Governments around the world often say visa fees go into the work they do to verify applications. However, for African countries such as Senegal and Nigeria, it feels like a rip-off.

New data shows that people from African countries have a lower chance of getting visas to the Schengen region in the European Union, and Canada more than any other nationality. Nigeria and Senegal rank among African nations with the highest visa refusal rates globally, frequently facing average denial rates of 45.9 percent for Schengen visas and more than 85 percent for Canadian temporary resident visas.

The findings by LAGO Collective, a London-based research organisation, and based on European Commission data from across the 27 European Union members in 2025, show that rejected short-stay visitor visa applications amounted to $179.1 million (€157.1million), up from $165.6million (€145.1million) in 2024 and $148.3million (€130million) in 2023.

The Schengen visa fee, costing $102.6 (€90) as of 2026, is non-refundable regardless of the outcome, so every rejected application represents money permanently lost. The visa allows holders to travel within most of the EU in the Schengen zone with restrictions on moving in and out of the zone.

The data shows Africans lost an estimated $67.5 million in non-refundable fees to rejected applications in 2024 alone. Nigerian applicants alone forfeited more than $5.1 million in a single year. Kenya forfeited more than $1.8 million over a similar period.

These fees have seen some call them as ‘reverse remittances’, comparable to what diaspora communities send to Africa or the official development assistance from the West. It has been a source of anger across many developing countries, particularly in Africa, which accounted for 42 percent of the lost application fees despite the continent being responsible for 24 percent of applicants. Some countries do pay back.

For example, after the US imposed a $10,000 visa bond on Malians, Bamako retaliated by imposing a similar bond on Americans. US rescinded the decision. The Sahelian countries also impose tit-for-tat visa conditions on Europeans. These countries, however, have the weakest passports in the world so the game is unbalanced. Most of the time, applicants are blamed for holding a risky passport or providing shady information, more than the denials being routine.

Henriette Geiger, the EU Head of Delegation in Kenya, said African countries should work to improve the power and value of their passports.“I don’t think that (refund) will ever happen because no country in the world refunds a negative reply, as the work has to be done. So, you have to put in your application. It has to be analysed and examined; a decision has to be reached. That process costs multiple times what the application fee is,” said Geiger in an interview with The East African.“I do think Kenya and other countries can do a lot to enhance the value of their passports. You see the difference within Africa in terms of the risk of not getting a visa if you compare different countries, and Kenya is still in a very good category in terms of risk.”The EU itself doesn’t give visas. Individual member states process applications even though a Schengen visa issued by one is valid in another. Over the past decade, the costs have nearly doubled as embassies in Africa process visas from one location or employ agencies to process applications. Some of the agencies charge separate fees on top of what the embassy charges.

There are also extra fees for passport delivery, priority, text message alerts and photocopying services. Across 2023, 2024 and 2025, the cumulative cost to rejected applicants reached $496.6 million (€432 million).“Comoros, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Ghana had the highest rejection rates for EU visas in 2024, above 45 percent in each case,” said Marta Foresti, LAGO Collective’s founder.

But African countries that experienced the highest year-on-year increases in the cost of rejected visas in 2024 were Eritrea, Botswana and DR Congo, according to LAGO Collective. The organisation’s analysis concluded that rejected visas are disproportionately more expensive for low- and middle-income countries: the lower a country’s GDP per capita, the higher its Schengen visa rejection rate. LAGO Collective described the Schengen application process as a “visa regime that functions as a tax on tourism, business, trade and aspirations.”“The financial cost of rejected visas is just staggering. You can think of the costs of rejected visas as ‘reverse remittances’—money flowing from poor to rich countries—which we rarely hear about,” said Foresti. The highest rejection rates are in Bangladesh (54.5 percent), Senegal (51.9 percent), Nigeria (47.8 percent), Pakistan (46 percent) and Angola (45.4 percent). Angola’s rejection costs rose by 177 percent, from $1.14m in 2024 to $3.3m, the steepest increase of any country in the dataset.

According to the EU, most visas are rejected because the purpose and conditions of stay are not justified, or because applicants fail to provide a specific, documented itinerary—including bookings, meeting letters or event registration, among other requirements. Visas are also rejected because of inadequate travel insurance or accommodation, insufficient proof of means of subsistence, and doubts that applicants will leave before the visa expires because of weak ties to their home countries.

However, there is a distinct trend: the lower the GDP per capita of an African applicant’s home country, the higher the visa rejection rate. Africa and Asia together account for 90 percent of the total cost of visa rejections, at around $159.5 million. One-third of the global total, around $62.6 million, comes from just four countries: Turkey, Algeria, India and Morocco. For these countries, the sheer volume of applications drives the cost.

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