The specialized website Visa Schengen Info has collected testimonies from Schengen visa applicants who denounce the "merciless" rejections they have recently suffered. According to the website, two countries in the zone are conspicuous for their high refusal rates: France and Spain.
In 2022, France rejected 408,876 applications and Spain rejected 227,712. However, these two countries also received the most visa applications and issued the most visas in 2022. They are followed by Germany and Italy.
Overall, the Schengen visa rejection rate was 8.2 percent in 2017 whereas by 2022 it had jumped to 17.9 percent, according to the platform, noting that this change has evolved over the years.
French refusals for African countries
The same website has previously provided other statistics about visa refusals by France and Spain. Schengen Visa Info reported that 85 percent of visa refusals in Morocco, for example, came from French and Spanish embassies.
Out of a total of more than 161,000 applications from African nations in 2022, France rejected almost a third, and Spain rejected a quarter of applicants, or almost 50,000 out of approximately 201,000.