5 days ago
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It’s not a waiver that the government has been lobbying for, but effective right away, Belizeans will now enjoy greater ease of travel to Europe. The European Commission’s has approved a five-year multiple-entry Schengen visa for holders of Belizean biometric passports. This allows Belizeans applying at Schengen embassies in Guatemala or Mexico to obtain long-term visas, eliminating the need for repeat applications during that period. The announcement comes after sustained lobbying by the Government of Belize, led by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francis Fonseca. According to the government, the new arrangement recognizes Belize’s positive international standing and the absence of any travel security concerns involving Belizean citizens. The announcement comes three weeks after minister Fonseca spoke on the challenges faced in the visa process, as applicants must still travel to Mexico or Guatemala to apply in person.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “There have been many, many efforts made. We wish it was something we had control over. Unfortunately, we don’t. The Schengen visas, we’ve been working on this waiver of the Schengen visa for many, many years. Many years. We’ve been working on it. My predecessor, Senator Courtenay worked very hard to try to get this waiver. I have continued that work. But the reality is that it’s a matter that’s determined by the EU Parliament. They have to determine whether or not they will grant these waivers to countries. And the reality now is that we’re living in a world where there’s a lot of concerns about migration, immigration, many of them unfounded, but that’s the reality we’re living in. But what I can say, Dr. Rene, is that Belize has done everything, everything that we need to do as a country to comply with all of the requirements and conditions and terms that are in place for us to qualify for a waiver. For example, the e-passports that we have, that was a significant investment by this government in 2022, I believe we made that investment. It cost us as a government and the public something like $15 million US dollars to get those passports, the e-passports, we had to get them done, I think, at Canadian company to ensure that we met all of these global standards because that was the excuse they were using, oh Belize your passport is not secure, it’s not an electronic e-passport, it doesn’t have the bio data. And so we made sure that we did that.”
It is unclear what was the deciding factor in this decision, but we can tell you that just last week, Minister Fonseca had met with Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, ahead of the CELAC-EU Summit in Santa Marta, Colombia.
English (US) ·