Definition: Visa

Category: EU legislation

"Visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for transit or entry for an intended stay in that Member State or in several Member States. The nature of the visa shall be determined in accordance with the following definitions:

(i) "long-stay visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for entry for an intended stay in that Member State of more than three months;
(ii) "short-stay visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for entry for an intended stay in that State or in several Member States for a period whose total duration does not exceed three months;
(iii) "transit visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State for entry for transit through the territory of that Member State or several Member States, except for transit at an airport;
(iv) "airport transit visa" means the authorisation or decision allowing a third-country national specifically subject to this requirement to pass through the transit zone of an airport, without gaining access to the national territory of the Member State concerned, during a stopover or a transfer between two sections of an international flight. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:050:0001:0010:EN:PDF