‘Schengen visas should be issued in Guyana’ – Pres. Ali wants EU to resolve issue soonest

With deepening relations between Guyana and the European Union (EU), President Dr. Irfaan Ali has called on the outgoing European Union Ambassador Dr. Fernando Pontz Canto to see that the special visa needed for travel to the Schengen area in Europe is issued in Guyana.

This visa is issued in Suriname and local business players are among those who have complained of the inconvenience of travelling to the neighbouring country for this service.

“We can’t have our business people go to Suriname and spend a few days (to get this visa),” President Ali lamented at the launch of the new EuroGuyana Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

According to him, Guyana is becoming an increasingly strategic partner for the EU and as such, the bloc should work towards making these visa services easier to access here. He contended that it is in the EU’s “strategic interest” to make these processes much smoother.

“Let us double down on this in the next 48 hours.

“This is a very low-hanging fruit,” the Guyanese Head-of-State said pointedly.

And he expects that within the next three months, those services can be brought to Guyana because the country has services comparable to those of Suriname.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to travel to any member state of the Schengen Area, per stay up to 90 days for tourism or business. This Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passports and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.

Based on information from the Government of the Netherlands’ website, if you live in Guyana and want to apply for a short-stay visa for the Netherlands or Switzerland, you cannot do this at the Netherlands consulate in Georgetown.

You can apply for this type of visa at the external service provider VFS Global in Suriname.