | 20.40% |
| Malta | 16.20% |
| Germany | 15.90% |
| Spain | 15.50% |
| Netherlands | 13.50% |
| Switzerland | 13.00% |
| Portugal | 12.10% |
| Austria | 9.90% |
| Italy | 9.80% |
| Iceland | 9.70% |
| Slovenia | 7.60% |
| Greece | 6.30% |
| Poland | 5.60% |
| Estonia | 5.40% |
| Hungary | 4.80% |
| Finland | 4.70% |
| Latvia | 3.50% |
| Czech Republic | 3.30% |
| Lithuania | 2.80% |
| Slovakia | 2.70% |
| Luxembourg | 1.20%
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Top Consulates
These are the top consulates issuing most schengen visas worldwide. The Greek consulate in Moscow issued almost 1.5 million visas followed by Czech Republic in Kiev
| Schengen state | Consulate | Total Visas issued (Uniform + MEV) |
| Greece | MOSCOW | 1,49,886 |
| Czech Republic | KYIV | 98,955 |
| Czech Republic | LVIV | 84,984 |
| Spain | MOSCOW | 62,229 |
| Italy | MOSCOW | 55,872 |
| France | ALGIERS | 25,270 |
| Germany | ISTANBUL | 39,485 |
| France | TUNIS | 27,988 |
| France | RIYADH | 35,256 |
Download
Visa Data 2021 – XLS sheet
