The Dominican Republic wants to make it easy for its citizens to travel to the European Union. In order to accomplish this goal, it is trying to reach a visa-free travel agreement with the bloc.
Luis Abinader, the President of the Dominican Republic, recently had a meeting with Sergio Mattarella, the President of Italy.
In the said meeting, the two Presidents talked about the possibility of removing the visa requirement for Dominican nationals.
Visa agreement
The visa issue was not the reason for President Abinader’s visit to Italy. However, he took advantage of the opportunity to bring it up.
No official statement was issued by the authorities in Italy regarding the matter. Nonetheless, the Dominican President said that Italy had expressed its support regarding a Schengen visa exemption.
Furthermore, President Abinader also disclosed that other than Italy, he had also gotten approval on visa exemption from both Portugal and Spain.
He disclosed that he was now planning on bringing up the matter with authorities in France and Germany.
He added that once majority of the Schengen Area countries support the removal of Schengen visa requirements for the Dominican Republic, his country would put forward an official proposal.
The proposal
No additional information was shared about what the said proposal would include.
But, it is believed that the proposal would outline the reasons for granting visa-free entry to Dominican nationals to the Schengen Area.
It could also mention steps that would be taken to mitigate migration risks in the event of a visa liberalization agreement between the European Union and the Dominican Republic.
As there is no such agreement in place as yet, all passport holders in the Dominican Republic have to obtain a valid Schengen visa to enter the bloc.
The statistics
According to the latest statistics, the number of Schengen visa applicants that were filed by citizens of the Dominican Republic last year stood at 52,699.
But, not all applicants were able to secure the visa. The rate of no visa issuance stood at 25.8%. The total number of people who were granted a Schengen visa after their application was 38,091.
Meanwhile, the people who had their Schengen visa application turned down were 13,268. The highest number of visa applications that Dominican citizens made last year were to Spain.
The Schengen member state received a total of 32,068 visa applications in 2023 from citizens of the Dominican Republic.
Italy was the second Schengen member state to have received a high number of applications from Dominicans in the previous year. The country received a total of 7,314 applications.
The third Schengen member state to have received a high number of applications from Dominican citizens was France. The total number of applications that France received in 2023 stood at 5,166.
