BRUSSELS – In a fresh development expected to facilitate visa seekers, council negotiators, and the European Parliament have provisionally agreed on rules to digitalise the visa procedure.
In an official press release issued on Tuesday, it has been announced that the regulation introduces the possibility to apply for a visa online and to replace the current visa sticker with a digital visa. The proposal would make the visa application procedure more efficient and is likely to improve the security of the Schengen area.
The agreement still needs to be approved by member states before the adoption process in the Council and the European Parliament can start.
‘The digital visa will make the application process easier for travelers, simplifies the administrative procedure and increases the security of the Schengen area by for example reducing the risk of falsification and theft of the visa sticker,’ Maria Malmer Stenergard, Swedish Minister for Migration said.
As far as the net result is concerned, the rules after adoption will create an EU visa application platform and with a few exceptions, applications for Schengen visas will be made through this platform, a single website, which will forward them to the relevant national visa systems.
It has been clarified officially that on this platform, visa applicants will be able to introduce all relevant data, upload electronic copies of their travel- and supporting documents, and pay their visa fees.
Moreover, applicants will also be notified of the decisions concerning their visa through the same portal. Another important development is that an in-person appearance at the consulate will in principle only be necessary for first-time applicants, persons whose biometric data are no longer valid and those with a new travel document.
The details announced as of now say that when an applicant intends to visit several Schengen countries, the platform will automatically determine which one of them is responsible for examining the application on the basis of the duration of stay; however, the applicant will also have the possibility to indicate whether the application needs to be processed by a specific member state according to the purpose of travel.
Under the proposed new rules, visas will be issued in digital format, as a 2D barcode, cryptographically signed which will reduce security risks related to counterfeit and stolen visa stickers. The development follows months of deliberation as the Commission submitted in April 2022 a legislative proposal aimed at digitalizing the visa procedure.
