Thu. Feb 13th, 2025

Today the Council decided to remove Vanuatu from the list of countries whose citizens are exempt from having a visa when travelling to the EU. The EU is revoking the visa exemption, which had already been suspended since 2022, because Vanuatu runs an investor citizenship scheme which has resulted in security and migration risks for the EU.

Background

The visa exemption for nationals of Vanuatu has applied since 28 May 2015. Since 25 May 2015, Vanuatu has been operating investor citizenship schemes. These schemes enable third-country nationals who would otherwise be required to have a visa when travelling to the EU to receive Vanuatu citizenship in exchange for an investment, thereby obtaining visa-free access to the EU.

Even though the European Commission established a dialogue with Vanuatu to remedy the situation, the concerns in relation to the investor citizenship scheme have persisted.

Therefore the Council today decided to amend the EU’s visa regulation (Regulation (EU) 2018/1806) by adding Vanuatu to the list of countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing an EU border.

Source – EU Council: Visit the meeting page

 

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