UK Nationals’ Visa Exemption After Brexit Confirmed

At a Glance

The European Union has adopted a regulation confirming that UK nationals will be able to enter the European Union for tourism and business trips without a visa after Brexit for stays up to 90 days in a 180-day period, in either a deal or no-deal scenario.

The situation

As an update, the European Union has adopted a regulation confirming visa-free travel for UK nationals on tourist and business trips for up to 90 days in a 180-day period in Schengen countries.

• Schengen countries. The Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
  
  • Ireland. As a reminder, UK nationals seeking to travel to Ireland and vice versa remain visa exempt under the Common Travel Area.
• Reciprocity. The United Kingdom must continue to honor its prior political commitment to apply a similar visa exemption to nationals of all EU countries for the exemption for UK nationals to remain in place. Should the United Kingdom introduce a visa requirement for nationals of an EU country, the European Union will review and amend the visa exemption for UK nationals.

Impact

UK nationals benefit from more certainty on their visa-free travel after Brexit.

Looking ahead

Though the regulation must still be signed by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Journal before Brexit day to take effect, Fragomen and other stakeholders expect these administrative formalities to be completed in the next few days.

For more information, please visit Fragomen's dedicated Brexit site, which contains ongoing updates on contingency planning, news, FAQs, and analysis/commentary in the form of blogs, videos, webcasts and events.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to beneluxinfo@fragomen.com.