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By Olami, AbroadPilot · Reviewed September 2026 · Source: European Commission Migration and Home Affairs
Quick summary: Senegalese applicants faced a 51.9% Schengen short-stay (type C) visa refusal rate in 2025, up from 46.8% in 2024 — 3.6× the 14.6% global average, and rising. This covers short-stay tourist/business visas only, not long-stay national D visas for degree study.
The headline number
That’s 3.6× the global average, up from 46.8% in 2024 — the trend is moving in the wrong direction.
What actually drives this number
The country-level average hides something more useful: how much refusal rates differ by which specific consulate reviews the file. In Dakar itself, the Commission’s data shows Germany refused 25.7% of short-stay applications in 2025 while Portugal refused 82.1% — a spread of more than 56 percentage points for the same city, same applicant pool, same Visa Code. Senegalese 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 pattern shows a refusal often reflects which national administration reviewed the file as much as anything in it.
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. Senegalese 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.
Free tools for this
- Visa Refusal Rates by Country and Consulate — compare Senegal 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 Senegal’s Schengen visa refusal rate in 2025?
51.9%, up from 46.8% in 2024, according to the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs release — 3.6 times the 14.6% global average for short-stay type C visas.
Is the refusal rate for Senegal rising or falling?
Rising. It moved from 46.8% in 2024 to 51.9% in 2025, one of the sharpest increases among the nationalities the Commission called out specifically.
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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