A Schengen visa is a document issued by the authorities to the interested party to visit or circulate within and outside the Schengen area, which is made up of 26 countries, which have agreed to allow the free movement of their citizens within these territories as a single country. .
Of the 26 countries bound by the Schengen Agreement, 22 are part of the European Union and the other 4 are part of the European Free Trade Association. According to the information provided by Schengen Visa Info.
What is the Schengen visa and what is it used for?
The Schengen visa is a short-term or temporary entry permit for visits of a maximum of 90 days in a period of 180 days.
It is used so that the person with a visa to a Schengen country can travel to all the countries of the Schengen area, but must request it from the country that is the main destination of the trip.
Ecuador and Brazil, waiting
At the end of May 2023, the new entry and exit registration system will have entered into force in the European Union. It is designed for visitors from countries that do not require a visa to enter the Schengen area. Brazil is one of them, according to D.W..
In the European Parliament they are preparing the agreement for this new stage in mobility between the two. In 2010, the first agreement was approved so that the countries of the Schengen area and Brazilian citizens make stays of 90 to 180 days a year.
Why is a new agreement necessary? Because visitors will have to register, previously, on a digital platform.
“It is not about facilitating or making it more difficult for European citizens to enter and leave Brazil and vice versa. It is only about updating the rules of the agreement so that they are compatible and consistent with the new system”, he explains to D.W. the Portuguese MEP Paulo Rangel, rapporteur of the report in the European Parliament.
In what sense should they be “coherent”? “They’re details. As for example, in the previous agreement it is spoken of three months. Now 90 days. They are not necessarily identical”, continues Rangel. “With this digital breakthrough, passports will no longer need stamps,” he adds.
Ecuador’s application for visa exemption is still unsuccessful, despite the fact that it signed the Free Trade Agreement with the EU five years ago.
“That Ecuadorian citizens do not enjoy the same conditions as their neighbors in Colombia is a lack of regional coherence that the EU defends,” recalled Hernán Ponce, Ecuador’s ambassador to the EU in the Delegation for Relations with the Countries of the Andean Community.
Ecuadorian government awaits European ‘understanding’ to resolve Schengen visa exemption
Asylum and irregular stay
Rangel warns that the reason for this system is simply to make it easier for national and European authorities to identify cases of abuse of this right. Also so that the short-term trip does not become a permanent residence.
“It is desirable to have very exact knowledge of the situation of each citizen, so that there is no abuse of visas or visa exemptions,” continues the Portuguese politician.
Leaving the negotiations that it had together with Colombia and Peru led to Ecuador not enjoying the elimination of the Schengen visa, says the ambassador of that bloc
According to EU data, more and more third-country citizens who do not need a visa enter European territory and apply for asylum. Of the total asylum applications presented in the EU in 2020, 7.3% were from citizens of Venezuela, 7.0% of Colombia, 1.5% of Peru and 1.4% of Honduras.
It should be remembered that in Latin America and the Caribbean only Ecuador, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Belize, Haiti and Suriname need a visa to enter the Schengen territory. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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