Free movement of persons: national long-stay visa. Initiative France

PURPOSE: proposal of a Regulation on the freedom of movement with a long-stay visa. CONTENT: This draft Regulation constitutes a development of the Schengen acquis within the meaning of the Protocol integrating the Schengen acquis into the framework of the European Union. Because there may be a time lag between the arrival on a Member State's territory of a person holding a national long-stay visa issued by that Member State and the moment when the person receives a residence permit enabling him or her to move freely in the other Member States' territories, it has been decided to take steps to facilitate the free movement of holders of national long-stay visas pending the issue of their residence permits. This would be achieved by stipulating that such long-stay visas, which currently enable their holders to transit only once through the territories of the other Member States in order to reach the territory of the State which issued the visa, are concurrently valid as uniform short-stay visas, provided that the applicants fulfil the conditions of entry and residence laid down in the Convention implementing the 1985 Schengen Agreement. This measure is a first step in the harmonisation of the conditions for the issue of national long-stay visas.�