EU countries issued 10% more Schengen visas to Russians in 2025

European Union countries issued over 10% more Schengen visas to Russian nationals in 2025, with France being the main driver.

Source: European Pravda, citing Euractiv, a EU-focused news and analysis website

Details: Statistics show that Russian citizens submitted over 670,000 Schengen visa applications in 2025 – nearly 8% more than in 2024.

EU countries issued more than 620,000 visas to Russians in 2025, up 10.2% from 2024.

Of these, 477,000 were tourist visas. Visits to family and friends were the second most common category, followed by business trips.

France, Italy and Spain processed almost three-quarters of all Russian visa applications.

France not only issued the largest number of visas, but also increased the figure by more than 25% in 2025 compared with the previous year.

The issuing of visas to Russian nationals has also taken on a political dimension in Italy amid the recent controversy surrounding the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Correspondence between the organisers revealed attempts to bypass EU sanctions by using indirect models of participation in order to provide visa support letters for Russian artists.

The European Commission, however, insists that the number of Schengen visas issued to Russian citizens has gone down "significantly, compared to before Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine".

But this is not backed up by the available annual statistics. On the contrary, the figures for both 2024, with 575,000 visas, and 2025, with 632,000, are noticeably higher than the pre-war figure for 2021, which was under 520,000.

The refusal rate has increased, however. In 2021, only 3.2% of Russians who applied for a Schengen visa were turned down; in 2024 the figure was 7.4%, and in 2025 it was 6.3%.

Background:

• In late April, Latvia added three Russian nationals to its blacklist of people who are banned from entering the country, including former culture minister Mikhail Shvydkoi.
• It was also reported that Lithuania is considering introducing a five-year entry ban for artists who have performed in Russia or Belarus.

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