Map showing countries following
the Schengen Visa
The Schengen
Visa
There
is a single visa for all the EU countries, except the United Kingdom and
Ireland, called the Schengen Visa. Although Norway and Iceland are not members
of the EU they implement the Schengen Visa scheme. This visa allows a person to
visit one or several of the Schengen countries for business, tourism and
visiting relatives for maximum of 90 days every six months. The European
Commission Delegation has no responsibilty for issuing visas. The Member State
Embassies continue to provide this service.
The
purpose of the Schengen Agreement is to enable people to move freely between
the countries that are a party to it. All who enter or leave the Schengen Zone,
however, are to be carefully checked.
Background
The
free movement of persons has been a European Community objective ever since the
start in the early 1950's. Over the years, however the Member States have found
it difficult to agree on how such a goal is to be achieved. Belgium, France,
Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands eventually decided to launch a joint
scheme outside the EU's regulatory framework. In 1985, they signed an inter
governmental agreement in the town of Schengen in Luxembourg that came to be
known as the 'Schengen Agreement'. This accord provided for the gradual
abolition of controls at the signatories common borders.
In 1990, the countries signed a Convention
setting out in detail how the Agreement was to be applied and free movement to
be achieved in practice. The Convention came into force in 1995, when border
controls were abolished between the five original countries plus Spain and
Portugal.
The Convention includes provisions on things like
police cooperation and the strengthening of the Schengen Zone's external
borders. The idea is to ensure that the principle of free movement does not
benefit international crime. Consequently, the Schengen countries cooperate on
the prevention and investigation of criminal activities - including drugs and
firearms offences - and on curbing illegal immigration. When the Amsterdam
Agreement came into force in 1999, Schengen Cooperation became a part of the EU
and is now governed by EU rules and provisions.
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Which countries are taking part ?
Almost
all the the 15 member states of the EU have become a party to Schengen. The
signatories are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and
Sweden. The three nordic countries joined in 1996 and have become full members
in practice from March 2001. Norway and Iceland, who are not EU members, have
signed a cooperation agreement, which means that travellers can enter these
countries on the same terms as for the Schengen country.
Ireland and the United Kingdom, however, have chosen to remain outside the
Schengen Scheme.
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What does Schengen involve ?
The
guiding principle is that all persons legally present in the Schengen Zone can
move about freely without having to show passports when crossing internal
frontiers. These internal frontiers are defined as the national boundaries
between the countries taking part in the Schengen, together with airports and
seaports in the case of traffic to and from a Schengen country.You can cross
the internal frontiers wherever and whenever you like without having to undergo
personal checks.
At the zone's external boundaries, that is
the borders with countries that are not a party to the Schengen Agreement, all
travellers are to be carefully checked, however. You may only cross these
borders at special checkpoints and only during predetermined opening hours.
If you are not a citizen of a Schengen
country, you may need a visa in order to enter the Schengen zone. Such visas
are usually valid in all Schengen countries and entitle the bearer to travel
freely between them until the visa expires. Once they have legally
entered a Schengen country, those who are not required to have visas may travel
freely about the zone for three months at the most. Foreign citizens with
residence permits in a Schengen country, and whose identities have been
properly established, may also travel freely in the zone for three months. This
means, for instance, that a foreign citizen living in Sweden may visit friends
and acquaintances living in another Schengen country without having to apply
for a visa first. Asylum-seekers, however are not entitled to travel frrely
between the Schengen countries.
Despite the fact that personal checks have
been abolished at the frontiers between the Schengen countries, everyone should
make a point of taking along documentation showing thier identity and
nationality. This means that Swedish citizens should take along their
passports, as this is the only ID document available to them showing their
nationality. People from countries outside the EU must be able to show their
passports. If you are required to have a visa, you must also be able to show a
valid visa or residence permit. If the documentation - example a Swedish
alien's passport - shows that you have not been able to prove your identity, it
is upto the individual Schengen country to decide whether to admit you.
The rules concerning settling and working in
another country are not covered by the Schengen scheme.
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The Schengen Information System,
SIS
To
comply with the Schengen requirements, Sweden has taken a number of steps: laws
have been amended, airports and seaports have been redesigned and Sweden has
joined the Schengen Information System, SIS. This allows border police, the
customs and others to search for and exchange information on people.
Each SIS member may enter computerised
particulars about persons, vehicles of objects that are missing or wanted. The
SIS also has a blacklist that allows the participating countries to keep a
record of persons they do not wish to see entering the Schengen zone. This list
is consequently of major importance for the individual. A person on the
blacklist may have committed a serious crime, for instance, or may have been
expelled or deported and ordered not to re-enter a country for a specific
period of time.
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Common Visa Policy
An
important part of the Schengen scheme is its common visa policy. Agreement has
been reached on which countries citizens require visa's to enter the Schengen
zone and which do not. A visa issued in a Schengen country is valid for three
months at the most, and usually also for visits to any of the other Schengen
countries. To obtain this kind of common vis, applicants must satisfy the
requirements for the entry into the Schengen zone. Consequently, the
authorities concerned check the SIS before deciding an application. In certain
exceptional cases, a Schengen country may grant a visa although the general
entry requirements have not been met, for example if there are humanitarian
grounds for doing so. Such visas do not allow the bearer to move freely about
the Schengen zone. They are called National Visa's and only apply in their
country of issue.
You apply for entry visas at an embassy or
consulate (diplomatic mission) prior to arrival. The general rule is that you
apply for a visa at the embassy / consulate of the country you mainly intend to
visit. In certain cases, Sweden does not have a diplomatic mission of its own
but is represented by some other Schengen country. As a rule, the embassy /
consulate itself can decide on visa applications. In more complicated cases, it
may pass on the application to the Migration Board in Sweden for a decision.
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