President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday called on outgoing European Ambassador, Fernando Ponz Canto to use his voice and speak to the relevant authorities to facilitate the issuance of schengen visas locally. The schengen visa is used for travel to European countries.
Currently Guyanese who want to travel to Europe are required to first journey to Suriname or Trinidad and Tobago for their schengen visas to be processed.
This process President Ali says is a great setback to citizens.
President Ali made it clear that Guyana has all the technology needed to facilitate the visa issuance and is no less than neighbouring Suriname
“In next 48 hours let’s double down on this, let’s make the appropriate noise and get this done, this is a very low hanging fruit. Don’t tell me we don’t have the same technology or the same system, I don’t want to say we are better in anyway, we are a humble country trying to be the best we can do but I can tell you our system can match any system they have there for the visas to be granted,” the Head of State said at the launch of the EU-Guyana chambers of commerce.
The President even made it clear that he expects for this issue to be sorted within the next three months.
“It’s not the EU luxury anymore to grant us that facility. The EU must understand that is in their interest to have that facility here in Guyana within the next three months.”
Earlier, this call was also made by Private Sector representative, Manniram Prashad who recalled his experience of obtaining one of the special visas for business purposes.
A Schengen visa is an official document mandatory for some non-Europeans to travel to all the 26 countries which are part of the Schengen area. Once granted, this visa allows the traveller to cross the borders of the other member-states without going through identity checks at the border.
There are several types of Schengen visa but the most common (the short-stay visa) allows to travel/stay for 90 days maximum over a 6 month period starting from the entry date stated on the visa.
