Indian citizens looking to explore employment or educational opportunities abroad and increasing globalisation has prompted many to migrate overseas.

According to a report by SchengenVisaInfo, Indians are also among the largest applicants for Schengen visas, with a total of 966,687 applications filed recently.

While some countries are generous, others can be more stringent and have more requirements, reflecting a refusal rate of 83.9 pc.

The report highlights five Schengen countries where Indian nationals have the highest chances of obtaining a visa in 2024.

5 Schengen visas Indian citizens can obtain the easiest

While Switzerland has received the highest number of visa applications,  19.61 pc of all requests filed by Indians, this country did not necessarily approve most requests. As the data reveals, these are the top five countries where Indians have the easiest to obtain a Schengen visa in 2024:

With a total of 2,904 visas approved and only 122 rejections, Iceland was most likely to grant Schengen visas to Indian nationals. The approval rate was 95.4 pc, meaning that almost all visa applications received a positive response.

However, Iceland was not among the countries that granted Multiple Entry Visas (MEVs) to Indians. Together with Finland, Spain and Portugal, Iceland had among the lowest issuance rates for MEVs, 18.29 pc.

Based on data, Germany granted 89.5 pc of visa requests filed by Indians. This ranks Germany second for the highest approval rates of Indian visa applicants. Indians filed 132,825 visa applications of which 118,819 were approved, while 13,779 were refused.

However, unlike Iceland, which had low MEV issuance rates, Germany has the highest chance to grant Indian nationals a multiple entry visa, 99.6 pc of approved visas were MEVs.

Switzerland has approved the highest number of visas for Indian applicants, a total of 166,919. The approval rates, however, stand at 88 pc. The number of MEVs issued by this country was 164,440, which is 98.51 pc of all visas issued for 2023.

According to the report, Luxembourg has not necessarily issued too many visas to Indian applicants, however, it was one of the countries most likely to approve an application.

Indians filed 3,090 Schengen visa requests to this country, 2,651 or 85.8 pc of which were approved while 312 were denied. MEV issuance was fairly low at  42.59 pc.

The statement adds that Belgium issued 20,582 visas to Indians in 2023, which is 85.8 pc of all requests filed. In addition to the high issuance rate, Belgium also granted a high number of MEVs, as they represented 71.9 pc of visas issued to Indians for the year.