No Schengen visas for these passport holders

EU ambassador issues statement.

By TASS

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Published: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 4:47 PM

Last updated: Tue 23 Jul 2019, 6:49 PM

Crimeans who received Russian passports after the annexation of the peninsula in 2014 will be unable to get a Schengen visa to Europe.

"As it is known, the EU has never recognized and will not recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol. And therefore Russian passports issued in Crimea by Russian authorities after the annexation shall not be recognized and shall not be accepted for applications for Schengen visa," Markus Ederer, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Russian Federation, said in his interview with TASS.

There are, however, other ways for Crimean residents to obtain Schengen visas.

Crimean residents with travel documents issued there by the Russian authorities before the annexation can get Schengen visas.

The second option for Crimean residents is the following: many of them still hold Ukrainian passports or have a right to Ukrainian passports as Ukraine still considers Crimea residents as Ukrainian citizens. They can continue to use these non-biometric Ukrainian passports. In both cases, their application for a Schengen visa must be presented to EU member states consulates in Ukraine, not in Russia.

If they hold a Ukrainian biometric passport, they travel visa-free to the Schengen area, because there is visa freedom for Ukrainians with biometric Ukrainian passports since 2017.