This is the most-asked Italy question we receive, and it is a reasonable one. Before a family spends years of savings, they want to know the odds.
The honest answer is that the number does not exist. No authority publishes an approval or refusal rate for Italian student visas for Bangladeshi applicants — not the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not the Ministry of University and Research, not the European Commission, not Eurostat. Every percentage you have been shown was produced by whoever showed it to you.
That is not an evasion, and it is not us being cautious. It is a fact about how the statistics are built, and once you see the structure you can check it yourself. This page is the Italy-specific version of the argument; the cross-country version is why nobody publishes a student visa success rate.
Why the number cannot exist, in two steps
Step one: the Schengen statistics do not contain your visa. The European Commission publishes annual visa figures, consulate by consulate, including applications and refusals for Bangladesh. Those figures cover short-stay type C visas: tourism, family visits, business, up to ninety days. A degree in Italy is longer than ninety days, so it requires a national type D visa, granted under Italian law rather than the Schengen Visa Code. The reporting obligation that produces the published statistics attaches to type C. Type D is national competence and carries no equivalent central publication. So the dataset everyone reaches for is measuring a different process with a different question at its centre. What that figure does measure is set out in the Schengen refusal rate explained, and the difference between the two visas in type D versus type C.
Step two: Eurostat has a numerator and no denominator. Eurostat publishes first residence permits by reason and by citizenship: how many Bangladeshi citizens received a first permit, and for what reason. That is genuine official data and it is useful. It simply cannot produce a rate, because it does not record how many people applied or how many were refused. It is the examination result with the number of candidates removed.
What is actually published
Here is the real 2024 Eurostat picture for Bangladeshi citizens, labelled exactly for what it is.
| Figure | 2024 value | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy's share of first permits issued to Bangladeshi citizens across the EU | 46.8 percent | Italy was the most common EU destination for Bangladeshi citizens that year | Not an approval rate, and not about students specifically |
| Largest single reason across all Bangladeshi first permits | 40.8 percent, other including international protection | The biggest category of reason for the permits granted | Not education, and not a statement about student files |
| Italy student visa approval rate for Bangladesh | Not published | — | Does not exist in any official dataset |
Two things follow from that table, and both are worth sitting with.
The first is that Italy really is where Bangladeshis in Europe mostly end up: nearly half of all first permits issued to Bangladeshi citizens anywhere in the EU were Italian. That is a meaningful fact about the corridor.
The second is less comfortable and is why we publish the second row. Across all Bangladeshi permits, the largest single reason was not education or work but the other category, which includes international protection. So the corridor that the Italy numbers describe is not primarily a student corridor. A consular officer reading a student file from Dhaka is working inside that context, and it is part of why the money and coherence tests described in why Italy student visa files get refused are applied as firmly as they are.
The Italian twist: the data exists, it is just not published
This is the part specific to Italy, and it is not in the cross-country article.
Italian procedure runs the whole pre-enrolment and visa cycle through one government portal. When a consulate issues a type D study visa, it must confirm the completion of the procedure on Universitaly. When a visa is refused, or a candidate withdraws, that too must be recorded on Universitaly. And from the 2026/2027 academic year, a recorded refusal immediately makes a further pre-enrolment validation available to that university, because validations are capped at the institution's international places plus 20 percent.
So the Italian system necessarily knows, application by application and university by university, how many study visas were issued and how many were refused. The information is not missing. It is simply not published as a rate, by anyone, for any nationality. That distinction matters, because it means the absence of a public figure is a publication choice rather than a measurement problem — and it means nobody outside the ministry is in a position to reconstruct it.
Why the numbers you have been quoted contradict each other
Ask three offices in Dhaka the same question in the same week and you will get three different percentages, all stated with confidence, none with a source. They cannot all be right, and there is no register against which any of them could be checked.
There is a deeper problem than dishonesty, and it applies even to an office keeping honest records. A consultancy's rate describes the files it agreed to take. An office that only accepts strong applicants will report a better number than one that helps everybody, while doing less work for each student. The figure that sounds like a measure of competence is substantially a measure of who was turned away at the door. That is why we do not publish one either, and why the question cannot be repaired by asking for more decimal places.
For the number to mean anything it would have to state the country, the visa type, the year, the mix of institutions, and exactly which files were counted in the denominator — withdrawn applications, incomplete files, applications refused as inadmissible before assessment. No figure in this market carries even two of those.
What decides your file instead
None of these is a probability. All of them are things you can inspect this week.
| Question about your own file | What a yes means |
|---|---|
| Has the required amount sat in the account for months, with visible ordinary activity | The traceability test is survivable |
| Can every large credit be explained in one sentence, with a document behind it | The origin-of-funds check has an answer |
| Is the sponsor the student, the family unit or a relative up to the fourth degree | The sponsor is inside the circle the rule allows |
| Is the Universitaly pre-enrolment validated, with any reservation lifted | The one automatic refusal is off the table |
| Does the language certificate report all four skills at B2 or above | The language ground is closed |
| Do the name and date of birth match exactly on SSC, HSC, NID and passport | The commonest technical refusal is avoided |
| Can a stranger read the file and say in one sentence why you are going | The coherence element has been met |
Seven yeses describe a strong file. No percentage anybody quotes you carries more information than that, and unlike a percentage, each row is something you can act on.
What to ask an agency instead
- Which part of my file do you think is weakest, and why? The only one of these questions that cannot be answered without actually reading the file.
- Which office decides my application, and can you show me its own page?
- What happens if I am refused — do you recommend appeal or reapplication, and what does each cost me?
- What is not included in your fee: the consular fee, insurance, translation, CIMEA, courier?
An office that answers the first question with a specific weakness is doing the work. An office that answers the success-rate question with a number is marketing. More on that in how to choose a study abroad consultancy.
Who this page is not for
If you came here for a number to put in a family meeting, we have failed you, and we would rather fail you that way than hand over an invented figure that a relative will repeat for a year. If you have already been quoted a rate you trust, ask the office for its source and see what happens. And if you want the practical work rather than the argument, go instead to the Italy visa route from Bangladesh, which is about what to do rather than about what cannot be known.
We publish no success rate of our own. Doing so would be exactly the thing this page exists to warn you about.
Official sources — check for yourself
- MUR/MAECI — Procedures for international students, AY 2026/27 and 2027/28
- European Commission — Schengen visa statistics, short-stay visas only
- Eurostat — first residence permits by reason and citizenship
- Universitaly — the official pre-enrolment portal
- Embassy of Italy, Dhaka
Rules and figures change. We review these articles periodically and show the date above, but always confirm the current requirement with the official source before you act on it.
Common questions
What is the Italy student visa success rate for Bangladeshi students?+
There is no published figure. Italy issues a national type D visa for study, and national long-stay visas are outside the Schengen visa statistics, which cover short-stay type C only. Eurostat counts permits issued, not applications or refusals, so it cannot produce a rate either. Any percentage you have seen was created by whoever quoted it.
Is the Italy visa ratio for Bangladesh higher or lower than other countries?+
Nobody can say, because no comparable rate is published for any of these countries. What Eurostat does show for 2024 is that Italy was the most common EU destination for Bangladeshi citizens, taking 46.8 percent of the first permits issued to them across the EU. That is a count of permits granted, not a measure of how likely an application is to succeed.
Does the Italian government know its own refusal numbers?+
It has the underlying records. Italian procedure requires a consulate to confirm an issued study visa on Universitaly and to record a refusal or a withdrawal there too, and from 2026/2027 a recorded refusal releases a pre-enrolment validation slot back to the university. The data exists inside the system; it is not published as a rate for any nationality.
Why do different agencies quote different success rates for Italy?+
Because there is no published figure to check any of them against. Beyond that, even an honestly kept rate would mostly describe which students that office agreed to take on: a firm that accepts only strong files will report a better number while doing less for each student. Ask which part of your file is weakest instead.
If there is no rate, how do I judge my own chances of getting an Italian student visa?+
By the requirements the circular sets and the elements the consulate is instructed to weigh: funds of EUR 10,179.85 that are lawful and traceable, a sponsor inside the family unit or up to the fourth degree, a validated Universitaly pre-enrolment, language evidence at B2 in all four skills, matching identity documents, and a course that follows from your previous studies. Those are inspectable today; a percentage is not.
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