EU’s Council Adopts the Digitization of the Schengen Visa

The European Union’s Council in Brussels has adopted new rules that allow people who want to travel to the “Schengen” area to apply online for a visa.

Visa applicants for Schengen area countries will be able to complete their procedures online on a single European platform, under new rules adopted on Monday 13 November by the EU Council.

The “Schengen” area includes 27 European countries that cancelled many types of internal border controls. They issue Schengen visas (as members of the Schengen Area): 23 of the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Citizens of around sixty countries, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom, are exempt from visas for short stays in the Schengen area.

The new regulations will be established on the European Union visa application platform and with a few exceptions, requests for “Schengen” visas will be submitted through that platform, where the visa applicants will be able to enter all relevant data, download electronic copies of their travel documents and support documents, and pay the visa fees.

The EU’s Council said that the procedures do not require personal presence in the consulates and principle, personal attendance will only be necessary for the applicants for the first time, the people whose biometric data are no longer valid and the people who have a new travel document, and the current visa sticker will be replaced by a barcode.

The current sticker will be replaced by a digital visa, in the form of a barcode: “The possibility of applying for a Schengen visa online will be a great improvement,” said Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, whose country holds the six-monthly presidency of the Council of the EU. “It will simplify the application process for travellers and, at the same time, lighten the burden on national administrations, who will be able to respond more quickly and more efficiently,” he stressed in a press release.

The date of the application of the new rules will be determined when completing the digital visa platform. No date has yet been set for the application of these new rules. It will depend on the completion of the technical work for the implementation of this platform. In most cases, Schengen visa applications (for stays of up to 90 days) can be made exclusively on the platform. Appointments at the visa centre or consulate will only remain necessary for first visa applications, for people whose biometric data is no longer valid and for those who have a new passport.

By mid-2025, travellers from these sixty countries will need to have an ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorization System) to enter the EU and the Schengen area, costing 7 euros and valid for three years. This system, similar to the American ESTA, aims to strengthen controls on foreign travellers within the EU, to detect potential threats.

Third-country nationals travelling in the EU will also be subject to a new entry and exit control system (EES) at the end of 2024. This centralized database will include the date and place of entry and exit, or refusal of entry, facial photographs and fingerprints of the traveller.