Easiest Schengen Visa From Dubai: Refusal Rates by Consulate (2024 EU Data)

At the Dubai and Abu Dhabi consulates in 2024, Schengen refusal rates ran from 6.2% to 65.7%. Latvia in Abu Dhabi holds the lowest refusal percentage. Estonia in Abu Dhabi holds the highest. Among consulates people actually use, Italy’s Dubai post refused just 15.4%, on 16,148 applications. That is the lowest of any busy UAE consulate. But the lowest number is not your answer. Each rate below pools every applicant at that consulate. Applying to a country you are not visiting is visa shopping, and consulates refuse it on that ground.

The honest answer: 'easiest' means lowest refusal rate — here is the dated table

Italy’s Dubai consulate posted the lowest refusal rate of any high-traffic UAE consulate in 2024: 15.4% on 16,148 short-stay applications, per European Commission data. Latvia in Abu Dhabi was lower at 6.2%, but on only 451 applications. Greece and Spain sit close behind Italy on real volume. Greece refused 17.1%. Spain refused 18.3%.

These are the official Schengen visa statistics the European Commission publishes each year. Compare France vs Spain vs Italy vs Greece, and the four busiest consulates cluster tightly, between 15.4% and 18.9%. Every post in the table applies the same EU Visa Code. Uniform rules, different practice: the spread still runs 6.2% to 65.7%.

The figure below is the EU’s own “not issued” rate. It counts short-stay (type C) visas refused, as a share of decisions taken, for 2024. Read it as a rejection rate by consulate, ranked from most to least likely to say yes.

*Romania and Bulgaria joined Schengen for air and sea borders on 31 March 2024. Their 2024 figures cover part of the year only. France runs its UAE visas from Abu Dhabi. Germany and the Netherlands run theirs from Dubai. Italy runs both. You apply to the consulate that serves your emirate, so the city is rarely a free choice.

Rejection rate vs slot availability: the two 'easy' axes people confuse

Denmark’s Dubai consulate refused 44.6% in 2024 and still had open slots when a reader checked on 8 June 2026. Refusal rate and appointment availability are two different questions. Often the answer to one reverses the other. A free appointment is not an easy visa.

That reader, posting on r/SchengenVisa, caught both axes in one line. They had found Denmark slots but wanted France, Italy or Spain: “Denmark is a bit out of the way and I hear they are very strict.” The official file agrees with the hunch. Denmark refused 44.6% of its Dubai decisions in 2024, against 15.4% at Italy in Dubai. That gap is consulate strictness, not bad luck.

Appointment availability by country swings week to week. It peaks between May and July. Refusal rate is an annual number. Chase whichever country has a slot, and you may land at a strict, slow consulate. Which centres actually have slots sits on the Schengen appointments hub. How long each consulate takes to decide sits on our processing-time page.

The visa-shopping trap: why applying to the 'easy' country you are not visiting backfires

Italy’s 15.4% is worthless to you if you are flying to Belgium. Applying to a low-refusal country you are not visiting is visa shopping, and consulates refuse it. The rule that fixes your consulate is one line. Apply where you will spend the most nights. On a tie, apply to your country of first entry. Pick by refusal rate or open slot instead, and the mismatch shows on your file.

One applicant took the only open slot, the Netherlands, for a trip built around her Belgian partner. She filed on her own finances. The Netherlands refused her on 3 June 2026. Her itinerary and her consulate did not match.

Strength does not buy you out of that mismatch. A UAE resident of nine years wrote on 10 May 2026 that Sweden refused him. He had USD 100,000 in the bank, 20-plus countries visited, and valid US, UK and Canada visas. The consulate assumed he was visa shopping. It also flagged a “template like” itinerary he had formatted with ChatGPT. Sweden’s Abu Dhabi post refused 41.2% in 2024. That is the second-highest of any busy UAE consulate. Consulates now read AI-written itineraries and cover letters as a refusal signal. A document that looks machine-made works against you. The main-destination rule is worked through on the Schengen pillar. The exact refusal ground sits on insufficient-intention-to-leave refusals.

Multi-entry and longer validity: which consulates issue them more readily

Of the German visas issued in Dubai in 2024, 99.5% were multiple-entry. Belgium in Abu Dhabi ran 87.1%. Austria ran 76.9%. At the other end, Sweden issued multi-entry on just 21.8%. For a multi-entry visa the consulate matters as much as your file. This multi-entry issuance rate is the share of issued visas that allow more than one trip.

Read those shares against the refusal column. One pick stands out. Belgium pairs a gettable 18.0% refusal rate with an 87.1% multi-entry share. It is a strong route for someone who plans to return. Germany is different. It pairs a near-total 99.5% multi-entry share with a 27.0% refusal rate. It is harder to get, but almost always multi-entry once granted.

Two cautions hold. The shares cover visas that were issued, not your odds of getting one. First-time applicants often receive a single-entry sticker anyway. Longer validity tends to arrive on a later application. Treat the multi-entry column as the consulate’s habit, not a promise.

Reading the numbers as a UAE resident (they are consulate-wide, not UAE-specific)

Across all UAE consulates in 2024, 61,738 of 257,847 decided applications were refused. That is 23.9%, against a 14.8% Schengen-wide rate for the same year. Every rate in the table is consulate-wide. It pools all nationalities and every profile that applied in Dubai or Abu Dhabi that year. Your file is not the average file.

The UAE pool refuses at roughly 1.6 times the global rate. It is dominated by first-time and repeat expat applicants. No single profile carries a fixed number. The table cannot tell you your own first-time applicant odds. A nine-year resident with US, UK and Canada visas and a Golden Visa sits in the same published percentage as a first-timer. The EU does not split the rate by residence tier. So a Golden Visa moves your ties evidence, not the consulate’s headline figure. That answers the reader who asked in June 2026 whether a Golden Visa changes anything. Read the column as an approval rate per country if you prefer — inverted, it is the same consulate-wide number.

One date governs all of this. 2024 is the most recent year the European Commission has published per consulate. The Schengen-wide 2025 total came out on 28 May 2026, at 14.6% overall. But the 2025 per-consulate breakdown is not out yet. When it lands, we rebuild this table from it.

Questions people ask about the easiest Schengen visa from Dubai

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Sources cited only — expert review pending. For individualized advice, consult a licensed immigration professional.