What are your chances?

Official statistics come from the European Commission and the US State Department. They cover every application, so there is no sampling bias — but they are averages. They tell you nothing about what happens in the interview room, and they lag by a year.

User reports are accounts written by people who have been through the interview. They are the only place you will find the questions officers actually asked, and which documents were demanded. But they are not a fair sample: only 3% of the reports we hold describe a refusal, while the real rate is 15–28%. People write up dramatic outcomes and problems they need help with. Read them to know what to expect, not to work out your chances.

An approval rate is not your personal chance. If 89 in 100 were approved, that does not mean you have an 89% chance. Your own documents, your travel history, your job and your finances matter far more than your country's average. What the average is genuinely useful for: seeing whether a consulate is unusually strict, and judging how much paperwork to prepare.