Key points
- Schengen consulates in Pakistan received 89,270 short-stay visa applications in 2025 and did not issue a visa in 40,026 cases — a not-issued rate of 45.9% in the European Commission's own table, against a worldwide refusal rate of 14.6%.
- "Not issued" is wider than "refused": the Commission's definition also covers examinations that were discontinued, and the rate is calculated only on applications that received a decision.
- The figures count applications by the country where they were lodged, not by the applicant's nationality — a Pakistani applying in Dubai is counted under the Emirates, not Pakistan.
- The grounds for refusing a visa are fixed in the EU's Visa Code, every refusal must state its reason and how to appeal — and no agent can guarantee anyone a visa.
Ask anyone who has applied for a Schengen visa from Pakistan and you will hear that refusal feels like the default. The European Union's own statistics now put a number on that impression. Under Article 46 of the Visa Code, every Schengen state reports its consulates' results to the European Commission, which publishes them country by country. For the consulates located in Pakistan, the 2025 table records 89,270 applications for short-stay visas. Of the applications that were decided, 45.9% ended with no visa issued — the Commission's own "not issued" rate for Pakistan, and one of the starkest figures in the worldwide table. Worldwide, consulates received more than 12 million applications in 2025 and the Commission puts the global refusal rate at 14.6%.
What these figures count — and what they do not
The first caution is the denominator. The Commission's consulate statistics are organised by the country from which the applications were made — that is, by where the consulate sits — not by the nationality of the person applying. The Pakistan row therefore covers every application lodged at Schengen consulates in Pakistan, whatever passport the applicant held; a Pakistani citizen who applies in Dubai or London is counted under the Emirates or the United Kingdom instead. Read the figures as a report on consulates in Pakistan, not as a verdict on Pakistani travellers alone.
The second caution is about decisions. The Commission records 89,270 applications lodged in Pakistan during 2025 and 87,247 outcomes across the categories shown below. The difference of 2,023 should not automatically be read as applications still pending: applications received and decisions recorded within a single calendar year do not necessarily belong to the same group of cases. The outcomes break down as follows: consulates issued 45,970 ordinary uniform visas — 18,771 of them multiple-entry — and a further 1,251 visas with limited territorial validity, which allow travel only to the states named on the sticker. In 40,026 cases, no visa was issued. The 45.9% rate is the share of decided cases that ended that way, calculated by the Commission's own table.
"Not issued" is not a synonym for "refused"
The wording matters, because the two terms are often used interchangeably and they are not the same. The Commission's metadata for this dataset states that "not issued" covers refused visas and applications where the examination was discontinued — for example when an applicant does not pursue the case or it is closed without a decision on the merits. So the 40,026 is not a count of 40,026 refusals; it is every decided case that ended without a visa, refusals included. That is also why the Commission's table calls Pakistan's 45.9% a not-issued rate, while its worldwide headline figure is published as a refusal rate of 14.6% — the two numbers describe the same broad reality, the failure of an application to produce a visa, measured with slightly different edges. Strictly, they are not like-for-like measures: the 45.9% counts every decided case that ended without a visa, discontinued examinations included, while the 14.6% is the worldwide refusal rate as the Commission publishes it.
One more number circulates in press coverage and is worth reconciling rather than repeating blindly: 40,199 applications not issued. That figure includes airport transit visas; for ordinary uniform visas — the short-stay visas this article is about — the Commission's table gives 40,026, and its matching application total is 89,270, not the 89,525 that includes transit applications.
The key figures
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Applications lodged in Pakistan, 2025 | 89,270 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Uniform visas issued | 45,970 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| …of which multiple-entry | 18,771 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Limited-territorial-validity visas issued | 1,251 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Applications not issued | 40,026 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Not-issued rate (decided cases) | 45.9% | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Difference between applications lodged and outcomes recorded | 2,023 | European Commission consulate statistics |
| Worldwide refusal rate, 2025 | 14.6% | European Commission |
Why a consulate can refuse — the grounds in the Visa Code
A refusal is never supposed to be a shrug. Under the Visa Code, a consulate that refuses a visa must notify the applicant on a standard form, stating the ground and explaining how to appeal. The grounds themselves are fixed in Article 32 of the Code and the standard form in its Annex VI, and they cluster into a few themes. The stay: justification for the purpose and conditions of the trip was not provided, the information submitted about it was not reliable, or the applicant's intention to leave the Schengen area before the visa expires could not be established. The means: proof of sufficient money for the stay and the return journey was not provided. The paperwork: a false or forged travel document was presented, or proof of adequate travel medical insurance was missing. The record: an alert in the Schengen Information System, a judgment that the applicant is a threat to public policy, security or health, or a stay that would breach the 90-days-in-180 rule.
What nobody can honestly tell you is which of these grounds drives the Pakistan figures. The Commission publishes outcomes by consulate, not reasons; there is no official breakdown of the 40,026 by ground. Claims that one reason dominates — whether made by agents, forums or social media — go beyond what the published data supports. What the data does tell an applicant is more basic: the grounds are knowable in advance, and most of them turn on evidence the applicant supplies.
What an applicant can control
Some of this process is fixed, and some of it is genuinely in the applicant's hands. The consulate is chosen by rule, not by shopping around: you apply to the country that is your main destination — where you will spend the longest time — or, for a trip split evenly, the first country you enter. And as a general rule, the application goes to the consulate with territorial responsibility for the country where you are legally resident: you use the consulates where you live, not whichever consulate in the world has the shortest queue. Many consulates in Pakistan take in applications through external service centres; a service fee charged there is normal and official, but the centre only collects the file — the decision belongs to the consulate alone. The Commission's guidance lists what a complete file contains: a valid passport, the application form, travel medical insurance covering emergency care, hospitalisation and repatriation, supporting documents on the purpose of the stay, evidence of financial means and accommodation, and evidence of your intention to return home afterwards. Consistency is the thread that runs through the refusal grounds: dates, bookings, finances and stated purpose that agree with each other are what "reliable information" means in practice.
Timing and cost are set by the same rules everywhere. Applications can be lodged from six months before the trip and must be lodged at least 15 days before it; the normal processing time is 15 days, extendable to 45 where a closer examination is needed. The visa fee is €90 for adults and €45 for children aged six to twelve, on top of any service-centre fee. And one warning that follows directly from how the system works: no agent, consultant or intermediary can guarantee a visa, because no such channel exists — an agent can help you assemble paperwork, but the decision is made by a consular officer applying the Visa Code, and a paid promise of success buys nothing the rules recognise.
Finally, one distinction travellers mix up: none of this is ETIAS. Pakistan is not a visa-free country for Schengen travel, so its travellers apply for a visa as described here; ETIAS is a separate, still-unlaunched authorisation that will apply only to people who can already travel visa-free.
Updates & corrections
Published 30 October 2026.
Correction made 30 October 2026: the explanation of the 2,023 difference between applications lodged and outcomes recorded was corrected following a post-publication review. Those cases should not automatically be read as applications still pending, because applications received and decisions recorded within a calendar year do not necessarily belong to the same group of cases.
Sources
- European Commission (Migration and Home Affairs), "Short-stay visas issued by Schengen countries" — the consulate statistics index: the 2025 data can be viewed by the country from which the applications were made (by consulate): home-affairs.ec.europa.eu
- European Commission, "Visa statistics for consulates — 2025" (dataset file) — the official totals row for Pakistan: 89,270 uniform-visa applications lodged, 45,970 uniform visas issued (18,771 multiple-entry), 1,251 limited-territorial-validity visas issued, 40,026 not issued, not-issued rate 45.9%: home-affairs.ec.europa.eu (dataset)
- European Commission, "Visa statistics — Quality and metadata reporting" — the statistics are disaggregated by the country where the application is made and by the consulate that processes it; "not issued" includes refused visas and applications whose examination was discontinued: home-affairs.ec.europa.eu (metadata)
- European Commission, "Schengen short-stay visa applications rise in 2025 but remain below pre-pandemic levels", news item, 28 May 2026 — more than 12 million applications received worldwide in 2025, over 10 million visas issued, and a global refusal rate of 14.6%: home-affairs.ec.europa.eu
- European Commission, "Applying for a Schengen visa" — apply at the consulate of the main destination; applications from six months before travel and at least 15 days before; supporting documents on purpose, means, accommodation and intention to return, plus travel medical insurance; as a general rule, apply at the consulate with territorial responsibility for the country of legal residence; fee €90 for adults and €45 for children aged six to twelve, with an additional fee possible at visa service centres; normal processing 15 days, extendable to 45; a refusal states its reasons and how to appeal: home-affairs.ec.europa.eu
- Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 (the Visa Code), Article 32 and the standard form for notifying refusal in Annex VI — the grounds on which a visa is refused, including purpose and conditions not justified, information not reliable, intention to leave not established, insufficient means, and missing travel medical insurance: eeas.europa.eu (standard form, PDF)