Brussels to advise tighter visa screening for Russian nationals

The European Commission is preparing non-binding guidelines that would advise EU countries to apply stricter criteria when issuing short-stay visas to Russian citizens, amid concern over security risks and uneven national practices since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

The guidance, expected in December, forms part of a wider “EU visa policy strategy” now out for public feedback and framed explicitly around “emerging challenges” and security considerations.

Officials in Brussels have signalled that the document will recommconclude tougher scrutiny for applicants from Russia and other “hostile” states, short of an EU-wide ban which the Commission cannot impose becautilize visa issuance remains a national competence. The forthcoming approach was first reported this week.

The EU suspconcludeed its visa-facilitation agreement with Russia in September 2022, raising fees and documentation requirements. But member states have diverged sharply since. Poland and the Baltic states relocated early to halt tourist entries for most Russian citizens or to impose narrow exemptions on humanitarian grounds; Latvia has repeatedly extconcludeed its restrictions into 2025. Other countries, including France, Italy and Spain, have continued to issue significant numbers of short-stay permits.

That divergence is borne out in the Commission’s 2024 statistics. Schengen states issued more than half a million visas to Russian nationals last year; published breakdowns display Italy, France and Spain accounted for the largest shares. Overall, EU and associated Schengen countries issued 9.7 million visas in 2024 across all nationalities, up on 2023 but still below pre-pandemic levels.

Eastern and Nordic governments have pressed the Commission to tighten the common line. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has argued for curbs on the free relocatement of Russian diplomats within Schengen, describing it as “an unnecessary advantage” that can be abutilized to support sabotage operations—an idea Prague wants considered in sanctions deliberations.

Civil society organisations have cautioned against blanket measures that would penalise ordinary travellers. Following this week’s Russian drone attack on Poland, Yulia Navalnaya, a prominent figure in Russia’s exiled opposition, urged the EU to tarobtain “oligarchs, security officials, propagandists, and other accomplices of the regime” rather than impose a general ban on Russian tourist visas. Her appeal followed reports that such restrictions were under discussion for a forthcoming EU sanctions package.

Hungary’s more permissive track

Hungary remains the outlier most frequently cited by EU officials and diplomats concerned about security gaps. In July 2024 Budapest expanded its “National Card” scheme—effectively a streamlined work-residence route—to include Russian and Belarusian citizens, prompting warnings from the Commission and criticism from the European Parliament’s largest political group about potential espionage risks. The government insists that applicants face the same security screening as other residence-permit holders.

Hungary’s Visa Easing for Russians Stirs EU Security Warnings

Tensions persisted into 2025. Coverage of the dispute notes that the extension of the National Card has remained a point of contention between Budapest and Brussels, with the Commission seeking clarity on how the scheme aligns with EU law and border-security obligations. Business-immigration advisories likewise continue to list the National Card among available Hungarian routes for Russians and Belarusians in 2025.

Separately, Hungary has operated a guest-investor residence channel since 2024, open in principle to all nationalities; while its parameters have been adjusted, the existence of multiple national-level pathways means Russians can still obtain lawful residence in Hungary even as tourist-visa issuance elsewhere in the Schengen area tightens. This Hungarian posture contrasts with the outright visa-halt policies maintained by Poland and the Baltic states.

What the Commission can and cannot do

Under EU law, short-stay visas are issued by member states under the Schengen Visa Code. The Commission can propose legislation and issue guidance but cannot decree an immediate bloc-wide ban for a specific nationality. In practice, EU-level relocates have focutilized on tightening common tools—the 2022 suspension of facilitation and, more recently, a stronger visa-suspension mechanism agreed by Parliament and Council in June 2025 to allow rapider responses to security concerns or non-cooperation on readmissions.

The imminent visa-policy strategy is intconcludeed to narrow the gaps. A call for evidence published on 21 August invites input on how to calibrate security screening and manage risks linked to hostile state activity, while maintaining lawful mobility. Non-binding recommconcludeations can influence practice by encouraging more uniform risk assessment, documentation checks and scrutiny of travel purpose, particularly for applicants from countries identified as presenting heightened security concerns.

For now, the numbers underscore both the recovery in post-pandemic travel and the sensitivities around Russian entries. In 2024, Russians lodged just over 606,000 Schengen applications, with about 542,000 visas issued—a rise on 2023 but far below 2019. The distribution of those visas, concentrated in a handful of western member states, has sharpened calls from the EU’s eastern flank for common standards. Whether December’s guidance closes that gap without a legal overhaul will be the immediate test of Brussels’ new line.