# Austria Visa From India: 1 Embassy, 16 VACs, 22% Refused
> Austria's €90 government fee, VFS's own ₹ conversion, and why this page covers only the 90-day visitor visa — not study, residence or PR.
- Published: 2026-08-01 · Updated: 2026-08-10
- Author: VisaGyan (VisaGyan)
- Canonical: https://visagyan.in/austria-visa-from-india
- Official sources:
- https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/austrian-embassy-new-delhi
- https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/austrian-embassy-new-delhi/travels-to-austria/entry-and-residence/visa
- https://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/austrian-embassy-new-delhi/travels-to-austria/entry-and-residence/how-to-apply
- https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/
- https://www.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/austria/india/english/index.html
- https://www.atlys.com/appointments/schengen/india/austria
- https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen-borders-and-visa/visa-policy_en
- https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02009R0810-20240628
- https://api.frankfurter.dev/v1/latest
- https://www.reddit.com/r/SchengenVisa/comments/1eos3z1/no_cost_successful_appeal_against_schengen_visa/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ForeignTravelIndia/comments/1tm70dx/indian_passport_holder_applying_for_schengen_visa/
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**One mission decides every Austria visa from India: the Embassy of Austria in New Delhi, which examines applications from across India — plus Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka — and outsources only document collection to VFS Global centres in 16 Indian cities. Austria refused 22.0% of the 43,504 Indian Schengen decisions it made in 2024, per the European Commission's own consulate data — well above the 14.96% refused across all 28 Schengen states, and roughly double the rate at neighbouring Germany, Switzerland or Italy. The government fee is €90 per adult; VFS Global's own Austria India page displays that as ₹9,810, kept separate from VFS's own ₹2,479 service charge. This page covers only the short-stay Schengen visitor visa — not Austria's national D visa, its job-seeker visa, or a residence permit, all of which route through the Embassy directly and none of which this page answers. This page maps the single-mission jurisdiction, splits the fee by government and service, tests a repeated community claim about Austria's refusal rate against the government's own numbers, and states what Austria actually files for the funds requirement — not the generic Schengen checklist, which lives on our documents page.**
## Apply here only if Austria is your main destination
Article 5(1) of the Visa Code (Regulation (EC) 810/2009) decides which consulate may even open your file, before any fee or document matters: a single-destination trip goes to that country; a multi-country trip goes to wherever you'll spend the most days; only on a genuine tie does the country of first entry decide. The full mechanics of that rule, and the 2024 refusal-rate table for all 29 Schengen states, are on [Schengen visa approval rates by country for India](/easiest-schengen-country-for-indians-approval-rates) rather than repeated here — this page starts from "Austria is genuinely where you're going."
Applying to Austria because its appointment calendar looks friendlier than your actual destination's is visa shopping, not a legitimate choice, and Article 6(1) adds a second, India-specific constraint on top of it.
Article 6(1) means your application is examined by the consulate with jurisdiction over where you legally reside, not the mission you'd prefer. Austrian Embassy New Delhi states this on its own site (bmeia.gv.at) in plain terms: it "can only process applications from people who can prove that they have their habitual residence in its territory." Anyone living outside that territory has to apply through whichever Austrian mission, or Schengen state representing Austria, actually covers where they live. Austria's other official surface, oesterreich.gv.at, is a different tool entirely — the general citizen e-government portal for people already resident in Austria (IDs, registration, driving licences), not a visa-application site, and an Indian applicant who lands there from a search result will find nothing about a Schengen visa. Everything below assumes the generic Schengen document set is already handled in full on [Schengen visa documents required from India](/schengen-visa-documents-required-from-india); this page adds only what changes because the destination is specifically Austria.
## This page is about the visitor visa — not study, work or residence
Search results for "Austria visa from India" mix at least three different questions, and only one of them is this page's subject. The Austria Schengen visa for Indians that this page covers is a short-stay Visa C — tourism, business, visiting, up to 90 days in any 180. The Austrian Embassy's own visa page names two other regimes entirely, each with its own rules. The national Visa D runs 91 days to six months, for longer visits, course participation or a job-seeker search, issued under Austria's own Aliens' Police Act rather than the EU Visa Code, and it is not extendable once you're in Austria. A residence permit covers any stay longer than six months, and is a different application again — an Austria tourist visa vs residence permit distinction the Embassy draws explicitly, and that this page draws too.
If your actual question is about studying in Austria, working there, or getting permanent residence after a course finishes, this page will not answer it — and no honest visitor-visa page can.
The distinction is not academic. The Embassy's own how-to-apply page states plainly that a Visa D, a job-seeker visa, or a "visa as part of any other program offering work opportunities" must be applied for at the Austrian Embassy in New Delhi in person, through a separate appointment route and a separate email address the Embassy publishes for exactly that purpose — not through VFS Global, and not through the short-stay process the rest of this page covers. Confusing the two means showing up at the wrong counter with the wrong document set. If your search brought you here looking for the route to Austrian residence after a degree, start instead from the Embassy's own settlement-and-residence pages, linked from its site, rather than from anything on this Schengen-visitor-visa page.
## Where you apply from, by state — the Austrian consular map of India
There is no state-by-state routing to work out for Austria. Consulate jurisdiction India-wide comes down to a single deciding mission: every Austria visa from India application is examined and decided by the Embassy of Austria in New Delhi, for an applicant habitually resident anywhere in the country. It does the same for Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka — a broader remit than any other single-mission Schengen state this site covers, [Switzerland](/switzerland-visa-from-india) included, whose embassy holds jurisdiction over India alone. (Bangladesh sits inside the Embassy's general consular district for citizen services, but not for Schengen visas specifically — those route instead to the French embassy in Dhaka, which represents Austria there.) A Portugal- or Italy-style table splitting Indian states between two or four missions does not exist for Austria, because Article 6(1) resolves to the same New Delhi Embassy no matter which state an Indian applicant lives in.
What does vary by region is only where you submit documents and biometrics. Atlys' live Austria appointment tracker, checked 2 August 2026, lists 16 VFS Global centres taking Austria applications across India: Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Jaipur in the north; Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Goa in the west; Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Puducherry in the south; and Kolkata and Lucknow completing the network. Every one of those 16 centres forwards its files to the same Embassy in New Delhi; none of them has any role in the decision itself.
| Region (nearest, not jurisdictional) | VFS Austria centres |
| --- | --- |
| North | Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jaipur |
| West | Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa |
| South | Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Puducherry |
| East | Kolkata, Lucknow |
*Region groupings are a convenience for finding your nearest centre, not a jurisdiction map — every centre routes to the same Embassy of Austria, New Delhi. Book your appointment at Austria VAC nearest you for convenience; jurisdiction does not move with it. Source: Atlys' Austria appointment tracker, checked 2 August 2026; VFS Global's own centre-locator carries the current address for each and can change without this table being republished.*
Whether that single-mission structure produces more consistent outcomes than a multi-consulate country's — where the same country's Delhi post can refuse noticeably more often than its Mumbai or Bangalore post, documented on the [approval-rates page](/easiest-schengen-country-for-indians-approval-rates) — is not something the European Commission's dataset can answer for Austria. The Commission's per-consulate breakdown only splits countries that run more than one deciding mission in India; Austria reports as a single national row, like Switzerland, not a multi-post one like Germany, France or Italy.
## Fees in ₹, government and service separated
The Austria visa fee in rupees breaks into two mandatory amounts, kept on separate lines throughout this section. The government visa fee is the [same statutory Schengen fee every member state charges](/schengen-visa-fee-for-indians) under EU regulation: €90 per adult, €45 for children aged 6 to under 12, free under 6. VFS Global Austria India, checked 2 August 2026, displays that as ₹9,810 for an adult and ₹4,905 for a child, with its own note that the rupee figure "is subject to change every month end." At this site's own reference point — the European Central Bank's rate for 31 July 2026, ₹109.5495 per €1 — the same €90 and €45 convert to ₹9,859 and ₹4,930. That's a roughly ₹50 gap on the adult fee from VFS's own displayed figure. The rupee number is moving against a fixed euro one; neither source is wrong.
VFS Global's own service fee for Austria is ₹2,479, inclusive of GST (SGST and CGST at 9% each) — separate from and on top of the government fee, and paid to VFS rather than to the Austrian state. An optional Hold at Location facility costs a further ₹807 per passport, declined by default.
| Line item | Amount | Paid to |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Government (Schengen) visa fee | €90/adult, €45/child 6-11, free under 6 — ₹9,810/₹4,905 per VFS's own display; ₹9,859/₹4,930 at this site's 31 July 2026 rate | Austrian state, via VFS |
| VFS Global service fee | ₹2,479, GST included | VFS Global |
| Optional Hold at Location | ₹807 per passport | VFS Global |
Add the two mandatory lines and a solo adult's Austria visa from India fee in rupees runs to roughly ₹12,289-12,338 before insurance, photographs or any optional extra — €90 (₹9,810 to ₹9,859, depending on which conversion you use) plus VFS's own ₹2,479. Neither line is refundable if the visa is refused, and reapplying means paying both again in full.
## Documents, and the Austria-specific ones
Documents required for Austria visa for Indians begin with the same core Schengen set — passport, photographs, insurance, financial proof, itinerary, accommodation — covered in full on [Schengen visa documents required from India](/schengen-visa-documents-required-from-india) and not repeated here. Four things read differently on an Austria file specifically.
Personal bank statements have to cover the last three months and be "stamped & Signed by the bank" — VFS's own Austria India page marks this "Mandatory," a more explicit stamp-and-signature instruction than most generic Schengen checklists spell out.
Travel medical insurance changed for Austria on a stated date: as of 1 January 2026, VFS's Austria India page accepts a policy only if it's issued by one of the insurers on Austria's own approved list — the same harmonised €30,000 minimum coverage every Schengen state requires, covered in full on [Schengen visa insurance accepted by consulate](/schengen-visa-insurance-accepted-by-consulate-india), but gated here to a named list rather than any policy that meets the coverage floor.
Two forms carry an Austria-specific instruction: a "Declaration and Undertaking," which the Austrian Embassy requires the applicant to sign personally (a representative or travel agent must bring the signed original to submission, not a scan), and a "Letter of Guarantee" download tied to the Embassy's own alternative-funds route — an electronic declaration of sponsorship submitted by a person resident in Austria, for applicants who cannot prove sufficient means from their own assets or income.
Supporting documents in a language other than English may need a German translation "at the request of the Consulate," per the Embassy's own visa page — but documents already in English are explicitly exempted from this requirement, so an Indian applicant's usual English-language paperwork does not need translating on this ground alone.
## Processing time and appointment availability from India
Austria visa processing time from India runs on two different clocks, sourced to two pages that do not fully agree with each other. The Austrian Embassy's own visa page states the admissibility rule directly: a Schengen visa application must be lodged "within a period of six months and not later than 15 calendar days before the intended start of the trip" — the same six-month/15-calendar-day structure used across the Visa Code (Articles 9(1) and 23). VFS Global's own Austria India page states a stricter version of the same cutoff: applications "must be submitted at least 15 working days prior to the proposed date of travel," and cannot be submitted "more than 180 days in advance." Fifteen working days runs longer in real time than 15 calendar days whenever a weekend falls inside the window — a gap between the Embassy's own published rule and its outsourcing partner's page that this article did not find resolved anywhere.
Decision time reads the same way. VFS's own page states that "usually, processing time for visa applications is 15 working days," counted from when all requested documents have been submitted, and "may be extended in specific cases, notably when further scrutiny of the application is required." That is VFS's own wording for what the EU Visa Code (Article 23(1)) sets out as 15 calendar days standard, extendable to 45 in individual cases — the same underlying rule, described in working days by the outsourcing partner rather than the calendar days the Regulation itself uses. Atlys' Austria appointment tracker, checked 2 August 2026, independently states the same "15 working days" processing figure, plus a roughly 15-to-20-minute appointment at the counter for document verification and biometrics.
Live appointment availability across the 16 centres is not something this page prints as a snapshot: unlike the Portugal and Switzerland pages on this site, no reachable source gave a per-centre earliest-slot count for Austria at the time this page was researched. Atlys tracks it continuously and lets you check your own centre directly; treat any specific day-count quoted elsewhere as unverified until you see it live on VFS's own booking flow.
1. **Confirm you need the short-stay visa**, not a Visa D, job-seeker visa or residence permit — those route to the Embassy directly, not VFS.
2. **Book at any of the 16 India centres** — jurisdiction is Article 6(1) residence-based, but every centre forwards to the same New Delhi Embassy regardless of which one you choose.
3. **Submit documents and biometrics.** The biometrics Austria requires — fingerprints plus a digital photo — are captured at the VAC, not the Embassy, at least 15 working days before travel per VFS's own stated cutoff, stricter than the Embassy's own 15-calendar-day minimum.
4. **Wait for the decision** — usually 15 working days per VFS and Atlys, extendable for further scrutiny, against the Visa Code's own 15-to-45-calendar-day range.
## Funds: the Austrian reference amount in ₹
Austria is the one Schengen state on the European Commission's reference-amounts table, dated 8 June 2026, that files no fixed daily figure at all: its row reads "case-by-case — no fixed daily figure published," assessed individually rather than against a flat euro-per-day rule, per [Bank balance required for a Schengen visa from India](/bank-balance-required-for-schengen-visa-inr) — this page states that one row rather than rebuilding the full 29-country table. The Austrian Embassy's own visa page independently corroborates the same absence of a number: among the conditions a Consulate examines for each individual applicant, it lists "means of substance for living and travel expenses from own assets or income," with no daily or total euro figure attached anywhere on the page. Two separately sourced pages — a European Commission dataset and Austria's own diplomatic mission — agree there is nothing to convert to rupees here, unlike [Switzerland's filed CHF 100/day](/switzerland-visa-from-india) or Germany's €45/day.
That absence cuts against, not for, the round "₹2 lakh is generally enough" figure repeated across travel-blog pages for Schengen visas generally: there is no published Austrian figure for that claim to even approximate. A bank statement that plainly covers your actual, itemised trip cost — flights, accommodation, and a reasonable daily spend for the length of stay — is the working standard for a Consulate examining the file case by case, not a fixed number this page can print. Applicants unable to show sufficient personal funds have one documented alternative specific to Austria: an electronic declaration of sponsorship, submitted by a person resident in Austria, in the form the Embassy's own visa page and VFS's "Letter of Guarantee" download both point to.
## Austria's refusal profile, and what it means for your file
Austria refused 22.0% of the 43,504 Schengen decisions it made on Indian applications in 2024, per the European Commission's own consulate-level dataset, aggregated on [Schengen visa approval rates by country](/easiest-schengen-country-for-indians-approval-rates). That figure breaks down as 33,896 uniform visas issued, 29 limited-territorial-validity visas issued and 9,579 not issued — against 14.96% refused across all 28 processing Schengen states that year. Austria refuses noticeably more of its Indian applicants than the Schengen average — not a marginal gap, but roughly seven percentage points above it.
One applicant, comparing the Commission's own published figures across countries in a thread about an Austria-and-Poland trip (r/ForeignTravelIndia, 30 May 2026), wrote that "Austria rejects slightly more applicants from India than Poland does and slightly more than Austria's average for all applying countries." Checked against the same 2024 dataset, the Poland comparison holds up: Poland refused 19.0% of Indian applications that year, three points below Austria's 22.0% — close enough to call slightly more. The wider framing does not survive the same check as well. Weighed against Austria's actual land neighbours in the Commission's table, the gap is not slight at all: Germany refused 11.1%, Switzerland 12.0% and Italy 11.3% of Indian applications the same year — Austria's rate runs at roughly double each of theirs. Only the Czech Republic, at 21.5%, sits close to Austria's own number; Slovenia, which also borders Austria, posted 50.8%, the highest in the full 29-state table. Testing a repeated forum claim against the government's own dataset, rather than repeating it, is what this section does instead of ranking countries by reputation.
A national refusal rate is a consulate-level statistic, not a prediction for any individual file — it says nothing about your own income, itinerary or documents. The Commission's own caveat applies here as everywhere else in the table: "not issued" bundles outright refusals together with applications where examination was discontinued, and the Commission does not publish the split for Austria or any other state, so the true refusal share alone could sit a point or two below 22.0%.
If a file is refused, the Austrian Embassy's own visa page names the path forward more explicitly than most member states' own sites do: a refused applicant "can file a legal remedy at the competent Consulate ('Vorstellung') respectively submit an appeal to the Federal Administrative Court," and points readers to "the information on the appeal procedure on the refusal form" itself for the specifics. That is new, on-the-record confirmation of the appeal mechanism's existence, sourced directly to an Austrian government page — but the deadline and fee are not stated on this general page; the Embassy's own text puts that detail on the refusal letter each applicant receives individually, not in anything published for the public. That matches, rather than overturns, what [Schengen visa refusal appeal from India](/schengen-visa-refusal-appeal-india) found when it built its appeal-deadline table: no Austrian appeal deadline or fee could be confirmed on any Austrian government page, so Austria carries no row there. One documented case shows the informal route working in practice regardless of the missing published deadline: a first-time applicant refused with his spouse in May 2024 filed an appeal with one extra document and had a new visa in 10 days, at no cost per the post's own title (one applicant, r/SchengenVisa, 10 August 2024) — the full appeal-versus-reapply decision is covered on that page; this one states only what changes because the destination is Austria.
*VisaGyan is not affiliated with the Embassy of Austria, VFS Global or the European Commission; we book nothing and sell nothing.*
*Sources cited only — expert review pending. This page has not yet been reviewed by a named immigration professional. Every procedural claim on it is paired with the official source or dataset that governs it. Fees, jurisdiction and processing times change without notice, so verify against the Austrian Embassy's own India pages and VFS Global's Austria India page before you act on an Austria visa from India application.*