Azerbaijan OKs visa facilitation, readmission deal with Norway
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan has ratified visa facilitation and readmission with Norway.
The country's parliament ratified the agreement between the governments of Azerbaijan and Norway on visa facilitation and readmission of illegal residents on March 6.
The agreement provides simplification of visa regime for citizens of both countries, visa-free regime for persons with diplomatic passports, reducing the number of required documents, reducing the consideration of the circulation period and the amount of the visa fees.
Due to the new agreement, it will be easier to identify persons who do not comply or do not meet the conditions for entry, stay or residence on the territory of Azerbaijan and Norway, as well as their rapid, safe and effective deportation.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Azerbaijan and Norway have developed an increasingly strong relationship. The ties have been growing especially in the field of energy with several Norwegian companies being established in Baku.
After simplification of the visa agreement with the European Union that entered into force in September 2014, Azerbaijan has set to facilitate its visa regime with Norway and Switzerland.
The facilitated visa regimes with these two countries, which are part of the Schengen area, will correspond to the terms of the agreement with the EU.
Under the new rule, issuing a visa will be carried out within 10 days with two days more or less in case of emergency. Meanwhile, the cost of the application will decrease to 35 euro for Azerbaijani citizens, and the list of required documents will be reduced for certain categories of the population.
Visa facilitation agreement will contribute to the development of relations between the EU and Azerbaijani citizens.
However, the new agreement does not cover such EU countries as Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as Iceland and Liechtenstein, which joined the Schengen area.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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