The Schengen visa statistics for 2022 are out. Indian travellers filed over 6 lakh visa applications in 2022–the third highest in the world, but also faced a steep rejection rate of 18%. Estonia, Malta and Slovenia rejected the highest percentage of Schengen visa applications from India last year, while Germany, Italy and Hungary were most accommodating. Here are the details:

How did Schengen visa applications from India perform?

As per data by Schengen Visa Info, a website that reports on the matter, Estonia rejected the highest share of visas from India in 2022, canning 56% of 1,986 applications. Malta declined 506 of 1,220 visas at a 45% rejection rate. Slovenia rejected 44.5% of 2,732 visas.

Going by volume, a different set of countries end up rejecting a higher number of visas. In 2022: Switzerland rejected 13,984 of 1,06,025 visas, though the country’s overall rejection rate was significantly lower than the average at 13%. France rejected 19.9% or 27,681 of 1,38,643 visas and Spain declined 14,852 or 18.5% of 80,098 visas. Austria rejected 5,945 of 24,791 visas at a 24% rejection rate, while Greece rejected 34.7% or 9,118 of 27,457 and Portugal turned down 1,593 of 5,326 visas (29.9%). Sweden got 27,775 applications, and rejected 5,110 or 18.7% of them.

Best countries for Schengen visas for India travellers

It might also help to know that Germany had the lowest rejection rate for Indians, having rejected only eight out of 6,345 Schengen visas at the Bengaluru consulate, one application in Kolkata and two in Chennai. Italy and Hungary were next in line, with rejection rates of 11.5% (794 of 6,909 visas rejected) and 12.1% (1,098 of 9,046 visas rejected) respectively.

Where does India stand in the Schengen visa market?

Consulates around the world recorded 75,72,755 short-term Schengen visa applications last year. Türkiye has taken the first spot with the most number of requests (7,78,409) and Russia comes second (6,87,239). India stood at number three–with Indians making 6,71,928 uniform visa applications to the Schengen region in 2022. Out of these, 1,21,188 were declined at the rejection rate of 18%. This is higher than the average rejection rate across the world, which stands at 17.9%. Only Algeria fared worse than India in terms of numbers, with 1,79,409 of total Schengen visa applications being rejected.

Is there a trend?

Visa patterns may change over years. The world saw a significantly larger volume of applications in 2022 as compared to the year before that. In 2021, only 29,26,104 applications were filed all over. And yet, the numbers still haven’t matched up to pre-covid years. That’s not the only thing–average visa rejection rates too have gone up in 2022 from 13.4% in 2021. But the bright spots were Sweden, which declined only 18.7% of visa requests from India last year, against 42.26% in 2021, and Switzerland, which also granted a lot more visas to Indians in 2022, with the rejection rate dropping to 13% last year from 21% in 2021. France too issued more Schengen visas to Indian travellers last year than in 2021, with its rejection rate dipping from 30.8% to 19.9%.