Ministry recommends Georgians prepare documents before leaving for the EU
By Tea Mariamidze
Friday, March 8
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) warns those Georgian citizens who are willing to travel to the EU and Schengen member states to get ready all the necessary documents.
According to the statement released by the Ministry, the EU/Schengen member states have recently tightened border control.
“As a result, many citizens of Georgia, who failed to meet the visa-free terms and did not have relevant documents, were refused to enter the EU/Schengen territory,” the ministry says.
In addition, the MFA says that Embassies of Georgia in the EU / Schengen States do not have any legal leverage to intervene in the competence of the proper agencies in case of the absence of documents legally required and cannot ask from them to allow any citizen of Georgia to enter the EU / Schengen territory.
“Please keep in mind that the Embassies of Georgia in the EU/Schengen member states have no legal leverage to influence the decision of the border guards”, reads the statement.
The ministry says that the people who want to travel visa-free to the EU / Schengen States need a biometric passport of a citizen of Georgia issued during the last 10 years, which shall have at least 3 months validity date for the planned departure from EU / Schengen County.
The statement also reads that in order to confirm the purpose of the travel, the Border Service representative has the right to request the following documents: a return trip ticket, hotel reservation, travel insurance, confirmation of travel securities.
The ministry says those Georgians who plan to travel to the EU for taking part in some conferences or seminars, need to provide invitation and the program of the event.
Also, those who are going to travel for medical treatment purposes also need to confirm this by proper documentation.
The Visa-Free regime with the EU took effect on March 28, 2017, meaning all Georgians holding biometric passports can enter the Schengen Area for 90 days within any 180-day period for vacation, business, or any other purpose except work.
Georgians are able to travel without visas to the following 22 EU member states: Belgium, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Greece, France, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
Georgians can also travel without visas to four non-EU-member states (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) as well as four Schengen candidate countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Croatia).
Exceptions for visa-free travel include Ireland and the United Kingdom.
