Kenya is not among the list of countries granted the interim EU Visas after EU opened up non-essential travel. An article by Reuters shows that only 54 countries globally made the first list of countries eligible for interim EU visas, with Rwanda as the only East African Nation on the list.
Last week, 27 EU ambassadors convened to set criteria for granting quarantine-free access from July 1. Other countries which will also have to wait longer for temporary Schengen visas include Brazil, United States, and Russia. In Africa, countries eligible for an interim EU visas include Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Tunisia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia.
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Further Reviews For EU Visas
Further reviews narrowed down countries to 15 countries, with Rwanda, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as the only African countries on the list.
There are now 14 (+1) countries on the Union list from which Member States can base their national list of safe countries. These are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. China is also on the EU list, but only on the condition of reciprocal action by the Chinese authorities.
EU Member states will review the list every two weeks. However, individual countries have the liberty to exclude travelers from these countries at their own discretion.
In response, Gabon said that it will not grant visas to European tourists and business travelers, in the “principle of reciprocity.”