The newest member of the Schengen Area, Bulgaria, has tasked a working group to speed up the visa issuance process in an effort to improve its tourism sector.
The Bulgarian Tourism Minister, Miroslav Borshosh, announced the news during a roundtable, also noting that Schengen membership is a huge opportunity and the administrative issues that hinder the process should be solved by Schengen.News reports.
In order to make the most of this chance, we must remove the administrative barriers that hinder the tourism sector. That is why the Ministry of Tourism is creating a working group that will coordinate the efforts of all institutions involved in accelerating the processes of issuing tourist and work visas.
Minister Promises Assistance to Businesses in Bulgaria as He Thrives to Improve Tourism Infrastructure
Minister Borshosh said that by joining the Schengen Area, Bulgaria is at an advantage to attract more visitors and “if we do not act decisively, we may miss this opportunity”.
In order to take advantage of this opportunity, he vowed to help businesses and said they would have a business partner in me.
Schengen gives us a competitive advantage, but if we do not act decisively, we may miss this opportunity. I am committed not only to coordinating the processes, but to being the driver of the necessary changes. Business will have in me an adequate and business partner.
Work Visas Process Should Be Optimised, Minister Says
During the roundtable discussions, Minister Borshosh noted that the process of issuing work visas to third-country nationals had to be improved in light of the changes that aim at bringing more tourists to the country.
We need to facilitate the procedures for hiring workers in order to ensure the long-term competitiveness of Bulgarian tourism. The creation of the working group is a step in the right direction. Now is the time to take real action to develop tourism in the new Schengen conditions.
Although it was not mentioned during the roundtable discussion, Bulgaria has its own challenges with visas, particularly with the US.
Bulgaria aims to have visa-free travel to the US by 2026 while committing to meeting the conditions that are set by the US for membership to the visa waiver programme. Several requirements apply to Bulgaria, such as cooperation with the US authorities to improve security and information exchange, but the most challenging one remains the visa rejection rates.
In order to be eligible for the visa waiver programme, the candidate country, in this case Bulgaria, must have a rejection rate of less than three per cent. In 2023, Bulgarian applicants were granted 20,601 US visas.
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