The EU authorities have planned to “digitize” the Schengen visa. The report, which was adopted by members of the European Union Parliament, talks about a project to modernize the procedure for applying for a Schengen visa – “by moving from physical applications and visa stickers to a digital system.” Those. it is planned to radically change the Schengen visa – and it will no longer be pasted into the passport.
“Applying for a digital visa will speed up the process, reduce the effort and cost required to apply, and increase security,” the European press quoted the European Parliament as saying. They are also confident that the digitization of the visa application process will ensure uniformity of practice across the EU.
“The new system is designed to work in harmony with border management systems as well as EU databases, which means that it will also reduce security risks. By digitizing the visa application for the Schengen area, visa applications will be processed on a single online platform that will allow applicants to know which country will receive their application,” the European Parliament also reports.
The authors of the initiative are confident that that “a modern, convenient digital solution” will be much more convenient. Also, that replacing the visa sticker with a digital visa will reduce the security risks associated with physical stickers. However, the new system will somehow have to provide “guarantees for persons who do not have digital literacy”, so it is possible that some paper stickers will be retained. You also have to deal with purely technical issues, such as the possibility of rejecting some applications if they are submitted from the same IP address, “which may be the case in some areas with poor Internet connectivity.”
In general this initiative was adopted by a majority of votes – 34 against 5, another 20 abstained. As a result, the EU Parliament will announce inter-ministerial negotiations on this case.
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