Schengen Visa Cost 2026: Fees, Insurance & Real Totals
The €90 official fee is only the start — centre charges, insurance rules, country differences and a full trip-cost estimator for 2026
€90. That is the Schengen visa fee in 2026 — €45 for children aged 6–11, free for under-6s — and it has not changed since the EU-wide increase of 11 June 2024. But almost nobody pays just €90: outsourced visa centres add €20–€45, mandatory travel insurance adds €15–€50, and photos, copies and courier push a realistic single-adult budget to €150–€200. This guide prices every layer, compares what varies (and what does not) across the 29 Schengen states, and builds a trip-cost estimator for families. Start with our Schengen visa guide, check your day-count with the 90/180 calculator, and total any visa route with the visa fee calculator.
All euro figures below follow the EU Visa Code schedule in force for 2026. The Commission reviews fees periodically against inflation, so a future adjustment is possible — the consulate fee page of your main destination is authoritative on the day you pay, and every fee here is non-refundable on refusal.
The €90 Fee: What It Is and What It Is Not
The Schengen short-stay (Type C) fee is set centrally by the EU, so Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Rome all charge the same €90 per adult. It buys one adjudication — single or multiple entry, 12 days or 5 years of validity all cost the same — and it covers consular processing only: no insurance, no photos, no courier, no premium lounge. Two special tiers exist: €45 for visa-facilitation nationalities and children 6–11, and €135 for nationals of countries the EU deems non-cooperative on readmission.
What the €90 does not do is get you to the consulate door: most states outsource intake to VFS Global, TLScontact or BLS, whose service fee is effectively compulsory, and every applicant needs compliant insurance before the file is even accepted. Price the journey as €90 + €30 centre + €30 insurance as your mental default, and you will never be short at checkout.
Schengen Fee Table 2026: Every Applicant Type
| Applicant | Official visa fee | Centre service fee | Realistic total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult (12+) | €90 | €20–€45 | €150–€200 incl. insurance |
| Child 6–11 | €45 | €20–€45 | €90–€130 incl. insurance |
| Child under 6 | €0 | €20–€45 | €40–€80 |
| EU family member | €0 | Often waived/reduced | Near €0 + insurance |
| Facilitation nationality | €45 | €20–€45 | €90–€130 |
| Non-cooperating nationality | €135 | €20–€45 | €195–€245 |
| Airport transit (Type A) | €90 | €20–€45 | €130–€160 |
| Long-stay national (Type D) | Set per country (€50–€350+) | Varies | Check the national tariff |
Type D student, work and family visas are national — not Schengen — tariffs, so France, Germany and Spain each publish their own long-stay fees. Short-stay cruise, business and medical trips all use the Type C €90 line above. Broader trip planning lives in our tourist visa guide.
VFS/TLS Centre Fees and the Extras That Ambush Budgets
The centre service fee (€20–€45) is the biggest unavoidable add-on, and it is charged per applicant including babies. Standard appointments include biometric enrolment — challenge any extra “fingerprint fee” — but everything around it is metered: passport photos at the booth (€5–€15), photocopying and printing per page, SMS tracking, courier return (€15–€30), and prime-time or lounge appointments (€30–€60) that buy comfort rather than speed.
Defensive playbook: bring ICAO-compliant photos, pre-printed copies of everything, and the exact fee breakdown screenshotted from the booking page; decline every optional extra except courier if collection is genuinely impractical; and never pay anyone for “guaranteed approval” — centres handle files, consulates decide them. The service fee is lost on refusal exactly like the €90, so file completeness is the highest-ROI saving available.
Travel Insurance: The €30,000 Rule and Real Prices
Insurance is not advice — it is an admissibility condition. The policy must cover at least €30,000 of emergency medical costs including repatriation, be valid across all Schengen states for the entire stay plus a margin, and name each traveller. Single-trip policies for a 2-week holiday realistically cost €15–€50 by age and coverage; annual multi-trip policies (€80–€200) beat per-trip pricing from the second trip onward.
Rejection traps: domestic-only policies, credit-card “travel cover” with sub-€30,000 medical caps, policies excluding one destination state, and date ranges shorter than the requested visa validity. Buy from a listed insurer, print the certificate page showing the €30,000 figure and the country list, and ask before purchase whether refusal earns a refund — several insurers rebate on documented visa refusal, which softens the non-refundable €90 risk.
Country-by-Country: What Actually Varies
Because the €90 is EU-fixed, country choice should follow your itinerary — main destination (longest stay), or first entry on a tie — not fee folklore. What genuinely differs: which outsourcer runs intake and its local surcharge; appointment availability (France, Spain and Germany slots vanish first in summer); accepted payment methods and currencies; and strictness on funds, sponsorship and employment proof. Long-stay ambitions diverge completely — national Type D fees and residence-permit charges differ by hundreds of euros.
US-based applicants: file at the relevant consulate or its US outsourcer, pay in dollars at that post's equivalent (approximately $100 for the €90 line — confirm the posted figure), and remember a green card changes nothing about the requirement. Full detail is in our Schengen guide and the 90/180-day calculator for planning multi-trip years. Greece, Italy and France publish notably different ancillary tariffs for their national long-stay visas, so anyone combining a short Schengen hop with a student or work move should price the Type D track separately rather than extrapolating from the €90 short-stay line.
Total Trip-Cost Estimator: 4 Worked Examples
Formula per person: official fee + centre fee + insurance + photos/copies + courier. Everything below uses mid-range 2026 pricing.
| Party | Visa fees | Centre + extras | Insurance | Application-layer total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo adult, 10-day trip | €90 | €30 + €10 photos/copies | €25 | €155 |
| Couple, 2-week trip | €180 | €60 + €15 copies + €20 courier | €50 | €325 |
| Family: 2 adults + child 8 + child 4 | €90+€90+€45+€0 = €225 | 4 × €30 + €20 courier | €90 family policy | €455 |
| Business traveller, annual cover | €90 | €40 prime-time + €10 copies | €120 annual policy share | €260 |
These are application-layer costs only — flights, hotels and the bank balance behind your proof of funds sit outside them. Price your exact party in the visa fee calculator before booking anything non-refundable, and keep every receipt: reapplication after refusal repeats the full stack.
How to Pay and What Is (Not) Refundable
Most centres take card and cash in local currency at the appointment, with exact-fee policies that punish rounding errors — bring small denominations and confirm whether the €90 equivalent or the centre fee must be paid separately. Some posts push online prepayment during booking; screenshot every confirmation, because “paid but unlinked” appointments are a real failure mode.
Refund reality: nothing official is refunded on refusal — not the €90, not the centre fee, not the photos. Insurance sometimes is, on documented refusal, if you asked upfront. Withdraw before biometrics and some centres refund only their service portion. The cheapest Schengen visa is therefore the one filed once, completely, with insurance that hedges the refusal case. One last timing tip: file neither too early nor too late — applications open six months before travel (nine for seafarers) and most consulates advise a three-to-six-week buffer, because a rushed premium-lounge appointment cannot rescue a file submitted days before departure.
Frequently Asked Questions
How We Fact-Check This Page
Figures were checked on October 1, 2026 against the European Commission's 11 June 2024 fee-increase notice (€90/€45/€135 tiers), 2026 fee-guide reporting confirming no adopted increase since, and VFS/TLS published service-fee ranges (€20–€45) plus €30,000 insurance rules. Centre fees and insurance quotes vary by city and season and are given as verified ranges — your booking page is authoritative at payment. Read more about our standards on the about us page.