How Much Does a Schengen Visa Cost for a Family of Four?

The headline number is simple: €270 for a family of four — two adults and two children aged 6 to 11. If both children are under six, it's €180. Those are the fees set by EU law, not by whichever consulate you happen to walk into.

That's the easy part. The awkward part is that the visa fee is only about two-thirds of what you'll actually spend. Application centres charge a service fee per person.

Travel insurance for four people isn't free. Photos need to meet a specific spec, and if you're applying outside your home country you may need documents translated.

Below is the full cost picture for a family of four — the official fees, the add-ons, two realistic family scenarios with real numbers, and the four things families most often get wrong. This is general information, not immigration advice, and fees do change, so confirm the current amount with the consulate or application centre before you pay.

How much does a Schengen visa cost for a family of four? The short answer

Here's what four people typically pay, split by family make-up. The first column is the official visa fee only. The second is a realistic all-in figure for a single short trip.

The all-in column is illustrative, not a quote. It assumes you apply at a standard application centre, buy compliant insurance and print your own documents. It climbs if you add premium appointments, courier return of passports or a paid visa agent.

So the honest answer to "how much does a Schengen visa cost for a family of four?" is: around €270 in official fees, and around €400–€450 once everything is counted. Anything under €300 for four people means you're skipping insurance or a service fee somewhere.

The official Schengen visa fee schedule

The European Commission sets these fees centrally. They apply across all 29 Schengen countries — the 25 EU member states in the area plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Two things worth flagging. First, the fee is the same whether you ask for one entry or multiple entries — there's no surcharge for wanting more. Second, the fee is charged in local currency at most consulates, so a family in the UK pays in pounds, a family in Nigeria pays in naira.

The consulate sets the exchange rate, and it's rarely the mid-market rate.

The €90 adult fee took effect on 11 June 2024, up from €80. The children's rate rose from €40 to €45 at the same time. Visa fees are reviewed periodically, so check the European Commission's Schengen visa guidance for the current figure before you pay.

Does the Schengen visa fee change depending on which country you apply to?

No. This is one of the genuinely useful things about Schengen. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Poland — they all charge the same €90 for an adult.

What does change is the application centre service fee. That's a commercial charge levied by the company running the centre — VFS Global, TLScontact, BLS International and so on — and it varies by country and by consulate. Some centres charge €20 a head.

Some charge €45. Some add extras for prime-time appointments or document scanning.

So if you're choosing between two itineraries and the cost matters, the visa fee is identical. The application centre charges aren't.

What the visa fee covers — and what it doesn't

The €90 buys you one thing: the processing of a single short-stay visa application. That's it.

It doesn't buy approval. Consulates refuse applications every day, and the fee stays with them. It doesn't cover the application centre's own charges.

And it doesn't cover any of the supporting documents you need to produce.

Think of it as an administrative charge, not a deposit. Once the application is lodged, the money is spent regardless of the outcome.

Four things families assume about the Schengen visa fee — and get wrong

1. That the fee is per family

It's per person. Every applicant lodges their own form, their own documents and their own fee — including a three-year-old, even though that three-year-old pays nothing.

Four travellers means four applications, four appointments, four photo sets. Some application centres will book a family group in one slot, but the file itself is always individual.

2. That a multiple-entry visa costs more

It doesn't. You tick the box for multiple entries on the form and pay the same €90. Whether the consulate grants it is a separate question based on your travel history and the justification you give.

3. That you get the fee back if you're refused

You don't. The visa fee is non-refundable, and it's non-transferable. If you reapply, you pay again — for everyone.

That's why getting the file right the first time matters so much for a family of four.

4. That a British or American passport family needs one

They don't. UK, US, Canadian, Australian, Japanese and South Korean passport holders can visit the Schengen area visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Once ETIAS launches, they'll need that instead — a much cheaper authorisation.

This article is for families who genuinely need a Schengen visa: nationals of countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, China, Turkey, South Africa, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Ghana and many others.

What you'll pay on top of the official fee

Here's the realistic add-on list for four people on a two-week trip.

Application centre service fees

This is the line most cost guides leave out, and it's the second-biggest number in the budget. Every Schengen consulate that outsources applications — and most do — passes them through a commercial centre that charges its own fee.

The charge covers the centre's handling: receiving the file, taking biometrics, checking documents are complete, and returning the passport. It's per applicant, not per family, and it's payable on top of the €90.

Some centres publish their fee clearly. Others bury it. Ask before you book, because for four people the difference between €25 and €45 a head is €80 across the family.

Travel insurance that meets the €30,000 rule

Schengen rules require medical cover of at least €30,000 per person, valid across the whole Schengen area for the full duration of the trip. A family policy covering four people for two weeks typically runs €60–€140.

Watch the small print. Cheap single-country policies that cover only France or only Spain fail the requirement. So do policies with a €500 excess and no repatriation cover.

Match the policy dates to the visa dates exactly — a gap of one day is enough to get the application bounced.

Photos, printing and couriers

Schengen photos are 35mm x 45mm, taken within the last six months, plain light background, no glasses, neutral expression. Photobooths in some countries produce a different format entirely, so check before you pay.

Budget a small amount for printing bank statements, hotel confirmations and flight reservations. If the centre returns passports by courier rather than collection, that's another charge, usually per passport.

Translations

Not every Schengen country requires translated documents, and rules vary by consulate. Germany is stricter than most. Italy often accepts English-language certificates.

If you need birth certificates translated and certified for two children, expect €30–€120 depending on the language pair.

Biometrics — the good news

There is no biometrics fee. Fingerprints are collected free the first time, and they stay valid for 59 months. If your family has given biometrics for a Schengen visa within the last five years, you may not need to attend in person at all — though many centres still require children to appear.

What a family of four actually pays: two worked examples

Numbers on a page are one thing. Here's what it looks like in practice.

Example 1: The Sharmas, Manchester to Paris

The Sharma family holds Indian passports and lives in Greater Manchester. They're planning ten days in France in the summer — two parents and two children aged 7 and 12.

They apply to the French consulate through its UK application centre in London, and they need an appointment for all four of them.

• Adult visa fee: €90 x 2 = €180
• Child aged 12 (adult rate): €90
• Child aged 7 (child rate): €45
• Total official visa fees: €315, charged in sterling at the consulate's rate
• Application centre service fee: roughly £30 per applicant = about £120
• Family travel insurance meeting the €30,000 rule: about £75
• Photos: £25
• Printing bank statements and hotel bookings: £8

Realistic total: around £420–£450. That's roughly €490 at prevailing rates.

What tripped them up? The 12-year-old had a birthday three weeks before the appointment. At 11 she'd have paid €45.

At 12 she pays the full €90. Nobody warned them, and it added €45 to a budget they'd already set. Always check the child's age on the date of application, not the date of travel.

Example 2: The Okonkwos, Lagos to Rome

The Okonkwo family applies at the Italian consulate in Lagos through its application centre. Two adults, two children aged 4 and 9.

• Adult visa fee: €90 x 2 = €180
• Child aged 9: €45
• Child aged 4: free
• Total official visa fees: €225, charged in naira at the centre's rate
• Application centre service fee: about €35 per applicant = €140
• Family insurance: about €70
• Photos and printing: about €25

Realistic total: around €460.

The 9-year-old was refused. The insurance policy named the two adults and the 4-year-old but — through a booking error — omitted the older child. The fee was gone, and a fresh application meant another €45 visa fee plus another €35 centre fee.

An €80 mistake from a form that took four minutes to complete.

The lesson: read the insurance certificate, name by name, before you hand over documents.

Do children pay the Schengen visa fee? The age rules explained

Children's fees depend entirely on age, assessed on the date the application is lodged — not the date of travel, and not the date you booked the appointment.

• Under 6: free. No visa fee, though the application centre may still charge its service fee.
• Aged 6 to 11: €45, half the adult rate.
• Aged 12 and over: the full adult rate of €90.

Here's the decision rule that catches families out. If a child's birthday falls between your appointment date and your travel date, you pay the rate that applies on the appointment date. A child who is 11 at the appointment and 12 on departure pays €45.

And the reverse is true too — a child who turns 6 the week after your appointment still pays the child rate at the time of applying, because they were 5 when the application was lodged. If you're within a few weeks of a boundary and money is tight, it's worth asking the application centre to confirm which rate they've applied. Most will.

Every child needs their own application form, their own photos, their own insurance entry and their own appointment slot — even the free ones. A parent or legal guardian signs the form on the child's behalf.

When a Schengen visa is completely free for a family

There are several situations where the visa fee disappears entirely. Some are broader than people realise.

• Family members of EU, EEA or Swiss citizens who are travelling with or joining that citizen. This comes from Directive 2004/38/EC, and it covers the spouse, registered partner, dependent children under 21, and dependent children of the spouse.
• Children under 6, always.
• School pupils on an educational trip, with an accompanying teacher.
• Students and researchers travelling for study or research under the relevant EU directives.
• Nationals of visa facilitation agreement countries — these pay a reduced €35 rather than nothing, but it's still a big saving across four people.

One post-Brexit edge case is worth spelling out, because it catches British families constantly. A British citizen is not an EU citizen for this purpose. So if a British passport holder is married to a Nigerian national and they travel to Spain together, the Nigerian spouse pays the full €90 — the free-visa rule under Directive 2004/38/EC doesn't apply to a UK national exercising free movement.

If instead that spouse held an Irish, Polish or German passport, the whole family's visa fees would drop to zero. Same trip, same family structure, wildly different bill. It's the single biggest cost difference in this entire article.

Does a multiple-entry visa cost more than a single-entry one?

No. The fee is identical. You tick the box for the number of entries you want on the form, and the consulate decides.

What does change is the value you get per euro. A multiple-entry visa can be valid for one year, three years or five years, letting you take several trips on one fee. If your family travels to Europe regularly, that's a real saving — a five-year multiple-entry visa for four people works out at roughly €54 per person per year in visa fees.

The trade-off is that you have to justify it. Consulates usually want evidence of previous Schengen travel or a reason for repeat visits. Our guide to multiple entry schengen visa validity explains how the cascade system works and what gets you a longer validity.

A single-entry visa for a family of four that costs €270 and gets used once is expensive per trip. The same €270 spent on five-year multiple-entry visas is one of the best-value travel documents you can buy.

Who actually pays the fee — and does a sponsor change anything?

The fee is always paid by whoever lodges the application, and it's always paid to the consulate or application centre. A sponsor can't pay it on your behalf from abroad.

What a sponsor can do is cover your travel and living costs, which is a different thing entirely. If a relative in Germany is funding your family's trip, the visa application needs a signed sponsorship letter, proof of the sponsor's income, and a copy of their residence status. It doesn't reduce the visa fee by a single euro — but a well-documented sponsor can be the difference between approval and refusal.

Getting the letter right matters. It needs the sponsor's full details, the relationship, the exact costs being covered, and the dates. Our walkthrough on how to write a schengen visa sponsorship letter covers the wording consulates actually accept.

Applying from outside your home country: the UK, the US and beyond

You must apply in the country where you legally reside. A Nigerian family living in London applies in London, not Lagos.

That comes with an extra requirement: your permission to stay in the UK must be valid for at least three months beyond your planned departure from the Schengen area. If your visa expires in six weeks and you're travelling in three, you'll be turned away at the counter — and you'll lose the fee.

UK-based applicants also pay in sterling, and consulates set their own rates. Expect the sterling equivalent of the euro fee plus a small conversion margin.

Applying from the United States is a slightly different picture, and the rules depend on your immigration status there. If you're a US green card holder with a non-US passport, the process and the documents you need are specific. We've covered that separately in our guide to the schengen visa for us green card holders.

How to apply for a family of four: the actual process

Here's the sequence, and what each stage costs.

1. Work out which consulate handles your trip. Apply to the country where you'll spend the most nights. If nights are equal, apply to the country you enter first.
2. Book an appointment at that consulate's application centre. You can apply up to six months before travel and, at the latest, 15 days before. Aim for four to six weeks ahead.
3. Complete four separate application forms — one per person, including the baby.
4. Gather documents — passports, photos, insurance, accommodation, flights, bank statements, employment letters, birth certificates.
5. Attend the appointment with all four applicants.
6. Pay the visa fee and service fee at the centre.
7. Wait. Processing usually takes 15 calendar days, and can be extended to 45 days in busy periods.

What the form actually asks (and which fields trip people up)

The Schengen application form is harmonised across the whole area, so it's the same document whether you're applying to Greece or Norway. It runs to around 33 numbered boxes, and most of it is straightforward. These are the ones that cause problems.

• Member State of main destination vs Member State of first entry. These are two different boxes. If you fly into Paris, spend three nights there and then ten nights in Italy, your main destination is Italy and you apply to Italy — even though France is where you land.
• Number of entries requested. Tick multiple if you want it. It costs nothing extra.
• Residence permit details. If you're applying in a country that isn't your nationality, you'll need the permit number and expiry date. This is where UK-based families enter their eVisa or BRP details.
• Date format. It's day-month-year. Writing 03/07/2026 when you mean 7 March rather than 3 July is a genuine cause of rejected forms.
• Signature. Each adult signs their own form. A parent signs on behalf of each child. Forms signed in the wrong place get handed back at the counter.
• Previous Schengen fingerprints. If you've given biometrics within 59 months, note the date if you know it. It can save you an appearance.

Booking four appointments together

Some application centres let you book a family group in a single slot. Others require four separate bookings, and in peak season those can be days apart. Check the centre's family booking policy early — waiting until three weeks before travel with four unbooked slots is how trips get cancelled.

Paying the fee

Payment happens at the centre, on the day, and covers both the visa fee and the service fee. Card is increasingly standard; some centres still take cash in local currency only. Bring both.

Keep the receipt. It's your only proof of payment if the passport comes back without a visa sticker and you need to query it.

What happens to your money if one person is refused

You lose their fee. That's the blunt answer.

The visa fee is non-refundable for every applicant, including children. If one member of a family of four is refused, you've spent their €90 and you'll spend it again if you reapply. For a family of four with one refusal, a second attempt costs an extra €90 plus the application centre's service fee.

You can appeal. Most consulates allow a remonstrance within a set window — usually 15 to 30 days depending on the country — and lodging it doesn't cost a fee at the consulate level. But it takes time, and if it fails you're back to a fresh application anyway.

ETIAS, UK ETA and other travel authorisations: how the costs compare

If your family holds passports that are visa-exempt for the Schengen area, you'll never pay the €90. Once ETIAS launches, you'll pay a much smaller authorisation fee instead.

ETIAS is expected to start after the EU's Entry/Exit System is fully rolled out. It's valid for three years or until the passport expires, and it covers the whole Schengen area. For a family of four with two children, ETIAS would cost €40 in total — versus €270 for a Schengen visa.

That gap is the whole reason people apply for the right passports. If your family is eligible for citizenship of a visa-exempt country, it's worth far more than any short-term cost saving.

Always check the official EU source at travel-europe.europa.eu for current ETIAS launch dates and fees, as these have shifted before.

Eight legitimate ways to cut the cost for a family of four

1. Check your eligibility for a free visa first. If a parent is an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, the whole family may pay nothing. Ask before you assume.
2. Time applications around birthdays. If a child turns 12 shortly after your planned appointment, applying a few weeks earlier saves €45. Don't bend the truth about ages — just plan the timing.
3. Ask for a multiple-entry visa. Same fee, more trips. Over five years it's the cheapest per-trip option available.
4. Skip premium services. Prime-time appointments, lounge access and SMS updates add nothing to your chance of approval.
5. Buy family travel insurance, not four singles. One policy covering four people is usually 30–40% cheaper than four individual policies.
6. Print your own documents. Application centre printing charges are high. Do it at home for a few pence.
7. Don't pay an agent to fill in forms. Some charge €150 per applicant for work you can do yourself in an evening. Agents add value in complicated cases — refusals, sponsorship, unusual travel histories. Not for a straightforward family holiday.
8. Get the file right first time. The single biggest cost for families isn't the fee — it's reapplying. A refusal across four people costs you €270 plus four service fees, and adds weeks you probably don't have.

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for official advice. Always verify current requirements with official sources before you travel.

Key takeaways

• A family of four pays €270 in official Schengen visa fees (2 adults + 2 children aged 6–11), or €180 if both children are under 6.
• Budget €380–€500 all-in once application centre service fees, insurance, photos and printing are added.
• The visa fee is set by EU law, so it's identical across every Schengen country — but application centre service fees vary.
• Children under 6 pay nothing. Children aged 6–11 pay €45. Everyone aged 12 and over pays €90.
• Age is assessed on the date of application — check birthdays near a boundary before you book.
• Multiple-entry visas cost exactly the same as single-entry ones.
• Fees are non-refundable, including if you're refused. Getting the file right first time is the real cost saving.
• If one parent is an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, the whole family's visa fees may drop to zero. A British passport does not qualify.

Fees, age thresholds and application centre charges change. Confirm the current figures with the relevant consulate or application centre before you pay anything.

See also: Schengen travel insurance requirements