A Schengen-Visa allows a foreigner to travel to any country of the Schengen area and stay for a limited time of up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes. Hence, persons entering the EU on a Schengen-Visa are likely to benefit the union’s economy. Nevertheless, member states’ consulates around the world handle Schengen-Visa application very differently, resulting in rejection rates ranging from as low as 0 % e.g. in the German consulate in Pretoria (2013) to as high as 92 % e.g. in the Maltese consulate in Algier (2017). We argue in line with the literature that visa policies are motivated not only by the goal to attract wealthy tourists and business persons but just as much by the professed need to deter unwanted, risky immigrants. We hypothesize that terrorist events in Schengen states negatively affect the demand for visa and positively affect the rejection rates in third countries with a Muslim majority. To test the assumptions, we use a dataset containing a compilation of data on visa applications and issuance from all Schengen area countries between 2011 and 2019 derived from the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (2020). By linking theories of demand for visa with theories about their (restricted) supply this research contributes to a more holistic understanding of the unequal visa policies and practices within the Schengen area.