Albanians to Apply for ETIAS Visa for Traveling to Schengen Area

By the end of 2022, all Albanian passport holders wishing to travel to any of the countries that belong to the Schengen Zone will need to apply for and obtain an ETIAS, said a press release issued by this travel system authority on Tuesday.
ETIAS stands for European Travel Information and Authorization System and is a new system implemented to register visa waiver travelers when they enter and exit Schengen countries.
Although it is part of Europe, Albania is not a Schengen Zone member country nor part of the European Union at the moment. It is for this reason that Albanian nationals, although they are European citizens, will require an ETIAS visa waiver when they plan to visit countries that belong to the Schengen Area.
“The ETIAS visa waiver for Schengen countries is being implemented by immigration authorities in order to strengthen border and internal security as well as protect the region from terrorist attacks,” said the press release.
Albanian passport holders will be required to complete an online application with their personal information in order to acquire an electronic visa waiver for Schengen before traveling to member countries from Albania.
“This is a new proposal for a border control system, made by the European Commission, which aims to strengthen the external borders of the European Union,” said the authority.
Although Albania is located in Europe, it is not a member of the Schengen Zone nor of the European Union as of today. Nevertheless, it applied for European Union (EU) membership on 28 April 2009 and has been an official candidate for accession to the EU since June 2014.