As of March 31st, 2024, Romania will become a Schengen Member State, therefore please consider the following if you find yourself in any of the situations below:
1.You are the holder of a short-stay visa issued by Romania before March 31st, 2024
Your short-stay visa will continue to be valid until the expiry date, but only for the territory of Romania and under the conditions laid down in Decision No 565/2014/EU. Therefore, if you intend to travel to another Schengen State, you will need to apply for a visa issued by the authorities of the State where you intend to travel.
2.You have submitted an application for a short-stay visa before March 31st, 2024 and your application has not been processed (e.g. you did not attend the consular interview, you have an appointment after March 31st, 2024 or you have not paid the visa fee).
Your application will be invalidated and you will have to submit a new application and a new file in order to upload and update the documents and information necessary to review it under the Schengen rules.
Important notice! Starting March 31st, 2024, visas issued by Romania will be classified as follows:
- Uniform (Schengen) visas, symbol C;
- Limited territorial validity visas, symbol C;
- Airport transit visas, symbol A, valid for transit through international transit areas in one or more airports of Schengen Member States;
- Long-stay visas, symbol D.
Schengen visas will allow holders to travel to the Schengen area for stays not exceeding 90 days in any 180-day period.
Long-stay visas, symbol D, shall become national visas and the applicable legislation for submitting and processing of this type of visas continues to be the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 194/2002 regarding the regime of foreigners in Romania, republished, with subsequent changes and additions.
The eVisa platform eViza will be UNAVAILABLE from March 1st to March 31st, 2024 for the submission of short-stay visa applications. For urgent travel planned in the forthcoming period, please contact the competent diplomatic missions directly (Romanian Missions).
3.You have submitted an application for a short-stay visa before March 31st, 2024, your application has been processed, but you have not received the passport with the affixed visa sticker by March 31st, 2024.
The granted visa shall be valid until its date of expiration and will limited to the Romanian territory and under the conditions laid down in Decision No 565/2014/EU. Therefore, your visa will not be considered as a Schengen visa.