Wednesday, October 29 2014

 The Monitoring Report on the Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Armenia on the Facilitation of the Issuance of Visas was presented in Yerevan on Tuesday.

Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Traian Hristea welcomed the report.  

The diplomat said that the European Union gives high priority to monitoring in this field and that the report published 6 months after the Agreement came into force will allow analyzing the efficiency of the regime and neutralizing the flaws.  

To note, the Monitoring Report has been prepared by the Open Society Foundations Armenia and the Analytical Center on Globalization and Regional Cooperation. The study looked into the performance of the diplomatic missions and consular posts of the EU Member States in Armenia, as well as the Department for Passports and Visas under the Republic of Armenia Ministry for Territorial Administration. The online media were monitored in view of the entry into force, from January 2014, of the visa facilitation and readmission agreements.   

To recall, the Armenian-EU visa facilitation agreement was signed on 17 December 2012. The readmission agreement was signed in April 2013. The EU-Armenia visa facilitation agreement came into force on 1 January 2014. The agreement covers simplified procedures for processing short-stay visas i.e. for intended stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period for the Schengen area. 

The main benefits of the new rules for Armenian citizens are: 

1.Decision procedure on the visa application is quicker - a decision is taken within 10 calendar daysfrom the date of the receipt of the admissible visa application and the supporting documents. This period may be extended up to 30 days when further scrutiny is needed.

2. The visa fee is lower - 35 euro for all Armenian citizens (instead of 60 euro).

3. The application process is easier for many categories of citizens who have to present less documents to justify their purpose of travel: Close relatives (i.e. spouse, children, parents, grandparents and grandchildren); Pupils, students, post-graduate students and accompanying teachers travelling for the purpose of study; Participants in scientific, cultural and sporting events; Persons travelling for medical reasons and necessary accompanying persons; Representatives of civil society organisations and participants in Pan-Armenian community non-profit organisations; Business people; Journalists and accompanying technical crew; Members of official delegations; Members of the professions participating in conferences, symposia; Drivers conducting international cargo and passenger transportation services; Exchange programme participants organized by twin cities; Persons visiting military and civil burial grounds. For these categories of persons, only the documents listed in the agreement can be requested for justifying the purpose of the journey.