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Entry visas, new rules for short stays

22/04/2019

The review, approved by the Europarliament, has to be formally adopted by the Council

Simplify entries for short stays in the Schengen area, strengthen security standards and further link the issuance of visas to the cooperation of non-EU countries in the fight against irregular migration. These are the main guidelines of the reform of the Visa Code (EU Visa Code) approved on 17 April in Strasbourg by the European Parliament. Now the reform must be formally adopted by the Council. It will enter into force six months after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

New features
The reform changes some of the rules on short stay visas that allow free movement among the 26 Schengen countries for a maximum of 90 days per semester and are normally used for tourism, business, commerce and short courses of study. Applications have increased significantly in recent years (from around 10 million in 2009 to around 15 million in 2016) and are still an indispensable step for citizens from over 100 countries outside the EU.
New features of the text approved by MEPs include more flexible procedures, an upward adjustment of tariffs and the introduction of conditionality mechanisms with cooperation in the return of irregular migrants.

In particular:
- travellers will be able to submit applications from six months (compared to the current three) to 15 days before the trip, seafarers even nine months before the trip. Applications can be submitted via Internet and, in most of the cases, directly from the country of residence, also by contacting external providers where there are no diplomatic representations of the EU country;
- the cost of the visa will rise to 80 euros (today it is 60), these additional resources should allow consulates to ensure the necessary controls also by equipping themselves with better IT tools. Reductions will be possible for children under the age of 18, while children under the age of 6, students and researchers will continue to be exempt from the payment;
- frequent travellers with a "positive history", i.e. those who have met the deadlines for their entry visas in the past, will be able to have multiple-entry visas with gradually increasing validity from one to five years;
- the procedures for examining visa applications will be more restrictive or more generous on issues such as maximum examination time, visa validity, costs and exemptions from payment, also based on the cooperation of the traveler's country of origin in repatriation and readmission of irregular migrants.

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Pubblicato il: Lunedì, 22 Aprile 2019 - Ultima modifica: Giovedì, 27 Febbraio 2020

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