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By Olami, AbroadPilot · Reviewed September 2026 · Source: European Commission Migration and Home Affairs
Quick summary: Russian applicants faced a 6.4% Schengen short-stay (type C) visa refusal rate in 2025, down from 7.5% in 2024 — well below the 14.6% global average, and the lowest of the nine nationalities the European Commission called out specifically.
The headline number
That’s less than half the global average — 0.4× — down from 7.5% in 2024, and the lowest refusal rate of the nine nationalities in this dataset.
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
Even at a low national average, individual consulates can still differ. Across the dataset, the country average is rarely the most useful number on its own — in Dakar, for example, Germany refused 25.7% of short-stay applications in 2025 while Portugal refused 82.1% for a different nationality’s applicant pool, illustrating how much a decision can depend on which national administration reviews the file.
Free tools for this
- Visa Refusal Rates by Country and Consulate — compare Russia 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 Russia’s Schengen visa refusal rate in 2025?
6.4%, down from 7.5% in 2024, according to the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs release — well below the 14.6% global average and the lowest of the nine nationalities tracked in this dataset.
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.
Why is Russia’s refusal rate lower than other tracked nationalities?
The Commission’s release names the figures without publishing a country-by-country explanation for the differences. Treat the comparison as a documented fact rather than a fully explained one.
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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