Third country nationals will soon need to pay a higher fee when applying for a Schengen Visa to the EU countries. The European Parliament and Council have voted pro a new EU Visa Code, which among others increases the fee for a Schengen visa application from €60 to €80. According to a press release of the European Parliament, the Parliament and Council negotiators supported the proposed changes, and now the new code will be passed to the [...]
The European Parliament members have given the green light for the accession of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen Zone, in a plenary session on December 11. With a majority of votes, the EP members approved a call for the swift admission of both EU countries into the borderless EU area. According to a press release of the European Parliament, the MEPs called on the EU Council to take a swift and affirmative decision, adopting the non-legislative [...]
The European Commission has decided that UK nationals should not fall under the Schengen visa regime, after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union at the end of March next year. During today’s meeting in Strasbourg, the senior executives of the European Union have come up with a proposal that EU should permit British passport holders to enter its territory for short-stays without a visa. Still, according to a press release of the European Commission, the UK [...]
The European Parliament has given the green light to Kosovo visa liberalization, by approving the opening of visa talks. With 420 votes pro, 186 against, and 20 abstentions, now the proposal for the amendment of the regulation to move Kosovo under the Annex of visa free entities, moves to the Council of Ministers for adaption. If the EU Council adapts the change of the regulation by a qualified majority, Kosovo citizens may be able to travel visa-free [...]
Indian nationals will no longer have to go through all the processes and requirements for obtaining an Airport Transit Visa (ATV) for France, since they are no longer required to be in possession of such a visa to transit French airports. Since 23rd of July and on, every Indian passport holder is permitted to go through the international zone of any airport in France without the need to present an Airport Transit Visa. Ambassador of France to [...]
On June 5th, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union passed a ruling which gave same sex spouses freedom of movement anywhere within the EU, even if the country itself has not yet made same sex marriage legal. This is an unprecedented ruling as 6 out of the 28 EU countries have yet to legalize same sex marriage. Gay couples are not recognized in these countries and do not fit the definition of marriage. However, [...]
Wednesday’s agreement of the European Parliament representatives and the European Council Presidency on the proposal for the establishment of a European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) has sparked anger among British citizens and tabloids, which have not hesitated to show their disapproval. Headlines as “EU must be joking”, “Britons forced to pay €7 for Europe visa”, “Brexit Bombshell” etc, have dominated the top-selling UK newspapers, after it was revealed that Britain might be along the third world countries that [...]
After the Kosovo Parliament ratified the Agreement on border demarcation with Montenegro on March 21, another obstacle stands in the way of the youngest European country towards its struggle to achieve visa liberalization, as the last country in the region that remains isolated, even 10 years after its declaration of independence. Though the president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci declared days after the ratification of this agreement, that Kosovo has delivered all the criteria for the visa liberalization, [...]
One year after getting visa liberalization the leaders of Georgia have assessed the Georgia-EU visa free deal as the greatest achievement for the country so far. Within the year, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry, 192,453 Georgian citizens have visited the Schengen Zone for 258,663 times in total, while 1001 Georgians have been refused entry to the EU territory. Georgian leaders assess visa liberalization as Georgia’s greatest achievements According to the Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, the historic [...]
The Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday that Turkey expects the European Union to lift its visa regime for Turkish nationals soon, after Turkey submitted a paper detailing Turkey’s roadmap for the fulfillment of the remaining benchmarks out of 72 for visa liberalization, in return for the implementation of the Readmission Agreement. Kalin told to the press that Turkish EU ambassador, Faruk Kaymakci has submitted the draft documents to the EU Commission First Vice-President Frans [...]
