Alan Shatter to unveil visa waiver programme

[doesnotcompute]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0511/visa.html

I am interested to know what Minister Shatter is going to change. I guess we'll find out later today

[Southern_Sky]

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/jobs ... 43457.html

This is to allow tourists from China & India to visit Ireland visa-free to boost the tourist sector.
Greece recently did this to allow all non-EU to visit visa free
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... ave-greece
''Last year, the government banished visa requirements for non–EU citizens, waived landing and take-off fees for aircraft at airports nationwide ''


Also Croatia and Montenegro have elmininated visas for Russian tourists during the summer months.

[doesnotcompute]

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/jobs ... 43457.html

This is to allow tourists from China & India to visit Ireland visa-free to boost the tourist sector.
Greece recently did this to allow all non-EU to visit visa free
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... ave-greece
''Last year, the government banished visa requirements for non–EU citizens, waived landing and take-off fees for aircraft at airports nationwide ''


Also Croatia and Montenegro have elmininated visas for Russian tourists during the summer months.

In all, the temporary waiver will be targeted at short-stay visitors of 14 nationalities.

Where can I find a list of all the 14 targeted nationalities?

[Aceform]

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/jobs ... 43457.html

This is to allow tourists from China & India to visit Ireland visa-free to boost the tourist sector.
Greece recently did this to allow all non-EU to visit visa free
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... ave-greece
''Last year, the government banished visa requirements for non–EU citizens, waived landing and take-off fees for aircraft at airports nationwide ''


Also Croatia and Montenegro have elmininated visas for Russian tourists during the summer months.

In all, the temporary waiver will be targeted at short-stay visitors of 14 nationalities.

Where can I find a list of all the 14 targeted nationalities?

Folks, please note that, the visitors should still have a valid UK visa.

between July 2011 and October 2012, Ireland will allow visitors with a UK visa to also enter Ireland.

[doesnotcompute]

The Minister is speaking about it now

[Southern_Sky]

http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ire ... 04674.html

Shatter announces temporary visa waiver programme

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - 04:46 PM


The Justice and Defence Minister Alan Shatter has announced Ireland's first visa waiver programme on a pilot basis.

People from 14 countries - including China, India, and parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East - will no longer need a visa for a short-term visit here once they have cleared immigration in the UK.

The Government hopes it will result in extra tourism revenue, especially from business and the London Olympics next year.

It could also provide a boost for English language schools in Ireland.

[ca.funke]

Quite a silly measure!

The waiver only applies to 14 nationalities.

This leaves the basic problem of the CTA (common travel area) unsolved:

Everyone who enters Britain and wants to ILLEGALLY go to Ireland, can just take a ferry to Belfast, and then cross the unpatrolled land-border to Ireland without much risk of being caught.

LEGAL visitors to Britain may, however, accidentally cross the border unknowingly, or be deterred by the fact that they need a seperate visa for Ireland and "not" go.

What I´d really love to know is: How many of the 14 listed nationalities will actually avail of going to Eire with their UK-visa?

Overall summary: Where there are no checkpoints, a uniform visa should be issued.

The CTA and its exeptions are one big mess.

This proposed waiver-program will not lead to any significant increases of visitors.

[knapps]

honestly speaking, this is not going to change anything.
I wish if they can allow these countries to visit without any condition.
Then you will see people will come to ireland instead of going to the UK.
That would bring change!!!!!

[archigabe]

List of countries to which the Visa Waiver Programme will apply:

Nationals from Eastern Europe
Belarus
Montenegro
Russian Federation
Serbia
Turkey
Ukraine

Middle East
Bahrain
Kuwait
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates

Other Asian Countries
India
Peoples’ Republic of China
Uzbekistan

[jms_uk]

I'd like to see some more information on this:

In addition, special arrangements will be put in place to facilitate visits by nationals of these 14 countries who are long-term residents in the UK.

[Southern_Sky]

One things for sure, the tourists that they're targeting would have to be seriously rich.
I can only imagine the costs of such a holiday including flights, accommodation, tours, expenses visiting both the UK & Ireland in an extended trip.
Additionally, the maximum stay is 180 days. Thats a long time to spend on holiday in expensive UK & and (perhaps even more expensive) Ireland.

[jms_uk]

More info now available at http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/WP11000005


What, personally, doesn't make me happy is the very last sentence:

Nationals of the countries above, who are long-term legal residents in the UK, will still require an Irish visa but will have the visa fee waived as part of the programme.

[ca.funke]

It´s still as silly as it always was.

CTA is futile/senseless, the current "visa waiver" is futile/senseless.

What personally doesn´t make me happy is this:

In relation to persons travelling between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the following scenarios will apply:

• If arriving in Ireland and then travelling to Northern Ireland, both an Irish and UK visa will be required, as is the case at present
• If arriving in Northern Ireland and travelling to Ireland, the visa waiver programme will apply and only a UK visa will be required

Note how, if you want to avail of the visa-waiver, you MUST enter NorthernIreland first(!), you can´t just fly from London to Dublin!

Just as if all people in the world knew what´s the difference between the Republic, UK, Northern Ireland etc... Most people from Europe don´t even know about these details.

Translated into proper English this "visa waiver"-scheme means:

• We can´t (be bothered to) train our immigration-staff at the few points-of-entry that we have to understand what UK visas look like, and that these are good for entry into Ireland.
• Since our checks between NorthernIreland and the Republic are (for political reasons) not really happening anyway, we just officially stop checking there for a while (=stopping the current facial profiling) and see what happens.

This "scheme" is SO STUPID, so badly thought out, it makes me angry...

I wonder if this would have even prevented >>this<<, where a properly UK-documented person was arrested "near" the border to the Republic on the suspicion of possibly wanting to cross, while in reality he was, at all times, on UK-territory.

I´d really love to know if Irish Embassies know about this. I´m tempted to write to the Irish embassy in NewDelhi, asking them if I need an Irish visa for a visit, now that I have a UK-visa...

[jms_uk]

Note how, if you want to avail of the visa-waiver, you MUST enter NorthernIreland first(!), you can´t just fly from London to Dublin!

You can fly from London to Dublin, but you have had to enter UK first.

You can't just transit through London on a way to Dublin.