Schengen Visa Processing Time Tracker

It's the latest application date for which about 70% of a typical day's passports have been dispatched. It shows how far the embassy has got with most applications. It isn't a cutoff: some people who applied on or before that date are still waiting, and a few who applied later already have their passports.

Usually not. Each day's applications go out over several weeks, not all at once. Files that need extra checks, extra documents or a decision from the home country take longer, and the rest of the day's passports don't wait for them. Open your city's page and tap your application date: the Boxes view shows which serial numbers from your day have been dispatched, so you can see whether yours is one of only a few still waiting or one of many.

Embassies don't work strictly in date order. On most days the passports that go out come from two or three application dates, plus a few from much later dates. A later date moving doesn't mean yours was skipped. If most of your own date is still Not seen yet, the embassy simply hasn't finished your day.

Each box is one application, numbered by the 4 digits after the date in the VFS reference (NLDDEL210926005601 is number 56). Green means at least one passport on it has been dispatched. "Not seen yet" is a number below the highest one dispatched that we haven't seen: that application may still be with the embassy, collected in person, withdrawn, or the number may never have been used. "Possible on a busy day" (dashed) is a number above the highest one seen, up to how many applications the centre takes on a busy day, so it may not exist at all.

No. VFS returns every passport by courier once the embassy has decided, whether the visa was issued or refused, so a dispatch only tells you the decision is made. You'll know which when you open the envelope.

EES is the EU's Entry/Exit System; its "check how long you can stay" tool on travel-europe.europa.eu shows OK once a visa covering your dates is on record. Many applicants see it turn OK a day or two before VFS or the courier shows anything. Not OK on its own doesn't mean refused: applicants here have received approved visas while EES still showed Not OK, and others saw it turn OK only the day after their passport was dispatched. Check with dates inside your planned trip, and wait for the passport: the decision is in it.

The Schengen Visa Code asks embassies to decide within 15 calendar days of a complete application, and allows up to 45 days in individual cases. Calendar days include weekends and holidays. In busy months many embassies in India take well past 15 days for most applicants, which is why this site shows what they're actually doing rather than the rule.

Applicants here have moved their flights by a week or two, or asked VFS to return the passport by submitting a withdrawal request; people reported getting it back in 2 to 5 days. A withdrawal ends that application, so it's for when you need the passport for something else. Whether a visa is still issued after your planned dates have passed is up to the embassy; ask them directly.

It depends where you collect it. Passports collected in person at the VFS centre in the embassy's own city never go by courier, so they can't show up here. If you collect at another centre, your passport is sent there by courier, so it usually shows up.

We can only see passports whose courier record carries the VFS reference number. For the countries handled by consulates in Mumbai, and a few other centres, the courier record holds the applicant's passport number instead, so there's nothing we can match.

Several times a day: most countries at 11:30 AM, 6 PM, 12 AM and 3:30 AM IST, a few with an extra run at 1 AM. Most new dispatches appear after midnight, when the courier picks up the day's passports. Couriers don't pick up passports at weekends, so on Sunday it updates only at 6 PM and on Monday not at all; Monday's passports appear from 12 AM that night.

No. VisaTrackr is an independent, free tool, not connected to VFS Global, any embassy or any courier company. It shows overall progress from courier records, not the status of your own application; for that, use VFS tracking or contact the embassy.