The European Parliament announced today the newly upgraded the Visa Information System (VIS) to include golden visas, residence permits, long term visas to increase security at external borders and improve border management.
In an official press release, the EU said, “Long-stay visas, including the so-called golden visas, and residence permits to be added to the database to close security information gaps”
The Visa Information System (VIS) is an EU database used by authorities to check non-EU nationals who need a visa to travel to the Schengen area.
The Visa Information System (VIS) allows Schengen States to exchange visa data. VIS enables border guards to verify that a person presenting a visa is its rightful holder and to identify persons found on the Schengen territory with no or fraudulent documents.
Under the new measures,
- Mandatory security checks across all EU databases to detect applicants using multiple identities and identify anyone posing security or irregular migration risks
- Fingerprints and facial images of minors will be lowered from 12 to 6 years to trace missing children and family links
- Fingerprints exempted from persons over the age of 70
- Better access for Europol and law enforcement authorities to VIS data
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