While innovative mechanisms for handling visa applications and visa processing may render cross-border travel more accessible, it is the visa dialogues and co-operation between OSCE participating States in the field of migration and border security that are indispensable in making progress in the facilitation of cross-border mobility. Where there is a sufficient level of co-ordination and co-operation between OSCE participating States in tackling irregular immigration and security threats, the role of national borders in ensuring the protection of national security and welfare becomes less important. The Schengen Area demonstrates how close co-operation among OSCE participating States can lead to the abolition of land border checkpoints.
An important aspect of co-operation between OSCE participating States in enabling wider cross-border travel is that of reciprocal information sharing. Transparency in the implemen-tation of national visa policies can help to build trust in the faciliimplemen-tation and liberalization of cross-border travel. In this regard, many, but not all, OSCE participating States publish their statistical data on the number of visas issued (including visa type and number of entries per-mitted), the refusal rate and other relevant statistical information. Civil society is also play-ing an increasplay-ingly active role in monitorplay-ing visa facilitation and liberalization dialogues to help ensure that national governments actively promote cross-border travel freedoms for their citizens. Therefore, civil society initiatives in this area would benefit from increased transpar-ency regarding information on the number of visas issued. It would also benefit from greater transparency regarding the content of political dialogues and agreements reached over the liberalization of cross-border travel.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Survey questionnaire
BASELINE STUDY ON CROSS BORDER MOBILITY IN THE OSCE REGION Information note
This questionnaire was prepared by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as part of an on-going project related to the development of a “Baseline Study on Cross-border Mobility in the OSCE Region”. The objective of this project is to support OSCE par-ticipating States in implementing OSCE commitments on freedom of movement, with a focus on facilitated cross border movement. The study will provide an overview of cross-border travel free-doms in the OSCE region and will focus in particular on visa application mechanisms in the in-stances where visa regimes exist, their characteristics and their impact on cross border mobility.
Your support and information is critical to the success of this project, and we thank you in advance for your co-operation!
Target Audience
We recommend that the questionnaire be completed by the national authority responsible for issuing visas.
Objective
This questionnaire is designed with the aim to obtain information on: characteristics of visa ap-plication procedures, the number of visas issued to citizens of other OSCE participating States and the agreements that your country has concluded with other OSCE participating States.
The questionnaire is designed to obtain information only on non-immigrant visa types issued by states. These include visas issued for the purpose of allowing temporary stay on the territo-ry of the state but which do not provide the right to establish any type of permanent residence on the state’s territory. Please also note that for the purpose of this questionnaire transit visas should not be considered.
The survey will form the basis for a comparative analysis of visa polices and the number of is-sued visas in the instances where cross –border travel is regulated by a visa regime.
Requests for clarification
Please send your completed questionnaires in electronic (Microsoft Word) format BY 12 April 2013 directly to Mr. Juris Gromovs, OSCE ODIHR Migration and Freedom of Movement Adviser (Juris.Gromovs@odihr.pl). In the event that respondents have difficulty in the completion of this questionnaire, require additional details or have questions, they should be directed to Juris Gromovs at OSCE ODIHR (Juris.Gromovs@odihr.pl), tel.: +48 22 52 00 696.
OSCE participating States: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan
Information on the respondent
Country
Completed by Name:
Position:
Contact e-mail Date:
1) For each OSCE participating State with which your country maintains a visa re-gime, please list embassies and consulates of your country, which are authorized to process applications for non-immigrant visas
(Please add additional rows as appropriate)
OSCE participating State Country and city/cities where visa application should be submitted
Service providers or visa application centres which are authorized with visa application collection in that state
2) Please provide the total number of non-immigrant visas your country has issued to citizens of other OSCE participating States with which your country maintains a visa regime in 2010, 2011 and 2012:
(Please add additional rows as appropriate)
OSCE Participating
State Number of
non-immigrant visas applied by citizens of that state
Number of single-entry visas issued to citizens of that state
Number of multiple-entry visas issued to the citizens of that state
Refusal rate
2010 2011 2012 2010 2011 2012 2010 2011 2012 2010 2011 2012
3) Please list the documents and information – common for all types of non-immigrant visas – that an applicant should submit when applying for a non-immigrant visa
☐ Visa application form
☐ A photograph
☐ Visa fee payment receipt
☐ Travel medical insurance
☐ Documents indicating purpose of travel
☐ Proof of sufficient means of subsistence
☐ Proof of accommodation at the destination
4) Please list the types of non-immigrant visas that your country issues to citizens of other OSCE participating States:
(Please add additional rows as appropriate)
Visa type Cost of visa processing (in EUR or USD)
Visa Duration (days
or months) Average processing time (days or months)
Other visa application supporting documents not listed under question 3
5) If applicable, please list bilateral or multilateral agreements with other OSCE par-ticipating States and/or international organizations on the facilitation of/simpli-fied issuance of visas for your citizens
(Please add additional rows as appropriate) OSCE participating State and/or international organization(s), with which an agreement was concluded
Title of bilateral/multilateral agreement, dates of its conclusion and entry into force
6) If applicable, please list bilateral agreements with neighbouring OSCE participat-ing States, which establish a special local border traffic regime and simplify travel of citizens residing within an area close to the national border
(Please add additional rows as appropriate) OSCE participating State with which a local border
traffic regime agreement was concluded Title of the local border traffic agreement, dates of its conclusion and entry into force
Thank you for your time and responses!