EU parliamentarians recently approved a new regulation allowing any non-EU national on a long-stay visa to travel within the bloc for three months under the same conditions given to residence permit holders.The new EU regulation will be implemented starting 5 April.

The European Parliament said in a media statement that the increased liberty to travel to EU member states will not cause any immediate security hazard. The new directive however does not cover Ireland, Denmark and the UK.

Under the existing EU law, people holding long-stay visas, like students, are not allowed to travel to other EU member states nor pass through these countries even if they are returning to their respective home country of origin.

But with the new regulation, long-stay D visa holders already in the EU will be allowed to visit other member states for three months under a six-month period. A long-stay visa is valid for one year – so in any case a holder is allowed to stay for more than the permitted time, the long-stay visa should be replaced with a residence permit before it expires.

To ease security concerns, the regulation stipulates that non-EU nationals can only travel freely on the basis of the visa and only if the holder is not on the national alert list of the member state concerned.

Most EU members will be using the Schengen Information System (SIS) for the list, but Ireland and the UK are not under the Schengen area – making both countries not bound by the regulation. Meanwhile, Denmark has about six months to decide whether it will adopt the new travel policy.