THE STATE OF TÜRKİYE-EU VISA LIBERALIZATION DIALOGUE AND CHALLENGES IN THE SCHENGEN VISA APPLICATION PROCESS (IKV BRIEF)

On 16 December 2013, Türkiye and the EU launched the Türkiye-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue to remove the visa requirement for Turkish citizens to travel to the Schengen Area. The Visa Liberalization Roadmap, adopted on the same day, aims to transition to a visa-free regime after Türkiye meets the agreed 72 criteria. However, despite 11 years of this initiative, visa liberalization has not materialized; on the contrary, the problems in the Schengen visa application process and visa refusal rates of Turkish citizens have increased exponentially.

The IKV brief entitled “The State of Türkiye-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue and Challenges in the Schengen Visa Application Process” authored by IKV Junior Researcher Tunç İbrahim Ceylan was published as part of IKV Brief series. First, the Brief Note gives a short historical background of visa issues encountered by Turkish nationals and legal struggles to overcome these issues. Second, the Türkiye-EU Readmission Agreement and Türkiye-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue are examined in detail. Although the Dialogue was started in 2013, the aim has yet to be achieved. The Brief Note discusses the current state of the Dialogue and the parties’ positions towards the process. Then, the recent challenges faced by Turkish nationals while applying to Schengen visa are shown. Finally, the Brief Note discusses the reasons for the challenges and offers a few suggestions to ease the current hardships as emphasizing that the only long-lasting solution is completion of the Dialogue successfully and establishing a visa-free regime between Türkiye and the EU.

To access the brief, please click here.

IKV Brief: The State of Türkiye-EU Visa Liberalization Dialogue and Challenges in the Schengen Visa Application Process

Author: Tunç İbrahim Ceylan

Publication Date: January 2025

Number of Pages: 32