Italian Parliament has changed its new Schengen visa validity rules. The country has declared to make new changes to the validity rules for yacht crew who are not citizens of the European Union countries.
According to the new rules, the Parliament agreed to allow yacht crew citizens of non-EU countries to apply for a 365-day visa, indicating that the yacht crew will issue a long-term entry visa for work.
Moreover, the long-term visa will permit them to stay in the country for up to one year rather than being allowed to stay in the Schengen Area for up to 90 days within six months.
According to the reports, Italy has decided to resolve the issue yacht workers face while visiting Italy. Yachting organizations have continuously requested government officials to permit longer stays for crew members.
According to Nautilus International, yacht crews have experienced issues in being stamped out of the Schengen zone when leaving Italian ports after local immigration started to apply the EU Directive 2016/399 and case law from a Dutch court.
It has been noted that some ports have taken the view that using a yacht does not count as crossing the border, thus suggesting that the vessel needs to depart for non-Schengen waters to be ‘exiting’.
The same source reveals that they refuse to stamp out crew members until the captain informs the ports that they are leaving for non-Schengen waters. Considering this, crew members sometimes used their Schengen allowance needlessly.
Italy plans to increase the number of people allowed to enter the country with a work visa. The authorities said that they would issue more migrant work permits in 2022.
The Italian government said that this year, they plan to allow 75,000 non-EU nationals to arrive in Italy for work.
