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The Schengen area includes all EU member states except Ireland and the United Kingdom, plus non-EU members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The Council of Ministers keeps a ‘white list' of non-member states whose citizens do not need a visa for visits shorter than three months. Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have now been added to that list.
In principle, a Schengen visa enables its holder to travel throughout the entire Schengen area without the need for additional permits. There are exceptions to this rule, known as ‘Schengen minus' visas. Greece, for example, requires that Macedonian citizens obtain a separate, national visa in addition to their standard Schengen visa, an arrangement that will come to an end with Saturday's lifting of visa requirements.
The ‘visa liberalisation' from which the three Balkan countries will now benefit is distinct from ‘visa facilitation', currently in force with all the countries of the Balkans as well as Russia, Ukraine and Moldova.
Visa facilitation agreements, concluded in exchange for commitments to take back illegal migrants, reduce the standard, non-refundable visa fee of €60 to €35 and exempt certain groups from the fee altogether, for example pensioners, students, children or close relatives of people residing in the EU. An EU official estimated that in most countries, 50%-80% of applicants fall into one of these groups.
The agreements also stipulate that visa applications must be processed within ten calendar days and list the documents that have to be submitted to support the application.
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