The Schengen Agreement is an agreement between 24  countries in Europe. It is designed to encourage travel between member countries by eliminating border checkpoints between them.  This means that if you enter one Schengen country, you have up to 90 days of continuous travel in all Schengen countries.

The 24 Schengen countries include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What does this mean to you? Well, if you are an American citizen traveling to any of these countries for business or tourism and you plan on staying less than 90 days, you don’t need a travel visa at all-just your passport. The US Department of State notes that if you are traveling to a Schengen country for a different reason (like to study or for employment), you should check with the country you are staying with to see if you need a visa or not.

If you are a legal permanent resident of the US, however, your situation may be more complicated.  Whether or not you will need a travel visa depends on your country of origin.  RushMyTravelVisa.com will be happy to help research your travel visa needs.

If you need a visa and don’t have to appear in person for an interview, we may be able to expedite your visa for you.  Contact us today!

Tags: Europe, Schengen Agreement, travel visa

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Government Regulations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.