Schengen Visa Rejected: What to Do Next From India

If your Schengen visa was rejected, what you do next depends on which country signed the refusal. That holds for every Europe visa Indians apply for, because the short-stay visa for Europe is the Schengen visa. Since 1 July 2025, Germany no longer reviews its own visa refusals on request, so your options are a new application or a court. France gives you 30 days to appeal, in French, by post to Nantes. Every other country is required to state its appeal authority and time limit on the refusal letter itself. Read that letter first, then choose between appealing and reapplying, measured against the date of your trip.

Plenty of people are in the same position. In 2025, Schengen consulates in India received 1,153,748 short-stay visa applications and did not issue a visa on 181,111 of them. The grounds behind those refusals have their own post.

First, read the letter

Every Schengen refusal comes on the same standard form, set out in Annex VI of the Visa Code. It is written in the language of the country that decided and in one other official language of the EU (Article 32(2)).

The form lists the refusal grounds with a box beside each one. The box ticked on your letter is the most useful line you have. It tells you what the officer could not accept, and your next step has to answer it. What each ground means, and what usually triggers it, is explained in our post on rejection reasons.

Before you do anything else, note three things:

which country's consulate issued the letter,
the date you received it, because any appeal deadline is counted in days,
the section that explains how to appeal.

If you searched "visa reject hone ke baad kya kare", that is step one: read which box was ticked before you spend any more money.

Your right to appeal, and whose law decides it

Article 32(3) of the Visa Code gives every refused applicant the right to appeal. The same article says the appeal is brought against the Member State that took the final decision, under that country's national law. That country must also tell you the procedure to follow, in the way Annex VI sets out.

So there is no single "Schengen appeal". An appeal against a German refusal runs under German law, and one against a French refusal runs under French law. The deadline, the language, the address, and whether you must go to the administration before a court all differ by country. Advice that treats them as one process will be wrong for somebody.

Germany: no remonstration since 1 July 2025, so reapply any time or go to court

For years, an applicant refused by a German mission could file a remonstration, a written request asking the mission to look at its own decision again. The Federal Foreign Office ran a pilot without it from 1 June 2023, then abolished the procedure worldwide from 1 July 2025, for Schengen and national visas alike.

The German Missions in India say two things remain:

You can submit a new visa application at any time after a refusal.
Your right to judicial review is not limited by the change.

For most people refused by Germany, that makes a new, stronger application the practical route. Going to court is a formal legal step under German law. The missions' page does not name the court or a deadline, so rely on the appeal information in your own refusal notice, and on a lawyer qualified in German law, not on general advice.

If anyone offers to "file a remonstration" for a German refusal, do not pay them. The procedure no longer exists.

France: the mandatory 30-day prior appeal, and why the CRRV is not your route

France handles short-stay refusals differently. For a short-stay visa refused from 1 January 2023, France-Visas sets out one route:

Deadline: within 30 days.
Form: a written, reasoned prior appeal, in French, signed by you.
Delivery: by post to the Deputy Director of Visas, BP 83609, 44036 Nantes Cedex 01.
Status: mandatory. You cannot take a French short-stay refusal to the administrative judge without filing this appeal first.

You may read elsewhere about the CRRV, the commission that hears appeals against visa refusals. Since 2023 it handles long-stay visas only. Some older pages still send short-stay appeals there. A short-stay appeal addressed to the CRRV is addressed to the wrong authority.

Thirty days is not long when the letter has to be in French and go by post from India. If you decide to appeal a French refusal, start the day the letter arrives.

Every other country: the deadline and the route are on your letter

For the other Schengen countries, do not work from a blog post, this one included. Deadlines, languages and addresses vary between countries, and they change.

Article 32(3) obliges each country to give you its appeal procedure through the Annex VI form, which makes your letter the primary source. The form requires each country to state the national law, the authority you can appeal to, and the time limit. Look for that part of your letter. If it is unclear, write to the consulate that decided and ask. The visa application centre only collects your file; it does not decide appeals.

Here is what is verified for Germany and France, next to everyone else:

	Germany	France	Any other Schengen country
Review by the administration	Abolished from 1 July 2025	Mandatory prior appeal, Nantes	As stated on your letter
Time limit	No review to file	30 days	As stated on your letter
Language and form	Not applicable	In French, reasoned, signed, by post	As stated on your letter
Court	Judicial review not limited	Only after the prior appeal	As stated on your letter
New application	Any time	A separate route	A separate route

Schengen visa rejected, what to do: appeal or reapply?

An appeal argues that the decision was wrong on the file you submitted. A new application puts in a better file. Choose the one that matches what went wrong.

What happened	Usually points to
A document was missing, weak or unclear	Reapplying with the gap closed
Your funds, ties or bookings did not convince	Reapplying with stronger evidence
The consulate misread something that was clearly in your file	Considering an appeal
The ticked ground contradicts documents you actually submitted	Considering an appeal

Then look at the calendar. A consulate has 15 calendar days to decide a new application, and that can be extended to 45 in individual cases (Article 23). You can lodge up to six months before the trip and, as a rule, no later than 15 calendar days before it (Article 9). If your dates are fixed and close, count backwards: preparation, an appointment, then up to 45 days for a decision. An appeal follows its own national timetable, and nothing says it will finish before your flight.

If you have been refused twice, the same test applies with more weight. If the same box was ticked both times, the second file did not answer the first refusal. Do not file a third time until you can point to what is different.

What a second application costs

A new application is new in every sense, including the fee. The visa fee is not refunded when a visa is refused. Article 16(7) allows a refund in only two narrow cases, where the consulate is not competent or the application is inadmissible, and a refusal is neither. The application centre's service charge is a separate payment on top, so read the provider's refund terms before you pay it.

Item	Amount	Basis
Visa fee, adult	EUR 90	Visa Code Art. 16
Visa fee, child aged 6 to under 12	EUR 45	Visa Code Art. 16
Visa fee, child under 6	Nil	Visa Code Art. 16
Service provider fee, ceiling	EUR 45 (half the visa fee)	Visa Code Art. 17(4)
Example: Germany, adult	INR 10,100 visa fee (from 27 August 2026), plus the VFS service charge	German Missions in India fee page

At the ECB reference rate for 11 September 2026 (1 EUR = 110.7675 INR), EUR 90 comes to about INR 9,969. Consulates charge in rupees at their own rates, so what you pay will differ. Germany's INR 10,100, for example, follows the German Consulate General Mumbai's exchange rate, and older pages elsewhere may still show an earlier figure. Check the consulate's own fee page on the day you pay.

Two things cost nothing. VFS Global states that appointments are free of cost and can be booked only on its own website, so book only on your provider's official site. Some providers ask you to prepay their service charge when you book; that is a fee for their service, not a price for the slot. Value-added services such as couriers or lounges are optional, and buying them does not change who decides your application: the consulate does.

You still apply to the same country

A refusal does not change which country is responsible for your file. Article 5 of the Visa Code assigns the application to your trip's sole or main destination, judged by length of stay or purpose, and the same rule applies the second time. Same places, same nights: same country. The rule is explained in which country to apply to.

Changing your stated itinerary to reach a different country's consulate is misrepresentation. If your plans genuinely change, the new trip decides where you apply, and it has to be the trip you actually take.

Fix the ticked ground before you file again

A new application that repeats the old one tends to get the same answer. Go back to the ticked box and close it with evidence.

Use the harmonised document list for India, C(2025) 4379, as your baseline. Among other things, it asks for three months of bank statements stamped and signed by the bank, ITR acknowledgments for the last two assessment years, and a cover letter giving your purpose, duration, companions, transport and accommodation. Our document checklist goes through it item by item.
Make the cover letter do its job. It is the natural place to say, briefly and accurately, what has changed since the refusal.
Check your insurance against Article 15: at least EUR 30,000, valid in every member state, covering the whole stay.
Keep your bookings genuine. Every reservation you submit must be real; a fabricated one is misrepresentation.

For later: the multiple-entry cascade for Indian applicants counts only visas you obtained and lawfully used, so a refusal is not one of them. How the 2-year and 5-year visas work once you are travelling again is covered separately.

Before you pay the fee a second time, a free readiness check shows which country is responsible for your trip and what your file is still missing. It does not decide anything and cannot guarantee a visa; a consular officer decides.

Frequently asked questions

When can I apply again after my Schengen visa is rejected?

The Visa Code sets no waiting period between a refusal and a new application, and Germany states that you can apply again at any time. What should decide your timing is whether you have fixed the ground that was ticked, and whether your trip date still leaves time for a decision, which can take up to 45 days.

How do I appeal a Schengen visa refusal from India?

You appeal against the country that refused you, under its own law (Visa Code Article 32(3)). For France, that means a reasoned, signed prior appeal in French, sent by post to the Deputy Director of Visas in Nantes within 30 days. Germany no longer offers remonstration; you can reapply at any time, or seek judicial review in court. For any other country, follow the appeal information on your refusal letter.

Can I still ask Germany to reconsider a visa refusal?

No. Germany abolished the remonstration procedure worldwide from 1 July 2025. You can submit a new application at any time, and your right to judicial review is unaffected.

Will I get my visa fee back if my Schengen visa is refused?

No. The EUR 90 visa fee is not refunded on refusal, and the service provider's charge is a separate payment governed by its own refund terms. A second application means paying the fees again.

Can I apply to a different Schengen country after a rejection?

Only if your trip genuinely changes. The main-destination rule in Article 5 decides the responsible country, so the same trip goes back to the same country. Changing your stated plans to reach a different one is misrepresentation.

If you are about to file again, run the free readiness check first. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing.