Visa-free travel

Regulations

Legal bases for visa-free travel (Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806)

Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement sets out in Article 4 the general categories of visa-exempt persons.

Article 6 of the above-mentioned regulation defines additional categories of persons who may be exempted from the visa requirement or exempted from the above-mentioned obligation by virtue of unilateral provisions or bilateral agreements. It should also be noted that some bilateral agreements concluded by the EU introduce such facilitations of exemption for holders of diplomatic, service (service) and special passports.

List of countries and territories whose nationals are exempt from the visa requirement

Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement stipulates that third-country nationals listed in Annex II to that Regulation are not required to have visas when crossing the external borders.

It should be noted that in the case of some nationalities, an additional restriction is introduced in the context of the need for citizens of a given country to have biometric passports, appropriate annotations (or lack thereof).

Specific cases

A detailed list of national derogations and bilateral agreements introducing derogations for all Member States can be found on the European Commission's website.

Pursuant to Article 24(2) of the Act of 12 December 2013 on Foreigners the Republic of Poland has exempted from the visa requirement students who are citizens of third countries from whom visas are normally required, provided that they reside permanently in one of the countries exempt from the visa requirement, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, taking part in school trips under the supervision of a teacher of a given school.

Exceptions to the visa requirement

The following categories of persons who are listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 as persons required to be in possession of visas shall be exempt from the visa requirement:

• persons crossing borders in the framework of local border traffic;

• pupils residing permanently in the territory of the Member States who take part in a school trip in a group of pupils under the supervision of a teacher from the school concerned;

• refugee and stateless persons and other persons who do not have the nationality of any State, who are resident in a Member State and are holders of a travel document issued by that Member State.

In addition, Member States may exempt (by virtue of their own decision or bilateral agreements) the following categories from the visa requirement:

• holders of diplomatic passports, service (service)/official (official) passports, or special passports;

• civil air and sea crew members in the course of their duties;

• members of civilian seagoing crews while ashore who hold a seafarer;

• members of relief or rescue missions in the event of a disaster or accident;

• civilian crews of vessels navigating in international inland waters;

• holders of travel documents issued to officials by international intergovernmental organisations of which at least one Member State or other organisations recognised as subjects of international law are members;

• pupils holding one of the nationalities listed in Annex I to the Regulation and residing in Switzerland or Liechtenstein, taking part in a school trip in a group of pupils accompanied by a teacher from the school concerned;

• persons with refugee and stateless status who are permanently resident in the country which issued their travel document, which is part of the Annex II countries;

• members of the armed forces travelling in NATO or Partnership for Peace business;

• persons who are refugees, stateless or do not hold nationality of any other country that have another travel document issued by Ireland and recognised by the Member State concerned.

Exceptions to the exemption from the visa requirement

Member States may provide for exceptions to the exemption from the visa requirement laid down in Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 for persons engaged in a paid activity during their stay.

The Republic of Poland does not provide for an exemption in that regard. Holders of work permits, seasonal work permits, persons indicated in declarations of entrustment of work or other residence titles enabling access to the labour market do not need to additionally have visas.

In addition, a Member State may exempt from the visa exemption the following categories of persons:

• holders of diplomatic passports, service (service)/official (official) passports, or special passports;

• civil air and sea crew members in the course of their duties;

• members of civilian seagoing crews while ashore who hold a seafarer;

• members of relief or rescue missions in the event of a disaster or accident;

• civilian crews of vessels navigating in international inland waters;

• holders of travel documents issued to officials by international intergovernmental organisations of which at least one Member State or other organisations recognised as subjects of international law are members.