Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation)
Modified by
  • Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 13 July 2009establishing a Community Code on Visas(Visa Code)Corrigendum to Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code)(Official Journal of the European Union L 243 of 15 September 2009), 32009R081032009R0810R(04), September 15, 2009
  • Regulation (EU) No 610/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 26 June 2013amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code), the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, Council Regulations (EC) No 1683/95 and (EC) No 539/2001 and Regulations (EC) No 767/2008 and (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, 32013R0610, June 29, 2013
  • Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 30 November 2017establishing an Entry/Exit System (EES) to register entry and exit data and refusal of entry data of third-country nationals crossing the external borders of the Member States and determining the conditions for access to the EES for law enforcement purposes, and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulations (EC) No 767/2008 and (EU) No 1077/2011Corrigendum to Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2017 establishing an Entry/Exit System (EES) to register entry and exit data and refusal of entry data of third-country nationals crossing the external borders of the Member States and determining the conditions for access to the EES for law enforcement purposes, and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulations (EC) No 767/2008 and (EU) No 1077/2011(Official Journal of the European Union L 327 of 9 December 2017), 32017R222632017R2226R(03), December 9, 2017
  • Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 20 May 2019on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of borders and visa and amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1726 and (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA, 32019R0817, May 22, 2019
Corrected by
  • Corrigendum to Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation), 32008R0767R(05), November 12, 2018
  • Corrigendum to Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code), 32009R0810R(04), November 12, 2018
  • Corrigendum to Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2017 establishing an Entry/Exit System (EES) to register entry and exit data and refusal of entry data of third-country nationals crossing the external borders of the Member States and determining the conditions for access to the EES for law enforcement purposes, and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulations (EC) No 767/2008 and (EU) No 1077/2011, 32017R2226R(03), May 3, 2019
Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 9 July 2008concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation) CHAPTER IGENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1Subject matter and scopeThis Regulation defines the purpose of, the functionalities of and the responsibilities for the Visa Information System (VIS), as established by Article 1 of Decision 2004/512/EC. It sets up the conditions and procedures for the exchange of data between Member States on applications for short-stay visas and on the decisions taken in relation thereto, including the decision whether to annul, revoke or extend the visa, to facilitate the examination of such applications and the related decisions.By storing identity data, travel document data and biometric data in the common identity repository (CIR) established by Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of borders and visa and amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1726 and (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA (OJ L 135, 22.5.2019, p. 27)., the VIS contributes to facilitating and assisting in the correct identification of persons registered in the VIS under the conditions and for the purposes of Article 20 of that Regulation.
Article 2PurposeThe VIS shall have the purpose of improving the implementation of the common visa policy, consular cooperation and consultation between central visa authorities by facilitating the exchange of data between Member States on applications and on the decisions relating thereto, in order:(a)to facilitate the visa application procedure;(b)to prevent the bypassing of the criteria for the determination of the Member State responsible for examining the application;(c)to facilitate the fight against fraud;(d)to facilitate checks at external border crossing points and within the territory of the Member States;(e)to assist in the identification of any person who may not, or may no longer, fulfil the conditions for entry to, stay or residence on the territory of the Member States;(f)to facilitate the application of Regulation (EC) No 343/2003;(g)to contribute to the prevention of threats to the internal security of any of the Member States.
Article 3Availability of data for the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and other serious criminal offences1.The designated authorities of the Member States may in a specific case and following a reasoned written or electronic request access the data kept in the VIS referred to in Articles 9 to 14 if there are reasonable grounds to consider that consultation of VIS data will substantially contribute to the prevention, detection or investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences. Europol may access the VIS within the limits of its mandate and when necessary for the performance of its tasks.2.The consultation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be carried out through central access point(s) which shall be responsible for ensuring strict compliance with the conditions for access and the procedures established in Council Decision 2008/633/JHA of 23 June 2008 concerning access for consultation of the Visa Information System (VIS) by the designated authorities of Member States and by Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offencesSee page 129 of this Official Journal.. Member States may designate more than one central access point to reflect their organisational and administrative structure in fulfilment of their constitutional or legal requirements. In an exceptional case of urgency, the central access point(s) may receive written, electronic or oral requests and only verify ex-post whether all the conditions for access are fulfilled, including whether an exceptional case of urgency existed. The ex-post verification shall take place without undue delay after the processing of the request.3.Data obtained from the VIS pursuant to the Decision referred to in paragraph 2 shall not be transferred or made available to a third country or to an international organisation. However, in an exceptional case of urgency, such data may be transferred or made available to a third country or an international organisation exclusively for the purposes of the prevention and detection of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences and under the conditions set out in that Decision. In accordance with national law, Member States shall ensure that records on such transfers are kept and make them available to national data protection authorities on request. The transfer of data by the Member State which entered the data in the VIS shall be subject to the national law of that Member State.4.This Regulation is without prejudice to any obligations under applicable national law for the communication of information on any criminal activity detected by the authorities referred to in Article 6 in the course of their duties to the responsible authorities for the purposes of preventing, investigating and prosecuting the related criminal offences.
Article 4DefinitionsFor the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:1."visa" means:(a)"uniform visa" as defined in Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community code on Visas (Visa Code)OJ L 243, 15.9.2009, p. 1.;(b)"transit visa" as defined in Article 11(1)(b) of the Schengen Convention;(c)"airport transit visa" as defined in Article 2(5) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009;(d)"visa with limited territorial validity" as defined in Article 2(4) of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009;(e)"national long-stay visa valid concurrently as a short-stay visa" as defined in Article 18 of the Schengen Convention;2."visa sticker" means the uniform format for visas as defined by Regulation (EC) No 1683/95;3."visa authorities" means the authorities which in each Member State are responsible for examining and for taking decisions on visa applications or for decisions whether to annul, revoke or extend visas, including the central visa authorities and the authorities responsible for issuing visas at the border in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 415/2003 of 27 February 2003 on the issue of visas at the border, including the issue of such visas to seamen in transitOJ L 64, 7.3.2003, p. 1.;4."application form" means the uniform application form for visas in Annex 16 to the Common Consular Instructions;5."applicant" means any person subject to the visa requirement pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 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 requirementOJ L 81, 21.3.2001, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1932/2006 (OJ L 405, 30.12.2006, p. 23)., who has lodged an application for a visa;6."group members" means applicants who are obliged for legal reasons to enter and leave the territory of the Member States together;7."travel document" means a passport or other equivalent document entitling the holder to cross the external borders and to which a visa may be affixed;8."Member State responsible" means the Member State which has entered the data in the VIS;9."verification" means the process of comparison of sets of data to establish the validity of a claimed identity (one-to-one check);10."identification" means the process of determining a person's identity through a database search against multiple sets of data (one-to-many check);11."alphanumeric data" means data represented by letters, digits, special characters, spaces and punctuation marks;12."VIS data" means all data stored in the VIS Central System and in the CIR in accordance with Articles 9 to 14;13."identity data" means the data referred to in Article 9(4)(a) and (aa);14."fingerprint data" means the data relating to the five fingerprints of the index, middle finger, ring finger, little finger and the thumb from the right hand and, where present, from the left hand.
Article 5Categories of data1.Only the following categories of data shall be recorded in the VIS:(a)alphanumeric data on the applicant and on visas requested, issued, refused, annulled, revoked or extended referred to in points (1) to (4) of Article 9 and Articles 10 to 14;(b)photographs referred to in point (5) of Article 9;(c)fingerprint data referred to in point (6) of Article 9;(d)links to other applications referred to in Article 8(3) and (4).1a.The CIR shall contain the data referred to in Article 9(4)(a) to (c), (5) and (6). The remaining VIS data shall be stored in the VIS Central System.2.The messages transmitted by the infrastructure of the VIS, referred to in Article 16, Article 24(2) and Article 25(2), shall not be recorded in the VIS, without prejudice to the recording of data processing operations pursuant to Article 34.
Article 6Access for entering, amending, deleting and consulting data1.Access to the VIS for entering, amending or deleting the data referred to in Article 5(1) in accordance with this Regulation shall be reserved exclusively to the duly authorised staff of the visa authorities.2.Access to the VIS for the purposes of consulting the data shall be reserved exclusively for the duly authorised staff of the national authorities of each Member State which are competent for the purposes laid down in Articles 15 to 22, and for the duly authorised staff of the national authorities of each Member State and of the Union agencies which are competent for the purposes laid down in Articles 20 and 21 of Regulation (EU) 2019/817. Such access shall be limited according to the extent that the data are required for the performance of their tasks for those purposes, and proportionate to the objectives pursued.3.Each Member State shall designate the competent authorities, the duly authorised staff of which shall have access to enter, amend, delete or consult data in the VIS. Each Member State shall without delay communicate to the Commission a list of these authorities, including those referred to in Article 41(4), and any amendments thereto. That list shall specify for what purpose each authority may process data in the VIS.Within 3 months after the VIS has become operational in accordance with Article 48(1), the Commission shall publish a consolidated list in the Official Journal of the European Union. Where there are amendments thereto, the Commission shall publish once a year an updated consolidated list.
Article 7General principles1.Each competent authority authorised to access the VIS in accordance with this Regulation shall ensure that the use of the VIS is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to the performance of the tasks of the competent authorities.2.Each competent authority shall ensure that in using the VIS, it does not discriminate against applicants and visa holders on grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation and that it fully respects the human dignity and the integrity of the applicant or of the visa holder.
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