Gov’t Creates App to Calculate Legal Stay in EU

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

Thursday, March 1

The application will help Georgians calculate the number of days they can spend in EU.

Justice Minister Tsulukiani presented the application on February 27.

(TBILISI)--The Justice Ministry of Georgia, with the help of the Georgian Foreign Ministry, the EU and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, has created a special mobile application which will calculate days of the legal stay in the EU’s Schengen Zone.

The Justice Ministry claims that the application, Schengen/EU App, will prevent overstay in the EU and remind the Georgian citizens about the expiration of the 90-day period for the legal stay on the EU territory.

The application has no legal power and it is only a supporting tool.

“I was pleased to participate in presenting the new mobile application. We work with the government of Georgia to foil abuses and remain committed to the visa free travel between the EU and Georgia.” EU Ambassador to Georgia Janos Herman stated on February 27.

After completion the application was handed to the Foreign Ministry to manage it.

With the help of the application mobile users will mark the beginning of their trip to the Schengen Zone and the application will calculate the number of days of legal stay and remind them about the expiration of the term, which is 90 days in any 180-day period.

The users will also be able to save their travel history via the app and share it on social networks.

The application has an interface in three languages: Georgian, English and Russian.

During the presentation Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani stated that the visa waiver with the EU is one of the biggest achievements for the country which must be preserved.

The minister claimed that the government of Georgia was doing its best to prevent the illegal stay of the Georgian citizens in the EU states.

Tsulukiani announced that the government’s promised changes about tightening measures against the illegal stay will be announced shortly.

Since March 2017, about 200,000 Georgians have travelled visa free in the EU. The number of those who allegedly illegally stayed in one of the EU countries is up to 10,000.