The name "Schengen" originates from a
small town in Luxembourg. In June 1985,
seven European Union countries signed a
treaty to end internal border checkpoints
and controls. More countries have joined
the treaty over the past years. At
present, there are 26 Schengen countries, all in
Europe.
The 26 Schengen countries
are: Austria, Belgium, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary,
Iceland, Italy, Latvia,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and
Switzerland.
WHAT IS A SCHENGEN
VISA?
As of March 26th, 1995, a new
type of visa - the Schengen
visa - was introduced by the
following European countries:
Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Greece, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Portugal and Spain.
With a Schengen visa, you may
enter one country and travel
freely throughout the
Schengen zone. Internal
border controls have
disappeared; there are no or
few stops and checks. This
means that internal air, road
and train travel are handled
as domestic trips, similar to
travel from one US state to
another. Those who traveled
in Europe before Schengen
Visa came into being know the
difference.
WHY SCHENGEN
?
The Schengen countries have
joined efforts to enhance the
quality of their service to
the public. A central
database, common procedures
and criteria for visa
issuance and use of the same
visa sticker with high-level
built-in security are all
assets for both - the
Schengen countries and you
the visitor. Moreover, the
use of a common visa system
has enabled Schengen
countries to re-organize
their office network. Today
the Schengen countries are
represented by professional
and skilled staff at a much
wider network than before and
now have over 1,500 offices
worldwide, of which nearly
100 are located in the United
States.
The Schengen visa helps
promote a unified Europe, and
is therefore an important
symbol of the European Union.
VISA/PASSPORT
REQUIREMENTS
If you intend to transit
through or visit several
Schengen states (Germany,
Austria, Belgium, France,
Greece, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal,
Sweden, Spain, Denmark,
Finland, Iceland and Norway)
for up to 90 days for tourist
or business purposes you have
to obtain your Schengen visa.
After obtaining a visa please
check the visa details in
your passport to ascertain
for which country or
countries you visa is valid
(i.e. all Schengen states,
only some Schengen states or
only one country).
The border authorities are
entitled to examine whether,
at the time of entry, the
prerequisites for entry
continue to apply. This is
international practice. If
the prerequisites for entry
or transit no longer apply,
or if you are unable to
provide the relevant
evidence, you may be refused
entry by the border
authorities although you
posses a valid visa.
COMMON FOREIGN AND
SECURITY POLICY
(CFSP)
The Common Foreign and
Security Policy (CFSP) was
established as the second
pillar of the European Union
in the 1992 Treaty on
European Union signed at
Maastricht. A number of
important changes were
introduced in the 1999
Amsterdam Treaty.
The Amsterdam Treaty spells
out five fundamental
objectives of the CFSP:
* to safeguard the common
values, fundamental
interests, independence and
integrity of the EU in
conformity with the principle
of the United Nations
Charter;
* to strengthen the security
of the EU in all ways;
* to preserve peace and
strengthen international
security, in accordance with
the principles of the UN
Charter;
* to promote international
co-operation; and
* to develop and consolidate
democracy and the rule of
law, and respect for human
rights and fundamental
freedoms.
JUSTICE AND HOME
AFFAIRS
Citizens of the EU expect to
live without fear of
persecution or violence
wherever they may live. EU
legislation in Justice and
Home Affairs (JHA) has been
designed to address such
concerns and deal with the
complex issues of security,
rights and freedoms,
political asylum, illegal
immigration, organized crime,
drug smuggling and terrorism.
JHA rules also govern the way
the EU’s national courts work
together when people are
involved in legal proceedings
in more than one country. As
more and more citizens take
advantage of their rights to
move around the EU for either
business or personal reasons,
the need for greater
co-operation between national
forces, customs services and
legal systems is set to
increase enormously.
The 1992 Maastricht Treaty
formally recognized that the
areas covered by JHA were a
common concern among EU
Member States and thus
created a special law-making
structure to handle
legislation linked to these
questions. This is often
called the ‘third pillar’ of
the EU, as opposed to the
majority of traditional EU
responsibilities in the
‘first pillar’ and the Common
Foreign and Security Policy
in the ‘second pillar’.
However, this law-making
structure under
intergovernmental agreements
remained a relatively slow
and cumbersome process.
In May 1999 the Treaty of
Amsterdam moved several key
policy areas, including
asylum and immigration policy
and issues concerning
co-operation between civil
courts, into the EU’s normal
law-making structures by
introducing majority voting
decisions
FUNDAMENTAL
RIGHTS
The Treaty of Amsterdam has
given EU citizens additional
fundamental rights to tackle
most forms of discrimination
on the grounds of
nationality, race, sex,
religious belief, disability,
age or sexual orientation. In
December 2000, a Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the
European Union was proclaimed
by the European Parliament,
the Council and the
Commission.
ASYLUM
POLICY
A pressing issue today is how
to cope in an area without
internal frontiers with large
numbers of immigrants and
asylum seekers while
respecting Europe’s
humanitarian traditions of
welcoming foreigners and
offering a safe haven to
refugees from persecution and
danger. While it remains up
to individual Member States
to decide whether or not to
grant asylum, the EU has
decided on an overall policy
so that asylum-seekers are
treated similarly by all EU
countries. The EU and
Australia hold regular
meetings on asylum policy at
Senior Official level.
POLICE AND CUSTOMS
CO-OPERATION
The main tools for dealing
with multinational and
cross-border crime are
improved and closer
co-operation between the EU’s
national and local police
forces, and between customs
authorities. These are backed
up by reinforcing Europol and
also by enhancing police and
judicial co-operation to
prevent crime, increase the
likelihood of the
perpetrators of crime being
caught and punished, and
deprive criminals of the
rewards of their crimes.
Europol, set up in 1992, is
the European law enforcement
organization whose objective
is to improve the
effectiveness and
co-operation of the law
enforcement authorities in
Member States to prevent and
combat terrorism, unlawful
drug trafficking and other
forms of international
organized crime.
COMBATING
DRUGS
The EU has drawn up a
coordinated strategy on drugs
designed to put more emphasis
on prevention and on reducing
demand. It also aims to
reinforce the fight against
organized crime, strengthen
police, customs and judicial
co-operation and to collect,
analyze and disseminate
objective and comparable data
on drugs in the EU.
FURTHER
REQUIREMENTS
Your stay is limited to the number of
days specified in the visa. The visa may
be granted for a single visit or multiple
visits. Please check each
countries' requirements
before assuming that you only
require a Schengen for your European
journey. You will usually be
required to hold a return air
ticket for some countries or
other proof of onward travel. Travel
insurance is also expected of you.
APPLYING WITHIN THE
UK
If you are applying for your
Schengen visa within the
UK, bear in mind you
need a minimum of 3-6 months
left on both your passport
and your UK visa. Not many
embassies will issue visas to
people who are in the UK on
tourist visas of 6 months
duration or less.
SCHENGEN
VISAS
According to the purpose of
traveling the Uniform Schengen Visa
applies to all of the two categories, “A”
and “C”. “A” category stands for the
Airport Transit Visa which allows its
holder to travel through the international
zone of the Schengen country Airport
without entering the Schengen Area.
“C” category stands for a Short-term
visa which allows its holder to reside in
a Schengen Area for a certain period of
time depending on the visa validity. This
particular category, according to the
holder's purpose of the travel can be
obtained in a form of: Single-entry visa,
Double-entry visa and multiple entry visa.
“B” category denotes 'Transit Visa'.
This type of visa grants travellers
permission to commute through any Schengen
country to a country that is not a
Schengen member state. However, the period
of transit cannot exceed 5 days. ... The
visa expires following the traveller's
second exit.
The national visa of “D” category is
granted to the certain individuals who are
to be studying, working or permanently
residing in one of the Schengen countries.
The national visa can be of a single
entry, granted to the people who are in
need of residing in the Schengen country
for a certain period of time and for a
sole purpose after which they shall return
to their country. On the other hand a
multi-entry national visa is also granted
for certain individuals, allowing its
holder to travel in and out of this
Schengen country as he/she pleases and
also travel throughout the whole Schengen
Area without additional visa requirements.
We do all types of Schengen Visas.
To discuss your visa
requirements, click here.
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