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Posts Tagged ‘Schengen Visa’

Romania and Bulgaria need to do more to overcome crime and corruption before joining the Schengen zone, which allows passport-free travel, the European Union Justice and Home Affairs Ministers Council decided today.

The council will reconsider the two Black Sea countries’ bids in September, after the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, releases its next report on efforts to fight graft and organized crime, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said. The decision came a day after the European Parliament recommended the two countries’ applications.

“I hope the commission’s report will contribute to a positive decision in September,” Tsvetanov told reporters today in Luxembourg. “We have covered all the Schengen membership criteria.”

Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, aspire to join eight other former communist countries that are already Schengen members. Their bids coincide with discussions in France and Denmark to reintroduce passport checks at their borders on concern about an influx of North African migrants through Italy.

Countries hoping to join in the Schengen system, named for the Luxembourg village where the treaty allowing border-free travel was signed in 1985, need the unanimous endorsement of existing members, based on an assessment by the commission.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, voted 487 to 77 in favor of the Bulgarian and Romanian applications before passing the recommendation on to the ministerial council. The assembly urged Bulgaria “to take additional measures,” including a special action plan with Greece and Turkey, to cope with a possible surge in migration pressure.

“Illegal migration makes Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece one of the EU’s most sensitive external border areas,” the assembly said yesterday.

The two former Soviet-bloc countries spent 1.16 billion euros ($1.69 billion) to beef up their border police and equip them with patrol boats, helicopters, scanners and night-vision cameras to ensure the security of borders with Turkey, Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine and a stretch of the Black Sea coast.

Source: Bloomberg

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France and Italy have called for the European Union’s Schengen agreement on visa-free travel to be reformed after a dispute between the two countries over immigration from north Africa.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held talks in Rome yesterday to defuse tensions over Italy’s decision to grant temporary residence permits to 20,000 Tunisian migrants who have arrived in Italy since the uprising in the country in January.

French authorities provoked Italy’s ire last week by blocking a train carrying about 60 Tunisians from crossing the Italy-France border, saying only those who proved they could support themselves financially would be granted entry.

“We want Schengen to survive, but to survive Schengen must be reformed,” Mr Sarkozy said yesterday. “We believe in free circulation but we believe in a state of law and a certain number of rules.”

The Schengen agreement allows for visa-free travel between 25 continental European states, including Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, although national authorities retain some discretion to deny entry to non-EU citizens.

Mr Berlusconi said neither country wished to abandon the treaty but that “in exceptional circumstances, we believe there must be changes”. Relations between France and Italy, already strained by divisions over the intervention in Libya, have been damaged by the stand-off over north African immigration. Although the European Commission said France did not breach Schengen rules by temporarily closing the border near the southeastern town of Menton, Italy lodged a formal complaint over the decision.

The dispute is set against a fraught political background in France, where the rise of the far-right Front National has made immigration a major battleground.

Mr Berlusconi has also come under domestic pressure on immigration from his coalition allies in the Northern League, who failed in their initial bid to deport Tunisian migrants who arrived by boat at the island of Lampedusa. Rome maintains it has not received enough support from European neighbours in coping with the flow of migrants from north Africa.

Officials in Paris and Rome have been working on proposals to widen a state’s right to temporarily suspend its Schengen commitments, although the Élysée Palace at the weekend backtracked on its use of the term “suspension”. “France does not want to suspend Schengen,” Mr Sarkozy’s adviser, Henri Guaino, said on Sunday, but rather to widen the clauses allowing for border controls to be reimposed “in particular circumstances”.

Mr Berlusconi said the two leaders had jointly written to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso asking him to look into possible reforms of the Schengen deal. They had also urged for “greater collaboration” between EU states on migration flows. “Southern European states should not be left alone to deal with mass immigration,” Mr Berlusconi added.

The two leaders agreed to ask the Tunisian government to co-operate more closely with them in dissuading migrants from travelling to Europe.

Source: Irish Times

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France has set up two visa sections at its consulates in Bangalore and Kolkata from where one can also get Schengen visa that enables travel to certain European countries.

While the visa office in Bangalore became operational yesterday, the one in Kolkata will start issuing visas and business permits from the end of this week.

“The move is to provide better visa services to the people of the country. The new centers will reduce the burden of the people to travel to far away places to get their visa,” French Embassy officials said here today.

Schengen visa enables one to travel to certain European countries even if he has secured the visa from one particular country.

This will enable travelers from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to get the visas from the Bangalore office. Till now, they had to go to Mumbai to get one.

Officials of the ‘Invest in France Agency’ said the French government had recently decided to 10-year residency permit for exceptional economic contributions to the country.

Source: Deccan Herald

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If you’re a non-EU resident going to France for business or a holiday, you will need to get a French Visa called a Schengen Visa.

France is one of 25 countries in the Schengen Agreement of 1995 which includes Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Schengen Visas are issued from the embassy of the country considered to be your main destination.

French Schengen Visa holders are able to visit France and other Schengen states for up to 90 days for business or travel, but not for employment.

Nearly all non-EU nationalities require a Schengen Visa for France. Please note that for Visa First to apply for your French Schengen Visa, you must be currently residing in the UK with a valid work permit or student visa.

To be eligible for a Schengen Visa you must meet the following criteria:

• You do not already have an existing valid Schengen Visa issued by another country in the Schengen Agreement.
• Your passport validity must exceed the duration of your trip by more than 3 months
• You must be able to provide documentation to support your application including evidence of funds for the duration of the trip and evidence of your intention to leave before the French visa expires, for example an onward ticket for travel.
• You must be currently residing in the UK and hold a valid work permit or student visa.

What nationalities need a France Schengen Visa?

Almost all nationalities need a French Schengen Visa to visit France.

If you are from one of the following countries you will need to apply to the French embassy in person:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Myanmar, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran , Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Travel Document holders (1951 Convention), Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Surinam, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Yemen, and Zimbabwe (for France only).

If you are from one of the following countries you do NOT require a Schengen Visa:

All EU Countries, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong (Blue Passports Only), Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea (Rep Of), Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Uruguay, USA, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Duration

The France Schengen Visa entitles you to visit the country for a maximum of three months. It can be issued for either single, double or multiple entry.

For further information, please contact French Embassy