The Bahamas High Commission
London
Bahamas-EU “Short Stay Visa Waiver” – REMINDER
On 28 May 2009, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and the European Union signed a “Short Stay Visa Waiver Agreement”. The Agreement was provisionally applied since 28 May 2009 and came into full force on 1 April 2010. Therefore, since 28 May 2009 holders of valid Bahamian passports have been able to travel without a visa for short stays of up to three months to the following European Union countries which apply the Schengen agreement:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
Additionally, Bahamians may travel without a visa to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland for short stays.
The agreement does not yet apply to Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, as while they are members of the Schengen area they are not EU members.
For the purposes of the Agreement, short stays are considered as visits for the following purposes:
- Tourism
- Business travel, e.g. conferences, meetings etc. [but not paid employment]
- Ad hoc sports activities, artists’ activities
- Journalism [media professionals sent by media organizations in The Bahamas]
- Intra-corporate training e.g. persons sent for training at European headquarters or branches of companies and organizations with branches in The Bahamas
You may find the EU decision on the signature and provisional application of the visa waiver agreement on the Official EU Journal at the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ%3AL%3A2009%3A169%3ASOM%3AEN%3AHTML
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