The majority of applicants came from China, Russia and Türkiye, and as a result, these three countries of origin received most visas. However, in terms of visa approval rates, indicating the proportion of visas issued compared to the number of applications made, the countries of origin for most visas approved are as follows:

Belarus

Applicants from Belarus were granted most Schengen visas by Italian authorities in 2023. Belarusians filed 40,260 applications, and 40,175 of those or 99.79 per cent were approved. On the contrary, the number of visas denied was evidently low, with 82 applications receiving a negative decision.

In addition to the high approval rates, Belarusians had also been issued a considerably large number of multiple entry visas (MEVs) – a total of 34,316, which indicates that 85.4 per cent of visas issued were MEVs.

On the other hand, the top destinations for Belarusian applicants to file their visa applications in 2023 were Germany, which received 31.8 per cent of all applications, followed by Italy (24.5 per cent) and Poland (21.6 per cent).

Zimbabwe

Italian authorities approved 98.95 per cent of visa applications filed by nationals from Zimbabwe. To put this claim into numbers, Italians received 1,046 visa applications from Zimbabwe in 2023; 1,035 of those were approved, and a total of ten applications were rejected.

In addition, the number of MEVs issued to Zimbabweans reached 729, revealing that 70.43 per cent of approved visas were multiple-entry.

France and Germany are the most sought-after countries for Schengen visas by Zimbabweans, while Italy ranks third.

Indonesia

As data reveals, Italy is not a popular destination for Indonesian nationals to file their visas. However, Italy is most definitely one of the countries that is more likely to grant Indonesian visas.

In 2023, Italy approved 98.62 per cent of visa applications filed by Indonesian nationals, resulting in 5,429 approved visas and 75 rejected applications.

Italy, together with Austria and Czechia, which, respectively, approved 99.4 and 98.7 per cent of visa applications filed by Indonesians, represent the three Schengen states that approved most visas for this nationality.