Schengen Visa Fees in 2026: Complete Cost Breakdown for UAE Applicants

The Schengen visa fee is the same in all 29 member states, but it is only part of what you pay. Once you add the visa centre service charge, mandatory insurance, photos and a flight reservation, a single application from Dubai lands between AED 550 and AED 700.

Here is every 2026 cost, where each figure comes from, and which ones you can skip.

How much does a Schengen visa cost in 2026?

The Schengen visa fee is EUR 90 for adults. It is set by EU regulation and is identical across all 29 Schengen countries, so France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and the rest all charge the same. The fee rose from EUR 80 on 11 June 2024, and any guide still quoting EUR 80 is out of date. You pay it at the visa application centre when you submit.

Source: European Commission, Schengen visa fee increased as of 11 June 2024.

How much is the Schengen visa fee in dirhams?

EUR 90 works out to roughly AED 385, though the exact dirham amount depends on the exchange rate on the day you apply. Visa centres in the UAE collect the fee in dirhams at the rate set by the consulate, which they update periodically rather than daily. Budget AED 385 and expect the counter figure to land within a few dirhams either side.

How much do VFS Global and BLS International charge on top?

The visa centre charges a separate, non-refundable service fee. Germany's VFS Global centres in Dubai and Abu Dhabi charge AED 146.74 per application, taxes included. Other missions set their own rates, typically AED 90 to AED 150. Spain runs through BLS International rather than VFS, with its own fee schedule. Check your specific consulate's page before you budget.

Which centre you deal with depends on the country, not on you. From the UAE, France, Germany, Italy and Greece all run through VFS Global, with Greece filing at the Wafi centre in Dubai. Spain is the outlier and goes through BLS International, which sets its own service fee and runs its own appointment system. If you are choosing between two consulates on cost alone, the service charge is the only part that actually differs, and it is rarely more than AED 60 between them.

Optional add-ons at the centre, such as courier return of your passport, SMS tracking or premium lounge access, are charged on top of that again.

Source: VFS Global, Germany UAE fee page.

How much is the Schengen visa fee for children?

Children aged 6 to 11 pay a reduced fee of EUR 45, around AED 193. Children under 6 are exempt from the visa fee entirely. The visa centre service charge still applies to every applicant regardless of age, so a family of four with two young children still pays four service charges even though the youngest pays no visa fee.

What is the total cost of a Schengen visa from Dubai?

A single adult applying from Dubai should budget AED 550 to AED 700 all in. That covers the EUR 90 visa fee, the visa centre service charge, Schengen-compliant travel insurance, biometric photos and a flight reservation for your application. Optional extras such as courier return, SMS tracking or premium lounge access push it higher.

Two of those line items trip people up. Your insurance has to provide at least EUR 30,000 in medical cover, be valid across all 29 Schengen countries for the full trip, and include emergency repatriation; a policy that covers only your first destination gets rejected at the counter. What the coverage minimum actually means is worth reading before you buy anything.

For the flight, applicants normally submit a verified reservation rather than a paid ticket bought before a decision. What the consulate checks is that the booking carries a real PNR it can look up on the airline's system, which is what a reservation from a provider such as Dummy Ticket 365 gives you. Photos are the cheapest item on the list and the one most often redone on the spot: Schengen specifications are stricter than a standard passport photo, so budget for a second set.

Figures are per applicant. Fees last checked 8 September 2026.

What else do you pay for beyond the fees?

Several costs sit outside the published fee schedule. Certified translations if your documents are not in English. Bank charges for stamped statements, commonly AED 25 to 50. Some employers charge for an NOC letter. Attestation, if a consulate asks for it on a marriage or birth certificate, is its own separate fee.

If you are travelling as a family, every one of these multiplies by the number of applicants. Two adults and two children aged 8 and 4 pay two adult visa fees, one child visa fee, four service charges, four insurance policies and four sets of photos, which is how a four-person application quietly passes AED 2,000 even though one of the four pays no visa fee at all.

Do you get the visa fee back if your application is refused?

No. Both the EUR 90 visa fee and the visa centre service charge are non-refundable, whatever the outcome. A refusal means you pay again in full to reapply, and a reapplication with the same weak file usually fails the same way. This is why the document pack matters more than any other part of the process.

The top 10 reasons Schengen visas get rejected are almost all preventable, and the Schengen visa documents checklist for UAE residents sets out what the consulate expects to see. For the process end to end, see the complete 2026 Schengen visa guide for UAE residents.

Applying from the UAE? VisaWadi's Schengen Basic package is AED 299 and includes the flight reservation, hotel booking, 9-day travel insurance and a day-by-day itinerary your consulate expects, so several of the line items above are already covered. See what's included, or check the VisaWadi FAQ for what the packages do and do not carry.