The majority of the visa applications Iceland received in 2023 were approved, with a rate of 97.8%. Just 474 of the 22,500 visa petitions made to Iceland were denied out of the over 21,000 that were granted. This suggests that applicants for Icelandic visas have a higher chance of having their requests granted.

Out of 10.3 million visa requests, Schengen states approved 8.4 million of them, or 84% of all applicants.

Malta, which received 33,000 applications, had the lowest approval rates. Around 63 per cent of requests, accounting for over 20,000 visas, were approved by Maltese authorities in 2023.

Easiest Countries to Obtain a Schengen Visa in 2023

The European Commission's statistics indicates that these three nations had the greatest approval rates. This indicates that there was a higher chance of approval for visa applications to these nations.

Switzerland and Latvia had the greatest approval rates, giving a positive response to 89.3 and 88.3 percent of petitions received, respectively, behind Iceland (97.8%). In 2023, the Swiss authorities received 603,000 visa applications, of which over 506,000 were approved.

Latvia is the third country with the highest acceptance rates, behind Italy (88%) and Luxembourg (87.3%), with 88.3% of the 19,000 petitions received being approved.

The list of the Schengen states where it is the easiest to obtain a Schengen visa is further concluded with Lithuania and Slovakia, who granted 87.2 and 87.1 per cent of applications received, respectively.

Applicants to German, Austrian and Greek visa application centres had a good chance of having their request approved since these countries had an approval rate that is higher than the average rate for the Schengen states – 84 per cent, compared to 85.7 (Germany and Austria) and 85.3 (Greece).

Malta Is Least Likely to Approve Your Schengen Visa in 2024

Malta approved around 20,000 visa requests out of a total of 33,000 in 2023. This means that 62 per cent of all visa applications were approved during this period, making Malta the toughest country to grant applicants a visa for the year.

Based on data by the EU Commission, Estonia follows second with an approval rate of 66.9 per cent, while Belgium is ranked third – with 73.5 per cent of visas being granted.

On top of these three countries that were least likely to say yes to Schengen visa applicants in 2023, those that applied for Schengen visas in Sweden, Denmark and Croatia also had lower chances of obtaining one. All these countries had lower approval rates than the EU average (84 per cent).