Actions

On 2 November 2015 EU Member States started using the Visa Information System (VIS) in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka (region 20 of the VIS roll-out schedule) and on 20 November in Andorra, Holy See, Monaco, San Marino, Ireland and the UK as well as all the Member States in the Schengen area (regions 21-23 of the schedule). All Member States' consular authorities are now connected to VIS world-wide and the planned consular roll-out has thus been finalised.
All Member States have reported the successful launch of VIS in these regions along with effective operations towards the VIS Central System. The Central System is still performing very well subsequent to the completion of the full VIS roll-out schedule to the consular authorities. eu-LISA remains in close contact with the Member States, providing assistance to the national teams as well as detailed reports when necessary.
The introduction of VIS in regions 20-23 follows the successful entry into operation of VIS in China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan on 12 October and in Russia on 14 September. The rollout in the region 'external borders' is yet to be decided.
VIS is a European database for the exchange of information on short-stay (up to three months) Schengen visas between the respective national authorities. VIS facilitates visa application procedures and checks at the EU external borders.