After the first talks over the Visa Information System (VIS) reform two months ago in September, the Liechtenstein government released a statement on the subject. Liechtenstein’s policymakers welcomed the VIS reform declaration during the recent meeting, highlighting the decrease of the age at which children’s fingerprints can be acquired from 12 to six years old. Moreover, those who are 75 years of age or older may be excluded from this condition.

Regulation (EU) 2021/1133 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1134 are the specific EU regulations that govern the Visa Information System (VIS) change. The Schengen acquis, a collection of agreements and regulations that provide travel throughout Europe without a passport, is expanded upon by these provisions.

Liechtenstein is bound by these standards as a Schengen member state, and the EU legislation form the basis for VIS revisions, with a primary focus on technical concerns. National legislation has implemented specific requirements of the VIS rule by amending the Aliens Act and the Asylum Act.

The VIS Technical Report for 2022 states that, with an availability rate of 99.93% in 2022 and 99.98% the following year, the overall technical performance of the VIS and BMS satisfied the service level agreement (SLA).

Even though the Central VIS has been prepared for integration since October 2019, connecting it to Europol is the next step in the process. The merger of resident permits and long-stay visas was one of the new elements included to the 2021 VIS upgrade, which also featured system restructuring.

Countries like Bulgaria and Romania, which obtained read-only access to the VIS in July 2021, may be able to accelerate their European integration efforts until these reforms are put into place. Over the course of two years, ending in January 2020, the VIS capacity was boosted from 100 million for the BMS to 85 million for the VIS and BMS background databases.

Not only can long-stay visas and residency permits be recorded, but VISMail—an information system related to prior consultation and visa issue notifications—is also included as one of the new functionalities. These improvements also include the addition of a list of approved travel papers and live facial-image enrollment and matching.

By strengthening border security, expediting the issuing of visas, and preventing visa shopping—the practice of third-country nationals applying for a Schengen visa for one country with the purpose of staying in another—VIS plays a critical role in the Schengen area.