Visa - Determination of validity

If the visa authorities assess that you meet all the conditions for being granted a visa, the number of entries and the validity period of the visa will be determined according to a set of fixed criteria. These rules are laid down in Article 24 of the Visa Code. See the Visa Code

A visa may be issued for one, two, or multiple entries and can be valid for a maximum of 5 years.

When determining the validity period of the visa the so-called “cascade rules” apply. This means that you may be granted a visa with the following validity periods:

• 1 year, if you have obtained and lawfully used three visas within the previous 2 years.
• 2 years, if you have obtained and lawfully used a previous multiple-entry visa valid for 1 year within the previous 2 years.
• 5 years, if you have obtained and lawfully used a previous multiple-entry visa valid for 2 years within the previous 3 years.

The validity period of a visa may, in certain cases, be shortened. This may happen due to the validity of your passport or if there is doubt as to whether you will meet the entry conditions for the entire period.

Even if you do not meet the cascade rules, you may, in certain cases, be granted a visa with a longer validity. This requires that the visa authorities assess that the conditions for doing so are otherwise fulfilled, including that:

• you have documented the need or explained the intention to travel frequently or regularly,
• you have demonstrated your integrity and reliability, in particular through lawful use of previous visas,
• your financial situation in your home country is stable, and
• there is no doubt that you intend to leave the Schengen area before the visa you are applying for expires.

If a multiple-entry visa is issued for 90 days with a validity of between 6 months and 5 years, the permitted stay is always a maximum of 90 days within any 180-day period.

Read more about stay duration

Adaptation of the cascade rules

The cascade rules mentioned above may be adapted based on the circumstances in individual countries. On that basis, the rules have been adapted for the following groups:

• Omani nationals residing in Oman

• Iranian nationals residing in Iran

• All nationals applying from Algeria

• Qatari nationals residing in Qatar

• Kuwaiti nationals residing in Kuwait and applying in Kuwait

• Saudi nationals residing in Saudi Arabia

• Bahraini nationals residing in Bahrain

• Indian nationals residing in India

• All nationals applying from Ghana

You can find the EU decisions where the cascade rules have been adapted via this link on the European Commission’s website:

Legal documents related to Schengen visas – European Commission

Use the following search criteria to find the relevant decisions:

• Type: Commission Implementing Decision
• Country: Any country
• Year of publication: Any year
• In the search field, you can type: Multiple-entry Visas.