Travellers wishing to obtain a short-term visa that enables them to enter the Schengen Area countries more than once should try applying for a German Schengen visa, as this country is their best chance of getting such a visa.
Despite being the second most sought-after Schengen Area destination, Germany’s rates of multiple-entry visa issuance have remained high, as newly released Schengen Visa Statistics show that 90.4 of visas issued by the German consulates in 2023 were multiple-entry.
This is only 0.2 percentage points lower than in 2022, when 90.6 per cent of short-term visas issued by Germany were for entering the Schengen Area more than once, Schengen.News reports.
More precisely, last year, out of the 1,459,560 visa applications it received, Germany granted a positive response to 1,233,561 of them. 1,115,424 of the granted visas were multiple entry.
Other Schengen Countries With High Issuance Rates of Multiple-Entry Visas
Aside from Germany, several other Schengen Area countries have higher issuance rates of multiple-entry visas than the EU average, according to 2023 data.
Though quite far from Germany, Austria is listed second with 75.7 per cent of the visas it issued having been for multiple entries. In the same year, the Austrian consulates abroad received 229,613 Schengen visa applications, and approved 194,273 of them. 147,021 of the latter were multiple-entry.
In 2022, the country had a similar approval rate of 74.9 per cent out of 125,275 visas granted, though it was ranked in the fourth position.
The third country with the highest share of MEVs in 2023 was Italy, which granted multiple entry visas to 70.2 per cent of beneficiaries (680,794 out of 970,073).
The list goes on as follows:
- Switzerland – 69.1 per cent out of 506,499 of applications approved
- Greece – 66.1 per cent of 521,825 of applications approved
- Croatia – 62 per cent of 29,785 visas granted
On the other hand, Slovenia, which ranked second with a rate of 81.6 per cent rate of multiple-entry visas issuance and Estonia which ranked third with 81.3 per cent in 2022, had quite lower MEV issuance rates in 2023.
While Slovenia’s rate was 59.7 per cent, Estonia’s rate was 60 per cent.
Countries With Lowest Chances of Getting a Multiple Entry Schengen Visa
Overall, in 2023, Schengen Area Member States issued fewer multiple-entry visas than in 2022. Data show that while in 2022, the average MEV issuance in the Schengen states was 58.1 per cent of all visas granted, last year, a lower percentage of 54.2 of visas issued were for more than only permitted entry.
In 2023, the countries with which travellers had the lowest shot of getting a multiple entry visa were:
- Finland – 21.3 per cent
- Norway – 22.6 per cent
- Sweden – 25.7 per cent
- Spain – 27.2 per cent
Aside from being the top country with the highest share of multiple entry visas issued, Germany is a country with a relatively low rejection rate.
In 2023, its visa authorities rejected only 14.3 per cent of visa applications received, which is lower than the Schengen average of 16 per cent. The rate of rejected visas was even lower than in 2022 when Germany rejected 16.2 per cent of applications. In the same year, the overall Schengen rejection rate was 17.9 per cent.
