News

November 24, 2009

Forthcoming visa liberalisation for Western Balkans - information

According to a draft Council Regulation amending the Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement, nationals of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia will no longer need to be in possession of visas when crossing the Schengen border. The new regulation is due to enter into force on 19 December 2009.

The visa requirement exemption will apply only to the nationals of those countries who are holders of valid biometric passports. The nationals of Kosovo holding passports issued by a specific Coordination Directorate in Belgrade (in Serbian: Koordinaciona uprava) will not be exempt from the visa requirement.

In addition to holding biometric passports nationals of the abovementioned countries will be required to fulfil general conditions of entry when crossing the external border of the EU, namely:

• they provide documents justifying the purpose and conditions of the intended stay as well as the destination (visa-free entry is allowed for tourist travels and for business and private trips excluding the purposes of work or other purposes);

• they have sufficient means of subsistence for the period of the intended stay, transit and the return to their country of origin (amounts of funds vary depending on the country, the sufficient amount for Slovenia is 70 euros per day);

• they are not subject of an alert in the Schengen Information System for the purposes of being refused entry;

• they prove they have stayed in the Schengen area no longer than three months within a six-month time period following the date of their first entry;

• they are not considered to be a threat to public policy, national security, public health or the international relations of any of the Member States.

If the nationals of the abovementioned countries fail to comply with the required conditions, they are refused entry to the Schengen countries. Refused entry is not a permanent prohibition but is applied until all the required conditions of entry are met.

The nationals of third countries including Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia who fulfil all the required conditions of entry are allowed to stay in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia or in the Schengen area no longer than three months within a six-month time period following the date of their first entry. Should they stay for longer than they are entitled to stay, they may be imposed fines at external borders when leaving the Schengen area.

It has to be noted that third-country nationals planning longer stays in the Schengen countries (for the purposes of work, employment, studies) need to acquire residence permits prior to their entry to the Schengen area.