EU Visa Issuance For Russian Nationals: Statistics By Country

The Head of the European Union’s Foreign Policy, Kara Kallas, has called for a complete ban of the EU issuing visas for Russian nationals, with a post on X stating, “Stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right.”

That position has been contradicted by the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, who stated on Sunday (September 14) that the EU was not able to issue such a ban, saying, “Visa issuance is the competence of the member states, so there is no possibility for the EU to have a complete ban on that.”

Apart from the somewhat embarrassing statement by Kallas, who appears to have overreached her actual capabilities, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Slovakia halted tourist visa issuance for Russians in 2022. Slovakia resumed issuing Schengen visas earlier this year, after previously restricting them to Russians with family ties, work needs, or diplomatic status.

According to the European Commission, Russian nationals filed more than 606,000 Schengen visa applications in 2024, up from around 520,000 in 2023. Around 7.5% of these, or about 45,450 were rejected.

A complete analysis of Schengen visas issued by EU members during 2024 is as follows:

An estimated 6.4 million Russian tourists travelled overseas during summer 2025, a 24.8% increase from last year, according to forecasts made by the Russian Association of Tour Operators (ATOR).