LegalizeRegulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation)
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1
Subject matter and scope
This Regulation defines the purpose of, the functionalities of and the responsibilities for the Visa Information System (VIS), as established by Article 1 of Decision 2004/512/EC. It sets up the conditions and procedures for the exchange of data between Member States on applications for short-stay visas and on the decisions taken in relation thereto, including the decision whether to annul, revoke or extend the visa, to facilitate the examination of such applications and the related decisions.
By storing identity data, travel document data and biometric data in the common identity repository (CIR) established by Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1), the VIS contributes to facilitating and assisting in the correct identification of persons registered in the VIS under the conditions and for the purposes of Article 20 of that Regulation.
Article 2
Purpose
The VIS shall have the purpose of improving the implementation of the common visa policy, consular cooperation and consultation between central visa authorities by facilitating the exchange of data between Member States on applications and on the decisions relating thereto, in order:
(a) to facilitate the visa application procedure;
(b) to prevent the bypassing of the criteria for the determination of the Member State responsible for examining the application;
(c) to facilitate the fight against fraud;
(d) to facilitate checks at external border crossing points and within the territory of the Member States;
(e) to assist in the identification of any person who may not, or may no longer, fulfil the conditions for entry to, stay or residence on the territory of the Member States;
(f) to facilitate the application of Regulation (EC) No 343/2003;
(g) to contribute to the prevention of threats to the internal security of any of the Member States.
Article 3
Availability of data for the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and other serious criminal offences
Article 4
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
‘visa’ means:
(a) ‘uniform visa’ as defined in Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community code on Visas (Visa Code) (3); ————— (c) ‘airport transit visa’ as defined in Article 2(5) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009; (d) ‘visa with limited territorial validity’ as defined in Article 2(4) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009; —————
‘visa sticker’ means the uniform format for visas as defined by Regulation (EC) No 1683/95;
‘visa authorities’ means the authorities which in each Member State are responsible for examining and for taking decisions on visa applications or for decisions whether to annul, revoke or extend visas, including the central visa authorities and the authorities responsible for issuing visas at the border in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 415/2003 of 27 February 2003 on the issue of visas at the border, including the issue of such visas to seamen in transit (4);
‘application form’ means the uniform application form for visas in Annex 16 to the Common Consular Instructions;
‘applicant’ means any person subject to the visa requirement pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement (5), who has lodged an application for a visa;
‘group members’ means applicants who are obliged for legal reasons to enter and leave the territory of the Member States together;
‘travel document’ means a passport or other equivalent document entitling the holder to cross the external borders and to which a visa may be affixed;
‘Member State responsible’ means the Member State which has entered the data in the VIS;
‘verification’ means the process of comparison of sets of data to establish the validity of a claimed identity (one-to-one check);
‘identification’ means the process of determining a person's identity through a database search against multiple sets of data (one-to-many check);
‘alphanumeric data’ means data represented by letters, digits, special characters, spaces and punctuation marks;
‘VIS data’ means all data stored in the VIS Central System and in the CIR in accordance with Articles 9 to 14;
‘identity data’ means the data referred to in Article 9(4)(a) and (aa);
‘fingerprint data’ means the data relating to the five fingerprints of the index, middle finger, ring finger, little finger and the thumb from the right hand and, where present, from the left hand.
Article 5
Categories of data
Only the following categories of data shall be recorded in the VIS:
(a) alphanumeric data on the applicant and on visas requested, issued, refused, annulled, revoked or extended referred to in points (1) to (4) of Article 9 and Articles 10 to 14;
(b) photographs referred to in point (5) of Article 9;
(c) fingerprint data referred to in point (6) of Article 9;
(d) links to other applications referred to in Article 8(3) and (4).
Article 5a
List of recognised travel documents
Article 6
Access for entering, amending, deleting and consulting data
Access to the VIS for consulting the data shall be reserved exclusively for the duly authorised staff of:
(a) the national authorities of each Member State and of the Union bodies which are competent for the purposes of Articles 15 to 22, Articles 22g to 22m and Article 45e of this Regulation;
(b) the ETIAS Central Unit and the ETIAS National Units, designated pursuant to Articles 7 and 8 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, for the purposes of Articles 18c and 18d of this Regulation and for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240; and
(c) the national authorities of each Member State and of the Union bodies which are competent for the purposes of Articles 20 and 21 of Regulation (EU) 2019/817.
Such access shall be limited to the extent to which the data are required for the performance of the tasks of those authorities and Union bodies in accordance with those purposes and proportionate to the objectives pursued.
Each Member State shall designate the competent authorities, the duly authorised staff of which shall have access to enter, amend, delete or consult data in the VIS. Each Member State shall without delay communicate to the Commission a list of these authorities, including those referred to in Article 41(4), and any amendments thereto. That list shall specify for what purpose each authority may process data in the VIS.
Within 3 months after the VIS has become operational in accordance with Article 48(1), the Commission shall publish a consolidated list in the Official Journal of the European Union. Where there are amendments thereto, the Commission shall publish once a year an updated consolidated list.
Article 7
General principles
CHAPTER II
ENTRY AND USE OF DATA BY VISA AUTHORITIES
Article 8
Procedures for entering data upon the application
Article 9
Data to be entered on application
The visa authority shall enter the following data in the application file:
the application number;
status information, indicating that a visa has been requested;
the authority with which the application has been lodged, including its location, and whether the application has been lodged with that authority representing another Member State;
the following data to be taken from the application form:
(a) surname (family name); first name or names (given names); date of birth; sex; (aa) surname at birth (former surname(s)); place and country of birth; current nationality and nationality at birth; (b) the type and number of the travel document or documents and the three-letter code of the issuing country of the travel document or documents; (c) the date of expiry of the validity of the travel document or documents; (ca) the authority which issued the travel document and its date of issue; (d) place and date of the application; ————— (f) details of the person issuing an invitation and/or liable to pay the applicant's subsistence costs during the stay, being: (i) in the case of a natural person, the surname and first name and address of the person; (ii) in the case of a company or other organisation, the name and address of the company/other organisation, surname and first name of the contact person in that company/organisation; (g) Member State(s) of destination and duration of the intended stay or transit; (h) main purpose(s) of the journey; (i) intended date of arrival in the Schengen area and intended date of departure from the Schengen area; (j) Member State of first entry; (k) the applicant’s home address; (l) current occupation and employer; for students: name of educational establishment; (m) in the case of minors, surname and first name(s) of the applicant's parental authority or legal guardian;
a photograph of the applicant, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1683/95;
fingerprints of the applicant, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Common Consular Instructions.
The applicant shall indicate his or her current occupation (job group) on a predetermined list.
The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 48a to lay down the predetermined list of occupations (job groups).
Article 9h
Implementation and manual
Article 9j
Specific risk indicators
The Commission shall adopt a delegated act in accordance with Article 48a to further define the risks related to security or illegal immigration or a high epidemic risk on the basis of:
(a) statistics generated by the EES indicating abnormal rates of overstaying and refusals of entry for a specific group of visa holders;
(b) statistics generated by the VIS in accordance with Article 45a indicating abnormal rates of refusals of visa applications due to a security, illegal immigration or high epidemic risk associated with a specific group of visa holders;
(c) statistics generated by the VIS in accordance with Article 45a and the EES indicating correlations between information collected through the application form and overstaying by visa holders or refusals of entry;
(d) information substantiated by factual and evidence-based elements provided by Member States concerning specific security risk indicators or threats identified by a Member State;
(e) information substantiated by factual and evidence-based elements provided by Member States concerning abnormal rates of overstaying and refusals of entry for a specific group of visa holders for a Member State;
(f) information concerning specific high epidemic risks provided by Member States as well as epidemiological surveillance information and risk assessments provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and disease outbreaks reported by the World Health Organization.
The specific risks referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall be reviewed at least every six months and, where necessary, a new implementing act shall be adopted by the Commission in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 49(2).
Article 10
Data to be added for a visa issued
Where a decision has been taken to issue a visa, the visa authority that issued the visa shall add the following data to the application file:
(a) status information indicating that the visa has been issued;
(b) the authority that issued the visa, including its location, and whether that authority issued it on behalf of another Member State;
(c) place and date of the decision to issue the visa;
(d) the type of visa;
(da) if applicable, the information indicating that the visa has been issued with limited territorial validity pursuant to Article 25(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009;
(e) the number of the visa sticker;
(f) the territory in which the visa holder is entitled to travel, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Common Consular Instructions;
(g) the commencement and expiry dates of the validity period of the visa;
(h) the number of entries authorised by the visa in the territory for which the visa is valid;
(i) the duration of the stay as authorised by the visa;
(j) if applicable, the information indicating that the visa has been issued on a separate sheet in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 333/2002 of 18 February 2002 on a uniform format for forms for affixing the visa issued by Member States to persons holding travel documents not recognised by the Member State drawing up the form (6);
(k) if applicable, the information indicating that the visa sticker has been filled in manually;
(l) if applicable, the status of the person indicating that the third-country national is a member of the family of a Union citizen to whom Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) applies or of a third-country national enjoying the right of free movement equivalent to that of Union citizens under an agreement between the Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and a third country, on the other.
Article 11
Data to be added where the examination of the application is discontinued
Where the visa authority representing another Member State discontinues the examination of the application, it shall add the following data to the application file:
status information indicating that the examination of the application has been discontinued;
the authority that discontinued the examination of the application, including its location;
place and date of the decision to discontinue the examination;
the Member State competent to examine the application.
Article 12
Data to be added for a visa refusal
Where a decision has been taken to refuse a visa, the visa authority which refused the visa shall add the following data to the application file:
(a) status information indicating that the visa has been refused and whether that authority refused it on behalf of another Member State;
(b) the authority that refused the visa, including its location;
(c) place and date of the decision to refuse the visa.
The application file shall also indicate the ground(s) for refusal of the visa, which shall be one or more of the following:
(a) the applicant: (i) presents a travel document which is false, counterfeit or forged; (ii) does not provide justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay; (iii) does not provide proof of sufficient means of subsistence, both for the duration of the intended stay and for the return to his country of origin or residence, or for the transit to a third country into which he is certain to be admitted, or is not in a position to acquire such means lawfully; (iv) has already stayed for 90 days during the current 180-day period on the territory of the Member States on the basis of a uniform visa or a visa with limited territorial validity; (v) is a person for whom an alert has been issued in the SIS for the purpose of refusing entry; (vi) is considered to be a threat to public policy, internal security or public health as defined in Article 2(19) of the Schengen Borders Code or to the international relations of any of the Member States, in particular where an alert has been issued in Member States’ national databases for the purpose of refusing entry on the same grounds; (vii) does not provide proof of holding adequate and valid travel medical insurance, where applicable;
(b) the information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable;
(c) the applicant’s intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiry of the visa could not be ascertained;
(d) sufficient proof that the applicant has not been in a position to apply for a visa in advance justifying application for a visa at the border was not provided.
Article 13
Data to be added for a visa annulled or revoked
Where a decision has been taken to annul or to revoke a visa, the visa authority that has taken the decision shall add the following data to the application file:
(a) status information indicating that the visa has been annulled or revoked;
(b) authority that annulled or revoked the visa, including its location;
(c) place and date of the decision.
The application file shall also indicate the ground(s) for annulment or revocation, which shall be:
(a) one or more of the ground(s) listed in Article 12(2);
(b) the request of the visa holder to revoke the visa.
Article 14
Data to be added for a visa extended
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