Schengen visa approval rate has been remarkable for some countries over the past few years. Iceland (97.8%), Switzerland (89.3%), Latvia (88.3), Italy (88%), and Luxembourg (87.3%) have had the highest ratio of Schengen visa approvals recently according to the European Commission.
The EU recently released a Schengen visa statistics report on 15 May 2024 that elaborates in-depth information about uniform visas issued by the Schengen countries throughout 2023. Overall, 8.5 million uniform visas were issued in 2023 by the member states combined.
Though countries such as Germany issued 1,115,424, France 791,417, Netherlands 326,018, and Spain 297,215 most multiple entry uniform visas last year still these are also the countries that have refused a large number of visa applications.
Top five countries with most visa approval rate
Iceland issued the approached Schengen visas with a ratio of 97.8%. For 22,500 submitted applications, 21,000 applicants were awarded visas. Other visas were awarded directly at the borders. Only 474 visa applications were refused.
Switzerland has the second-highest approval rate in 2023 surprisingly. Against submitted visa applications of 603,000, about 506,000 approvals were granted.
Latvia 88.3, Luxembourg 87.3, Lithuania 87.2, and Slovakia 87.1 are the rest of the top countries after the first two in terms of the highest success rate of visa approval.
| 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 |
Third countries whose nationals got the most visas approved
It is also important to have a look at the countries whose nationals got the most Schengen visas approved in 2023. This highly impacts the visa approval rate of a member state that is awarded the uniform visa. Nationals of Türkiye, India, and China dominantly got most of the uniform visas from around the world. From India, 43% more visa applications have been submitted which helped it retain the 3rd position compared to the previous year. Visa applications also increased from China where it got back its first position that it also had in 2019. This huge number of visa applications issued impacts the visa approval rate overall.
Complete list of Schengen countries with number of visas issued
Schengen member states altogether issued 8.5 million multiple-entry uniform and LTV visas in 2023. The complete list is as follows (the list does not show the visas issued at the borders):
| Schengen Countries | Uniform visas applied for | Multiple entry uniform visas (MEVs) issued | Total LTVs issued |
| Germany | 1,459,560 | 1,115,424 | 12,517 |
| France | 2,625,846 | 791,417 | 6,312 |
| Italy | 1,108,035 | 680,794 | 4,467 |
| Switzerland | 603,261 | 349,862 | 32,365 |
| Greece | 627,008 | 344,668 | 8,610 |
| Netherlands | 669,291 | 326,018 | 2,146 |
| Spain | 1,413,222 | 297,215 | 14,139 |
| Austria | 229,613 | 147,021 | 2,418 |
| Belgium | 225,951 | 94,854 | 401 |
| Portugal | 207,654 | 92,414 | 613 |
| Hungary | 215,799 | 79,105 | 198 |
| Poland | 124,057 | 56,103 | 1,298 |
| Czech Republic | 138,840 | 39,359 | 552 |
| Denmark | 107,872 | 36,576 | 99 |
| Sweden | 169,151 | 31,732 | 5,069 |
| Norway | 108,536 | 20,594 | 1,282 |
| Croatia | 38,511 | 18,454 | 376 |
| Lithuania | 30,668 | 15,227 | 396 |
| Finland | 92,078 | 14,702 | 4,034 |
| Latvia | 18,897 | 9,124 | 295 |
| Iceland | 22,541 | 8,549 | 6 |
| Malta | 33,306 | 8,223 | 41 |
| Slovenia | 19,990 | 7,529 | 4,112 |
| Slovakia | 13,468 | 5,943 | 203 |
| Luxembourg | 11,227 | 5,362 | 140 |
| Estonia | 13,190 | 4,865 | 696 |
| Total | 10,327,572 | 4,601,134 | 102,785 |