Brussels: Under the new ‘Cascade’ mechanism introduced by the European Commission, Indian travelers with a clean visa history are now eligible for fast-tracked, long-term Schengen visas.
Indians who have obtained two Schengen visas in the past three years are now eligible for a two-year multiple-entry visa, which can later be upgraded to a five-year visa. During its validity, travelers can freely move across all 29 EU/Schengen countries. However, the visa does not grant work rights.
According to the European Commission’s release, these long-term visas are part of a new EU strategy to reward trustworthy travelers and facilitate people-to-people contact. The system is part of the 2020 revision of the Schengen Visa Code and currently applies only to citizens of India, Turkey, and Indonesia.
