Travellers seeking a short-term visa that allows multiple entries into Schengen Area countries should consider applying for a German Schengen visa, as Germany offers the best chance of obtaining this type of visa. Despite being the second most sought-after Schengen Area destination, Germany maintains high rates of multiple-entry visa issuance. According to newly released Schengen Visa Statistics, 90.4% of visas issued by German consulates in 2023 were multiple-entry. This is only a slight decrease of 0.2 percentage points from 2022, when 90.6% of short-term visas issued by Germany allowed multiple entries into the Schengen Area.
Last year, Germany received 1,459,560 visa applications and approved 1,233,561 of them. Of the visas granted, 1,115,424 were multiple-entry. Aside from Germany, several other Schengen Area countries also have higher issuance rates of multiple-entry visas compared to the EU average, according to 2023 data.
Austria ranks second, although significantly behind Germany, with 75.7% of its issued visas being for multiple entries. In 2023, Austrian consulates received 229,613 Schengen visa applications and approved 194,273 of them, with 147,021 being multiple-entry visas. In 2022, Austria had a similar approval rate of 74.9% out of 125,275 visas granted, ranking fourth in that year.
In 2023, Italy ranked third for the highest share of multiple-entry visas (MEVs), granting them to 70.2% of applicants (680,794 out of 970,073).
The list continues as follows:
- Switzerland: 69.1% of 506,499 applications approved
- Greece: 66.1% of 521,825 applications approved
- Croatia: 62% of 29,785 visas granted
Conversely, Slovenia, which ranked second in 2022 with an 81.6% MEV issuance rate, and Estonia, ranked third with 81.3%, experienced significantly lower MEV issuance rates in 2023. In addition to having the highest share of multiple-entry visas issued, Germany also has a relatively low rejection rate.
In 2023, German visa authorities rejected only 14.3% of applications, which is below the Schengen average of 16%. This rate was even lower than in 2022, when Germany rejected 16.2% of applications, compared to the overall Schengen rejection rate of 17.9% that year.