Schengen Visa News

The consulates of the common travel area of Schengen located abroad have received over 16 million Schengen visa applications for the second year in a row. Despite that there was a decrease of under 1%, compared to 2017, this is the second highest number of applications that the Schengen consulates have received in the recent years. 16,007,785 applications for a Schengen visa were lodged in 2018, 9.6% of which were turned down. This is the highest rate [...]

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 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 [...]

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 countries that fall [...]