What is Schengen Visa? What are its Uses?

With the world becoming a global village now the need for lifting regional restrictions is being felt by many to facilitate restriction-free travel across other, especially neighboring, nations. In such a scenario, Schengen Visa comes into picture. It is basically an extraordinary document which enables the individuals holding it to travel, without any restrictions, across the 25 member states of a zone called Schengen.

This particular type of visa is a document which makes traversing among the member states of the Schengen Zone a lot easier and hassle-free. Actually, travelling across the European continent has become much simpler and easier -- thanks to the arrival of the Schengen Visa. In one’s capacity as a guest to the specific area of Schengen, one gets to make the most of several benefits that come with this unique visa. Due to this particular visa, he gets the power and the facility to go into a nation and travel without any restrictions across the particular region during the validity of the visa. Border controls which are internal are restricted with little or fewer stops or checks.

This brings us to the origin of the term. It comes from Luxembourg. During 1995, seven European Union (EU) nations there inked an accord to bring to an end to internal border controls and restrictive checkpoints. Over the last years, many more nations have become a part of the accord. Currently, there are 22 Schengen nations spread across the European continent.

When a person is in possession of the Schengen Visa, it signals that he may visit any member state of the Schengen Zone with just one visa. Thanks to it, one does not need individual and separate visas for each nation for the travelling purposes. Hence, in case one wants to travel across the European continent, all he needs is just one stamp on his passport, and he would be fine. It really makes a BIG difference to one’s plans related to travel.

The Schengen Stamp makes the whole world one’s playground. Travelling becomes something to look forward to - thanks to the Schengen Visa which enables the holders to travel, minus any restrictions, inside the nations of the particular area for a maximum period of 90 days, over duration of six months. It also signals that once a person with this visa has been in one or more of such nations during this period, he should remain outside every member state of the zone for not less than three months.