BERLIN – In a ground-breaking move, the nationals of Saudi Arabia might be able to travel visa-free to the Schengen area soon.
Christophe Farnaud, the EU Ambassador to Saudi Arabia has confirmed that Saudi nationals will soon be exempt from pre-entry visa requirements to European Union (EU) countries.
The working for the visa-exemption is underway and once materialized, the Saudi nationals will be able to travel freely for short-stay within the Schengen area comprising 27 member states.
The diplomats from the EU and Saudi Arabia have already made efforts to ease travel between the two regions, a reflection of which is the European Commission adopting new rules enabling Saudi citizens to obtain multi-entry visas valid for short stays of up to five years; the rules were also eased for nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.
Saudi Arabia is already opening up to the outside world under the directives of Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman also known as MBS as part of his Vision 2030 to diversify the revenue streams of the country.
Meanwhile, the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries are also working on adopting a Schengen style unified visa for facilitate those trying to travel between these countries on a single visa.
Efforts were put in by GCC countries to such an extent that even the name of the visa had been announced. Termed ‘GCC Grand Tours’, it was also announced by UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri that the visa will allow travelers to spend more than 30 days in the region, however, no specific date for the launch of visa was announced.
