As of March 31, 2024, the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania are going to apply fully the Schengen acquis (in accordance with the Council Decision (EU) 2024/210. 

From this date, the persons bellow are going to be exempt from visa application before their travel to the Schengen Area:

- holders of national short-stay visas issued by the republic of Bulgaria and Romania before March 31, 2024. These visas will remain valid until their expiry date. However, holders of these visas will only be able to travel in the Republic of Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus!

- holders of residence permits in uniform format (in accordance with the Council Regulation (EC) 1030/2002 as modified by the Council Regulation (EC) 380/2008), or national long-stay visas issued by the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania will be entitled to visa-free short-stay in the Schengen Area (no more than 90 days in any 180 days period). Schengen adhesion of these two countries will affect neither of these two type of documents’ validity.

Please note that even though the Bulgarian-Romanian, Romanian-Hungarian and Bulgarian-Greek land borders are going to be considered as internal Schengen borders, checks on persons at these borders are not going to be lifted after March 31, 2024. Only persons travelling from the Republic of Bulgaria or Romania to other Schengen Member States through air or by sea are going to able to do so without being subject to border checks!