Regional Cooperation Council chief says visa process will soon be a thing of the past

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Regional Cooperation Council chief says visa process will soon be a thing of the past

Secretary-General of the Regional Cooperation Council RCC Majlinda Bregu said that the long process of getting a visa will soon be a thing of the past and that she is extremely proud of the role of the Regional Cooperation Council in that process. The number of Kosovan and Bosnian and Herzegovinian citizens visiting each other has declined over the last few years because of the long, cumbersome procedures and high visa refusal rate.

It is said that the owner of the house knows where the roof leaks. While we wait for the Agreement on Freedom of Movement with ID Cards to enter force in the Western Balkans, we met one of the people who has suffered for years in the long process of getting a visa to meet his dear ones. Here I am with Alban Ukaj, Kosovan, who resides in Sarajevo for over twenty years, said RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu, opening the video with actor Alban Ukaj.

The Heads of Governments of the Western Balkans signed three mobility agreements including the Agreement on Freedom of Movement with Identity Cards as part of the Common Market CRM Action Plan's mobility agendas, at the Berlin Process Summit held on 3 November 2022 in Berlin. It is expected that the agreements will be ratified and put into effect soon in accordance with domestic legal frameworks.

My father called me when the Agreement was signed in Berlin. He was very emotional. Some people may not understand that, but it is a life of 23 years with visas. Someone might think these are minor issues but they aren't. When someone doesn't see his nephew for three or four years, it's almost as if they don't know one another at all, said Alban Ukaj.

This is one of the hundreds of cases of human stories that have been plagued by the difficulty of meeting their relatives due to visas on their shoulders. Bregu said that the RCC's role in the process is very proud of the fact that the long process of getting a visa will be a thing of the past.