VI.2.3.3 Visas

Main Debates

  • Are visas a mechanism to move border control beyond the physical border?
  • Do asylum seekers have a right to a visa even if they are in their country of origin?
  • Immigration control v. human rights protection

Main Points

  • Content of EU visa rules, particularly visa list and visa format
  • Connections between visa rules and asylum issues

EU Documents

  1. Regulation (EC) No 810/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas, OJ L 243/1, 15 September 2009.
  2. Regulation (EC) No 767/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation).
  3. Council Regulation (EC) No 1932/2006/EC of 21 December 2006 amending 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, OJ L 405, 30 December 2006.
  4. Council Regulation (EC) No 851/2005/EC of 2 June 2005 amending 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 as regards the reciprocity mechanism OJ L 141, 4 June 2005.
  5. Council Decision No 512/2004/EC establishing the Visa Information System (VIS) OJ L 213, 8 June 2004.
  6. Council Regulation No 693/2003/EC establishing specific Facilitated Transit Document (FTD), a Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) and amending the Common Consular Instructions and the Common Manual, OJ L 99, 17 April 2003.
  7. Council Regulation No 334/2002/EC of 18 February 2002 amending Regulation (EC) No 1683/95 laying down a uniform format for visas OJ L 53 of 23 Febriary 2002.
  8. Council Regulations No 1683/95/EC laying down a uniform format for visas, amended by Regulation (EC) 334/2002 of 18 February 2002 - consolidated version.
  9. Council Regulation No 1091/2001/EC of 28 May 2001 on freedom of movement with long-stay visa OJ L 150 of 6 June 2001.

Cases

  1. Vo (Case C+83/12), Court of Justice of the European Union, 10 April 2012.

Readings

Core

  1. S. Peers, 'Legislative Update, EC Immigration and Asylum Law: The New Visa Code', European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 12, no. 1 (2010), pp. 105-131.

Extended

  1. E. Guild, 'The Border Abroad: Visas and Border Controls' in K. Groenendijk, E. Guild and P. Minderhoud (eds), In Search of Europe's Borders (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2003).
  2. A. Meloni, Visa Policy within the European Union Structure (Berlin/New York: Springer, 2006), pp. 24-41.
  3. S. Peers, 'EC Immigration and Asylum Law 2008: Visa Information System', European Journal of Migration and Law, vol. 11 (2009), pp. 69-94.

Editor’s Note

Note the imposition of visas on every country producing large numbers of refugees/asylum-seekers and the inevitable impact on the likelihood that they will enter illegally and/or use facilitators for smuggling them in. Readers should recall Article 31 of the 1951 Geneva Convention.