New Plan for Visa Policies in Europe Targeted Toward Importing Skilled Workers from Non-EU Nations
The European Commission has announced plans to revamp its visa policy, aiming to facilitate international mobility for highly skilled workers, students, researchers, and others. This new strategy, currently under public consultation until September 18, 2025, seeks to address common obstacles to legal migration while increasing cooperation with non-EU countries on security issues.
The public consultation process invites opinions from EU and non-EU citizens, civil society organizations, travel and tourism industry representatives, transportation organizations, and other stakeholders. The Commission is eager to gather views on various aspects, including streamlining the visa application process, reducing waiting times, and increasing processing capacity in non-EU countries.
The proposed new EU visa policy is expected to cover both long and short-term visas. It aims to address practical issues faced by member states when issuing visas, such as verifying the authenticity of documents and long waiting times for appointments, whether for short-stay or long-stay visas.
The strategy also includes measures to attract non-EU nationals who can boost innovation and economic growth in the EU. This includes proposals for start-up founders and innovative entrepreneurs. The strategy will also address emerging trends such as 'visa shopping'.
With over 9.7 million Schengen visas issued in 2024 and over 1.4 billion people from 61 countries benefiting from visa-exempt travel, the EU visa policy plays a crucial role in promoting tourism, trade, economic growth, and people-to-people exchanges.
The new approach will also focus on a more consistent application of visa exemptions across member states. The implementation of the directives on students and researchers and on the Blue Card will become more effective, according to the plan.
The strategy emphasizes the need to support business and tourism travel to the EU, as well as ensure EU-funded programs are implemented smoothly. The EU visa policy strategy is proposed to be used more strategically to advance the EU's strategic interests and long-term objectives.
The Commission has also opened a public consultation addressing the issue of overly lengthy or complex long-stay visa and legal migration procedures. Comments for the consultation can be sent by 18 September 2025 using a specific link. The new EU visa policy is expected to be published before the end of the year.
