European Union & Caribbean/Indian Ocean Island States Adopt Visa-Waiver Agreements
- European Union
- 12/10/2009
At a December 1 meeting, the European Union’s Justice of Home Affairs Council formally adopted separate visa-waiver agreements with four Caribbean and two Indian Ocean island states for short-stay business and tourist travel, thus ending a “provisional” application of these agreements which had been in effect since May 28, 2009. The affected Caribbean island states are Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the affected Indian Ocean island states are Mauritius and the Seychelles.
The new visa regime provides for visa-free travel for EU citizens when traveling to these six island states, and vice versa, for a period of stay not exceeding 90 cumulative days during a given six-month period. Visa-free travel applies to persons with all categories of biometric passports (i.e., passports that contain electronic chips used for storing passport data) for traditional visitor travel (e.g., tourism, cultural visits, family visits, and business). The visa-waiver privilege does not extend to persons traveling to EU-member states or to any of the six island states for the purpose of employment or performing paid activities.
