Germany is the European country most likely to grant Schengen visas to Armenian citizens, while Italy is the most likely to reject, reveal data compiled by SchengenVisaInfo.com specifically for PanARMENIAN.Net.

In particular, Germany issued the biggest number of uniform Schengen visas to Armenian citizens in 2017, although Greece received and handled the highest number of visa applications in the reporting period.

Overall, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, France, Poland and the Czech Republic issued the biggest number of visas to Armenians last year.

15,183 Armenians applied for a uniform Schengen visa with the consulate of Greece, with 13,544 of them granted Schengen entries and less than 2,000 rejected, the platform cited statistics provided by the Migration and Home Affairs Office of the European Commission.

On the other hand, the number of uniform visa applications submitted to the German consulate totaled 14,942, out of which 13,773 were approved.

Italy grasped a higher number of applications for this type of visa too, yet, the scale of rejections was bigger. According to statistics, 11,662 visa applications were process by Italy, 9,450 of which received a positive response, while 2,212 were denied, the highest among seven countries.

Lithuania, meanwhile, received 10,152 applications and approved 8,898, France selected 4,482 out of the total 5,963 applications, Poland gave a positive response to 3,981 applications out of a total of 4,523, and the Czech Republic granted 3,113 visas for 3,746 applications.

In the overall number of visas issued by Germany, Multiple Entry Visas sought for by Armenian citizens accounted for 39.2%. Accordingly, 30.1% of visas issued by Lithuania were MEVs, followed by Italy (28.3%), Poland (20%), France (18.5), Greece (17.2%) and the Czech Republic (15.9%).

The fact that Germany was less restrictive on visa issuances to Armenian applicants is clear, given the lowest rate of uniform visa refusals. The number of applications rejected by the German consulate accounted for 7.8% of all applications made by Armenian citizens. By contrast, Italy had the highest rate of non-issuance of uniform visas - 19% of all the applications. The percentage of refusal for other countries is as follows: France – 17.9%, the Czech Republic – 16.8%, Lithuania – 12.0 %, Poland – 11.9%, Greece – 10.8%.