The European Council and European Parliament have reached a political agreement to allow the digitalisation of the Schengen visa procedure. The agreed rules will modernise, simplify, and harmonise the visa procedures for non-EU country nationals applying for a visa and for the Member States who need to grant such visas through digitalisation.
Visa procedures for the Schengen area still heavily rely on paperwork, adding costs for both travellers and the member states. The European Commission also said that physical visa stickers are also more prone to falsification, fraud, and theft, something which ‘digital visas’ will significantly improve.
Replacement of the Schengen visa sticker with a digital Schengen visa (encrypted 2D barcode) which will apply also for long-stay visas. It will also be issued by EU countries not yet fully applying the Schengen rules (Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus). The Regulation must now be formally adopted by the European Parliament and the Council.
Under the digital overhaul of the Schengen visa procedure, the new regulations will modernise the digitalisation of the visa sticker and the digitalisation of the visa application by setting up an ‘EU online visa application’ platform.
The e-visa is also available for permanent residents from any European Union country. Permanent residence holders also grant first-degree relatives access to the Kingdom via an upon-arrival visa at any air, land, and sea ports. Holders of a valid tourism or business visa from the US, the UK, or one of the Schengen states have been granted an exception, provided that the visa was used at least once to enter the issuing country.
At the new, single visa application platform, visa applicants will be able to apply for a Schengen visa online, including the payment of the same visa fee, regardless of the Schengen country they want to visit.The platform will also have up-to-date information on Schengen short-stay visas, as well as all necessary information regarding the requirements and procedures (such as supporting documents, visa fee or the need for an appointment to collect biometric identifiers).
The visa platform will also automatically determine which Schengen country is responsible to examine an application when the intended visit includes several Member States. This also includes a chatbot functionality allowing applicants to get answers to their questions in a user-friendly way.
