Schengen visa and its effect on international travel?

Answer 1

The 15 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. All these countries except Norway and Iceland are European Union members.

These countries have agreed that their borders are completely open for the citizens of the agreeing countries (no internal borders). Hence one from France for example does not need a passport to travel to Greece and vise versa. He only needs his ID card in case he travels by plane and no documents if he travels on land. Moreover flights from France to Greece are considered domestic and not international.

Things get more complicated for the citizens of other countries that need a visa to enter one of the above countries. There is no Spanish or Greek visa anymore. There is only one and it is called Schengen visa. To issue that visa you should go to the Embassy of the country that will make your first entry to the Schengen zone. From that point on if you want to go to another country you do not need a visa because theoretically you do not cross any borders (you are in the Schengen zone). Of course to issue this visa you should declare if you want to visit only one country or visit many countries but I does not make any actuall difference.

It already impacts international travel and I can give one example. Lets say that you want to travel to France and you need a visa but the French embassy told you that because of many applications you have to wait 6 weeks. You can go to the next available Schengen embassy, lets say Greece which can have the visa ready in one week, and apply for visa to Greece. Go first to Greece and then take the next plane to France. There are many cases like that which people enter one country but their intention is to go to another one.

Also traveling among Schengen countries has increased for many reasons. No waiting at the airports to check your passport, less service taxes in the airports etc. Also between countries like France and Spain that have common land borders you see a lot of people visiting the other country for just a day or to do their shopping from the nearby town which is cheaper. Most of the entry check points have been decommissioned.

Also consider that most of these countries are also in the EU and they share the same currency. It makes traveling among them extremely easy. One tourist with one visa and one currency can spend months in Europe visiting many countries. The same applies for business and business-people. It is very easy for them to organize multy-destination trips.

Answer 2

Traveling in Europe has been made convenient with the Schengen Visa. This common visa allows you to travel to 15 Schengen countries, thereby encouraging travellers to venture further afield.