Schengen nations with worst approval rates in 2025: This country rejected most number of Indian visa applications

Indians want Europe badly enough to file over a million visa applications a year. But in 2025, nearly one in six of those applications came back empty-handed.

Fresh data from the European Commission shows that out of 1.15 million Schengen visa applications filed by Indian nationals last year, 181,111 did not result in a visa being issued, a non-issuance rate of 15.8%. India held its position as the world's third-largest source market for Schengen visas, but the numbers also reveal just how unevenly the doors to Europe open.

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Slovenia: The hardest door to knock on

At the top of the rejection table sits Slovenia, with a non-issuance rate of 46.1%, meaning nearly half of all Indian applications were turned away. Bulgaria followed at 37%, and Greece reported a rate of 33%, making it one of the toughest major destinations for Indian travellers.

Malta and Estonia also made the difficult list, with non-issuance rates of 31.7% and 30.1%, respectively.

Greece: High demand, high rejection

Greece stands out not just for its rejection rate but for the sheer volume of applications it processed. The Greek Embassy in New Delhi handled more than 41,000 applications from Indian travellers in 2025, of which 13,532 did not result in visas being issued. The Netherlands and Austria also came in above the overall average, at 20.6% and 21.6% respectively.

Where Indians fared better

Not every Schengen country made the journey difficult. Germany, which processed the highest volume of Indian applications at over 153,000, reported a non-issuance rate of just 10.5%. Italy came in at 12.7%, and Switzerland, the most popular Schengen destination among Indians in 2025, recorded a rate of 13.6%.

Belgium and Denmark offered some of the smoothest passage, with non-issuance rates of 7.7% and 6.9% respectively, among the lowest across major European destinations.