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By Olami, AbroadPilot · Reviewed September 2026 · Source: European Commission Migration and Home Affairs
Quick summary: Ethiopian applicants faced a 34.0% Schengen short-stay (type C) visa refusal rate in 2025, down from 36.1% in 2024 — still 2.3× the 14.6% global average, but moving in the right direction.
The headline number
That’s 2.3× the global average, down from 36.1% in 2024 — one of the nationalities the Commission’s data shows improving rather than worsening.
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 Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia’s Schengen visa refusal rate in 2025?
34.0%, down from 36.1% in 2024, according to the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs release — still 2.3 times the 14.6% global average.
Is Ethiopia’s refusal rate improving?
Yes, it fell slightly from 36.1% in 2024 to 34.0% in 2025 — one of the nationalities in this dataset moving in the right direction, though still well above the 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.
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.
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