(FRANCE) — France increased the number of visas it issued in 2024 from a year earlier, with Moroccans ranking among the top recipients of French short-stay visas as demand for travel rebounded and refusal dynamics shifted.
The French Ministry of the Interior published the annual figures in a report released on June 26, 2025. The totals point to heavy demand for travel to France and the Schengen area, and to tighter competition for appointments and closer document checks in high-volume corridors.
Overall interpretation of the 2024 pattern
Applicants can draw two conclusions from the 2024 pattern at the same time. France processed enough additional demand to raise the absolute number of refusals, while the refusal rate eased slightly because issuances rose faster than denials.
Applications measure demand, not approvals. Issuances count the visas actually granted, and denials capture refusals, which can rise in absolute terms simply because more people apply, even if the share refused edges down.
The refusal rate is the percentage of decisions that end in refusal. A rate can fall even when denials rise, if the number of granted visas grows more quickly than the number of refused cases. That distinction matters for applicants reading headlines about refusals.
Short-stay vs long-stay dynamics
Short-stay visas drove most of the rebound. Long-stay volumes moved less, and dipped slightly, which changes what many applicants should infer about where capacity and scrutiny concentrate.
The report links the 2024 rebound chiefly to short-stay travel. Tourism and business grew faster than the overall total, a sign that consulates dealt with a higher share of travel-purpose files that often rely on itinerary logic, accommodation proof, and funding evidence rather than longer-term integration criteria.
Long-stay visas formed a smaller slice of the overall picture and moved in the opposite direction in 2024. A slight decline does not automatically mean France “closed” the door, but it does suggest that the growth story was not evenly shared across all categories.
What the nationality rankings show
For Moroccans, the headline message is volume. Morocco sat among the highest recipients of French short-stay visas, and the ranking matters less as a trophy than as a signal of how crowded the application pipeline is.
Morocco’s placement, second behind China among nationalities granted the most French short-stay visas, illustrates that point. Large outbound travel markets can face crowded scheduling, heavier front-end screening by service providers, and tighter expectations that applicants explain their trip clearly and support it with coherent evidence.
The ministry figures listed several other countries among top nationalities for short-stay visas, reflecting established travel links, business ties, and family connections with France.
- China (leader)
- Algeria
- India
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Türkiye
- Tunisia
- Lebanon
- Philippines
Applicants should treat those rankings as a volume indicator, not as a predictor of individual outcomes. A high-ranking nationality can include many well-documented applications and still include a large number of refusals, especially where demand concentrates in a few consular cities.
North Africa pattern and Morocco-specific data
The ministry figures point to a North Africa pattern that blends heavy demand with higher scrutiny. Applications from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia represented a disproportionate share of both approvals and refusals, the report said.
Within Morocco, the report highlighted Casablanca as a high-volume post, with about 110,000 applications and about a 16% refusal rate. That snapshot illustrates how a single consulate can handle enough cases that even a moderate refusal rate still produces many refusals in absolute terms.
More broadly, Morocco filed 606,800 Schengen applications overall, with a 20.1% refusal rate and 115,774 denials. Numbers at that scale can shape the applicant experience in small ways, such as fewer appointment slots in peak months and stronger emphasis on consistent supporting documents.
Refusal themes and how consulates assess files
The report’s refusal themes underline what consular officers look for in short-stay cases. Common rejection reasons included incomplete documents and doubts about intent to leave the Schengen Area.
- Incomplete documents (missing bank statements, unclear employment letters, absent proof of accommodation, insurance or itinerary gaps)
- “Doubts about intent to leave” — which often turns on ties and credibility rather than a single document
Officers typically weigh whether the applicant’s work situation, income, family responsibilities, previous travel, and stated itinerary add up to a plausible short visit. Applicants often focus heavily on bookings, but consistency across the file tends to carry more weight than any one reservation.
Financial evidence can work in both directions. Strong balances help, but so does an explanation that aligns income with spending and travel costs with the itinerary, especially when bank activity changes suddenly before an application.
Practical advice for applicants
For short-stay applicants, the practical lesson from 2024 remains straightforward: in a high-demand year, preparation matters because many refusals stem from issues consulates can identify quickly—missing documents, unclear purpose, and doubts about returning home after the trip.
A refusal does not necessarily end the process, but the report’s themes imply what matters if someone tries again. Applicants typically need to read the refusal reasons carefully and correct the specific weaknesses, strengthening the evidence rather than simply submitting the same story twice.
Many people competing for travel appointments in 2024 likely competed inside the same short-stay channel, which raises the importance of timing and document completeness. Consulate-by-consulate variation can further influence outcomes because staffing, local fraud patterns, and workload differ even when legal standards remain the same.
Early 2025 signals and long-stay category notes
Questions about 2025 trends remained partly unanswered in the same dataset. No official 2025 full-year data was available as of late 2025 reports, and the report framed early 2025 signals as preliminary indicators rather than confirmed annual totals.
Early indicators suggested stabilization in long-stay visas but growth in skilled worker and student categories, including a reported +22.3% increase in initial residence permits. Such category shifts can affect appointment availability because consulates and prefectures may face different workloads depending on the mix of long-stay entrants.
Student visas led issuances at 109,300, followed by family reunification at 90,600. That ordering suggests that even in a year when long-stay volumes softened overall, education and family routes remained major channels for longer-term entry.
Applicants considering longer stays should separate that information from short-stay dynamics. A student or family file relies on different core proofs than a tourist file, and the data presented does not show that success rates or refusal reasons move in the same way across categories.
Final takeaway
For Moroccans applying for short-stay visas to France, the 2024 numbers describe a busy, competitive channel. The strongest files are the ones that make the trip make sense on paper, from purpose and timing to funding and ties, in a system processing millions of decisions a year.
