2023-06-14 11:06:52
The European Parliament and the Member States of the European Union announced on Tuesday 13 June that they had reached an agreement on the digitization of the visa procedure for the countries of the Schengen area. This agreement provides for the replacement of the current sticker by a digital visa which will be presented in the form of a barcode.
Before entering into force, this agreement on the digitization of the visa procedure for the countries of the Schengen area will still have to be officially ratified. Once in place, most visa applicants (for a stay of less than three months) will be able to complete their procedures online via a single website, rather than at a consulate.
“Applicants will benefit from easier, cheaper and faster visa procedures,” said Slovenian MEP Matjaž Nemec (Socialists & Democrats Group), rapporteur for the text. Sweden’s Minister for Migration, Maria Malmer Stenergard, whose country holds the six-monthly Presidency of the Council of the EU, added, for her part, that this change would allow “to increase the security of the Schengen area by reducing, for example, the risk of counterfeiting and theft of the sticker”.
Applicants will only need to appear in person at the consulate if they are applying for a visa for the first time, if their biometrics are no longer valid or if they have a new passport. When a person intends to travel to several Schengen countries, the platform will automatically determine which of them is responsible for examining the application depending on the length of stay.
Today, 27 European countries issue Schengen visas, as members of this area where national border controls have been abolished. These are 23 of the 27 EU Member States, in addition to Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania, where internal border controls have not yet been lifted, as well as Ireland, which is not part of the Schengen area, do not issue Schengen visas, only visas nationals.
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