Schengen Visa: Delhi vs Mumbai vs Bangalore — Which City Is Faster?

A common question on visa forums: “Should I apply from Delhi or Bangalore? Is Mumbai faster?” We have data on this.

VisaTrackr monitors BlueDart dispatches from 18 VFS Global centres in India, from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to smaller ones like Kochi, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Here's what the data shows about processing speed differences.

What the data shows right now

As of 20 Oct 2026 we can compare at least two of the three cities for 16 countries. The quickest of the three was Delhi for 8 countries, Mumbai for 2 countries and Bangalore for 1 country (the rest were tied). The typical gap between the quickest and slowest city was 2 days, and the largest 17 days.

Country	Delhi	Mumbai	Bangalore
Netherlands	40 days	30 days	38 days
Germany	7 days	6 days	6 days
Italy	17 days	—	34 days
Austria	6 days	7 days	8 days
Switzerland	7 days	8 days	8 days
Czech Republic	5 days	11 days	14 days
Denmark	6 days	7 days	6 days
Finland	9 days	8 days	8 days
Iceland	11 days	—	13 days
Latvia	14 days	18 days	15 days
Luxembourg	18 days	—	20 days
Malta	15 days	14 days	14 days
Poland	17 days	12 days	14 days
Portugal	16 days	—	12 days
Slovenia	15 days	—	15 days
Croatia	19 days	—	22 days

Median and 90th-percentile wait from application date to courier dispatch, for applications made 45–90 days ago. “—” means too little recent data from that city.

The big 3: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore

Delhi (DEL)

Delhi processes the highest volume of Schengen visa applications in India. Being the capital and having the most embassy presence, it handles applications from all of North India. Higher volume generally means longer queues, but Delhi also has the most processing capacity. Processing frontier dates from Delhi are typically representative of the “standard” wait time.

Mumbai (MHL)

Mumbai is the second-highest volume centre. Applications here tend to have strong financial profiles (business travellers, IT professionals), which can mean fewer applications held for additional verification. Some embassies process Mumbai applications at a dedicated consulate, which can result in different speeds than Delhi.

Bangalore (BLR)

Bangalore has seen growing volume thanks to the IT sector. Processing times here are often comparable to Delhi, but some embassies route Bangalore applications through a different consular office, which can create small differences.

Are smaller cities faster?

Not reliably. Smaller VFS centres can be easier to get an appointment at and less crowded on the day, but once your application reaches the embassy it joins the same queue. In our data, smaller centres are quicker for some countries and slower for others, and because they send fewer applications their numbers swing more from week to week. Check your country's city comparison rather than assuming.

Does the city really matter?

There's an important nuance here:

VFS centre ≠ Embassy. VFS only collects your application and sends it to the embassy. The actual visa decision happens at the embassy, which is the same regardless of your VFS centre.
Some embassies process by city. A few embassies batch applications by VFS centre, which means a smaller city's batch might move through faster. Others process all applications in a single queue regardless of origin.
BlueDart dispatch timing differs. Once the embassy returns passports to VFS, the dispatch time depends on the local VFS centre. Delhi may dispatch same-day; smaller centres may batch dispatches weekly.

What should you do?

Apply at your nearest centre — VFS generally requires you to apply at the centre in your jurisdiction. You can't freely choose any city.
If you have options — some applicants live in areas served by multiple centres. In that case, check the compare view for your country to see which centre has a more recent frontier date.
Don't over-optimise — check the gap for your country in the table above; for most countries it's small. Focus on submitting a strong, complete application instead.

Compare cities for your country

Select your country on the homepage and click “Compare cities” to see live processing frontier dates across every centre. The comparison table shows which city is furthest ahead and the current processing trend for each.