This post contains affiliate links.
By Olami, AbroadPilot · Reviewed September 2026 · Source: European Commission Migration and Home Affairs
Quick summary: Applicants from the Democratic Republic of Congo faced a 40.1% Schengen short-stay (type C) visa refusal rate in 2025, up from 29.9% in 2024 — 2.7× the 14.6% global average.
The headline number
That’s 2.7× the global average, up from 29.9% in 2024 — more than a 10-point rise in a single year.
What this number does and doesn’t cover
This is the Schengen short-stay (type C) refusal rate — visits of up to 90 days for tourism, business or family visits. It is not a student visa refusal rate. Applicants moving to Europe for a full degree apply for a national long-stay D visa, decided by that specific member state under its own rules, and no public dataset breaks those down by nationality and consulate the way this short-stay data is.
The wider pattern: consulate spread
Across the dataset, the country average is rarely the most useful number — how far apart two consulates in the same city rule on the same applicant pool matters more. In Dakar, for example, Germany refused 25.7% of short-stay applications in 2025 while Portugal refused 82.1%. Applicants generally can’t choose their consulate — the Visa Code sends your file to the state of your main destination, or your point of first entry — but the spread shows a refusal often reflects which national administration reviewed the file as much as anything in it.
Free tools for this
- Visa Refusal Rates by Country and Consulate — compare DR Congo against the other 8 tracked nationalities
- Refusal Risk Self-Assessment — map your own file against the actual legal refusal grounds
Frequently asked questions
What is DR Congo’s Schengen visa refusal rate in 2025?
40.1%, up from 29.9% in 2024, according to the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs release — 2.7 times the 14.6% global average.
Is this the same as a student visa refusal rate?
No. This covers short-stay (up to 90 days) Schengen visas only. Degree students apply for a national long-stay D visa, decided separately by each member state.
How much did the refusal rate change year over year?
It rose from 29.9% in 2024 to 40.1% in 2025, an increase of more than 10 percentage points in a single year.
Official & verified sources
Checked directly against the European Commission’s release on 17 September 2026, covering full-year 2025 data with 2024 shown for comparison. The Commission updates this annually.
Related reading
