European Union: Germany proposes single-country Schengen visas for Russians

We have already covered two earlier stages of this story: the Commission statement of 19 October and the consulate statistics in the article on the EU's next steps on visas for Russians, and how LTV visas work and the working party meeting of 14 October in the article "LTV visas for Russians". Here I do not repeat them. I add what is new: what exactly Germany proposes, how the states have split, which figures stand behind the German idea, and what to do if you already hold a visa.

In brief

• Germany proposes that visas for non-essential travel by Russians be issued only as visas with limited territorial validity (LTV): for one country or several named countries. The document is not public; its content is known from press reports.
• Finland is asking for an end to tourist visas for Russians across the EU and would accept LTV visas only as an interim measure.
• On 19 October 2026 the Czech foreign minister said most EU states oppose a full ban, and Czechia did not join the Finnish initiative.
• The European Commission is preparing a revision of the Visa Code. As of 26 October 2026 there is no EU-level decision.
• According to Commission statistics, in 2025 consulates in Russia issued 618,806 uniform Schengen visas plus 11,799 LTV visas. Germany issued the most LTV visas: 3,582.
• A Schengen residence permit is not a visa, and these decisions do not affect it.

What Germany proposes

Officially, Germany's proposal is called the "Initiative for a unified restrictive approach". The document was on the agenda of the Council visa working party on 14 October 2026 as the second sub-item under visa policy towards Russia, next to a Presidency paper on the use of LTV visas. It is a non-paper: Germany put it up for discussion, but it is neither a draft law nor a Council decision. The text itself is not public.

According to European press reports, the German idea works like this. States that continue to issue visas to Russians for non-essential travel, above all tourism, issue them not as ordinary uniform visas but as LTV visas. Such a visa is valid only in the state that issued it, or in several states named in it with their consent. The rest of Schengen is closed to the holder. There is no full ban: Germany, as before, opposes closing visas to everyone.

The logic is clear. Today a state with a lenient visa practice issues a visa, and the holder can use it in any Schengen state, including those that issue visas to Russians reluctantly. The German option leaves each state free to receive tourists, but does not shift the consequences onto its neighbours. The Schengen Area has no permanent checks at internal borders, which is exactly why this part is disputed, as explained below.

What this means for you. If the idea is adopted, a tourist visa will stop being a pass to all of Europe. It will be permission to visit a specific country, and the itinerary will have to be built around it.

Who is for and who is against: the states' positions

Over the past two weeks EU states have spoken almost openly. Below are the positions known as of 26 October 2026. Not all of them have official texts, so the table shows where each position comes from.

Finland holds the toughest position. On 12 October 2026 Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, according to press reports, sent partners a letter with five demands: stop Schengen visas for Russians for non-essential travel, including tourism; introduce a binding visa ban on the Kremlin's inner circle and persons under EU sanctions; restrict visas for state-linked athletes; complete the entry ban on former combatants; and add a mechanism for swift, binding restrictions to the Visa Code. Finland itself restricted tourist visas for Russians back in 2022. "Proposals by Finland relating to visa policy towards Russia" also appeared on the agenda of the 14 October meeting, under any other business.

Czechia, itself one of the strictest states, did not join the Finnish letter. According to Czech press reports, on 19 October Foreign Minister Petr Macinka explained that Czechia already applies these restrictions at home, most EU states do not support a full ban, so there will be no Europe-wide solution, and the country is staying with national regulation. The same press reports say ministry experts had advised joining. To be clear, the Czech position is not a softening. It is a refusal to sign up to a common ban that, in the minister's view, will not win a majority anyway.

Ireland, according to press reports, has questioned the German approach. Its argument: a territorial limit does not stop a person who has entered one state from reaching another, since there are no permanent passport checks at Schengen's internal borders. France, Spain and Italy had earlier opposed a full ban, according to press reports - precisely the states that issue the most visas to Russians.

What this means for you. The balance is this: a full ban has minority support, and few are ready to keep everything as it is. That makes the German compromise the most likely option for now, although there is no decision yet.

Germany already issues the most LTV visas: the 2025 figures

I opened the Commission's official consulate statistics for 2025. Schengen consulates in Russia received 679,425 applications for uniform visas and issued 618,806 uniform visas. Of these, 175,862 were multiple-entry, or 28.4%. 42,953 visas were not issued, a refusal rate of 6.4%. Separately, the consulates issued 11,799 LTV visas. Including LTV visas, the total is 630,605.

The most interesting part of the statistics is who issues LTV visas. Germany issues the most: 3,582 LTV visas alongside 20,036 uniform visas, so almost one in six German visas in Russia is already valid for only part of Schengen. Italy is second with 2,787 LTV visas, and Switzerland third with 1,280. Germany is proposing to its partners what it already does itself.

For comparison, here is where ordinary visas are issued. Italy issued 161,121 uniform visas, France 156,547, Spain 123,359, Greece 59,020, Hungary 26,292 and Bulgaria 26,006. Finland issued 3,369 uniform visas and 407 LTV visas, Czechia 155 uniform visas. The Finnish and Czech figures show their national restrictions already work: visas there go mainly to family and other necessary travel.

Some Russians get LTV visas not because of politics but because of their passport. If a state does not recognise your passport, the visa is issued only for the states that do. This happened with five-year passports without a chip; we wrote about it in detail in the article on entry with a five-year passport. So the 11,799 LTV visas in 2025 are a mix of political and technical cases.

What this means for you. If you got a visa from a German or Italian consulate, check the "Valid for" field. You may already be travelling on an LTV visa without knowing it.

What an LTV visa is under the Visa Code

The LTV visa is not a new invention. It is set out in Article 25 of the EU Visa Code, Regulation 810/2009. By law such a visa is issued exceptionally. The first case: a state considers it necessary on humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest or because of international obligations, where the applicant does not meet all entry conditions, where another state objects to a uniform visa, or where there is no time for mandatory consultation. The second case: a consulate issues a new visa in the same 180-day period to someone who has already used 90 days.

Article 25(2) says an LTV visa is valid in the territory of the issuing state and, exceptionally, in the territory of several states if each of them consents. Article 25(3) covers a passport that not all states recognise: the visa is then valid only where the passport is recognised. Data on the issued visa is entered in the Visa Information System, so a border guard in any state can see where you are allowed to go.

This raises the main legal question. The Code has no ground called "the applicant's nationality". Issuing LTV visas to all tourists from one country is possible only by stretching the notion of "national interest" or by amending the Code. That is why the German proposal is logically tied to the Visa Code revision the Commission is preparing. In the EU visa policy strategy of 29 January 2026, the Commission announced it would propose a new category of targeted restrictive visa measures against states acting with hostility. According to press reports, the draft is expected in January 2027.

What this means for you. Until the Code is amended, each state decides for itself when to issue an LTV visa. Germany already uses this right more widely than others. If the rule becomes common, it will be written into EU law, and that will take months.

What changes for travel if the idea is adopted

Suppose the German option is adopted. Below I show how a single-country visa would work in everyday situations. This is an assessment under the current Visa Code and Schengen Borders Code, not under the text of a new rule: there is no such text yet.

Connections raise the most questions. There are no direct flights from Russia to the EU, and most tourists fly via third countries. If you fly to Rome with a connection in Munich, you enter Schengen in Munich. With a visa valid only for Italy, the German border guard may refuse you entry. So the flight has to be planned so that the first point of entry into Schengen is in the country named in the visa, or you fly direct from a third country to that country.

Overland travel changes too. A coach tour of Vienna, Prague and Budapest is impossible on a single-country visa. So is a car trip through a neighbouring state, because transit across its territory is not covered by the visa. Checks at Schengen's internal borders are selective, but documents can be checked at any time, and breaching the visa's territorial limits counts as breaching the rules of stay.

The new border regime adds precision. The EES system already records entries and exits of third-country nationals electronically, and the border guard can see where and when you crossed the external border. We wrote more about how this works and when ETIAS will arrive in the news item on ETIAS timing and full EES checks and in the article on the new rules at the Schengen border.

What this means for you. If your visa is issued for one country, build the trip around that country: fly into it directly, travel within it and leave from it. Anything else risks refused entry at the border.

Visas already issued and multiple-entry visas

The most common question is what happens to a visa already in your passport. As a general rule EU law applies to the future, and new requirements apply to new applications. The Visa Code allows a visa to be annulled if the conditions for issuing it were not met from the start, and revoked if those conditions are no longer met (Article 34). A change of policy is not in itself one of these grounds. So if your visa covers the whole Schengen Area, in my assessment it will remain valid until it expires, but nobody gives guarantees during a transition period.

Multiple-entry visas are more complicated. Since 6 November 2025, under a Commission decision, applicants in Russia get multiple-entry visas only in narrow cases: close relatives of EU citizens and of Russians lawfully residing in the EU, and transport workers. This is covered in detail in the article on Schengen visas for Russians up to 2027. An LTV visa makes things worse still: under Article 24 of the Visa Code, LTV visas issued under Article 25(1) are not taken into account when assessing eligibility for a multiple-entry visa. Even carefully used LTV visas will not build a visa history.

A separate point on families. If you are the spouse or child of an EU citizen, your entry rights rest on the Free Movement Directive, not only on the Visa Code. Whether the German rules would cover such trips is not yet known: the discussion is about "non-essential" travel, meaning above all tourism.

What this means for you. Do not cancel a trip on a valid visa because of the news: there is no decision, and an issued visa can be annulled only on legal grounds. But if you were counting on eventually getting a multiple-entry visa based on your travel history, reconsider that plan.

When to expect a decision

The process works like this. The Council visa working party exchanges views; it is an expert level and adopts nothing. The Commission can issue guidelines for consulates, as it did in 2022, which is faster than legislation, but guidelines are not binding. A binding rule for all states will come only with a revision of the Visa Code: the Commission tables a draft, then the Council and the European Parliament agree it. This usually takes at least a year.

There is also a shortcut. Each state can already issue LTV visas more widely on its own decision, as Germany does. So changes may appear in the practice of individual consulates before any common law. Applicants will notice it in the "Valid for" field of new visas.

What this means for you. In the coming months, expect not a new law but changes in consulate practice. I would apply for a near-term trip as usual, but plan it around a single country.

Why a residence permit and a second passport are more reliable than a visa

All the options discussed in Brussels concern visas. A Schengen residence permit is not a visa. Under the Schengen Borders Code and the Schengen Convention, its holder travels to other states in the zone without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. LTV visas, a full tourism ban, limits on multiple-entry visas - none of this affects a residence permit holder. A residence permit is granted under the national law of the state and EU rules on residence permits, not under the Visa Code.

There are several options, designed for different people. Greek investment residence gives the right to live in the country and travel across Schengen without having to relocate. Hungary's guest investor programme works through an investment in a real estate fund. For those ready to live in Europe on passive income there is Spain's non-lucrative residence. You can compare programmes by cost and timing in the article on Europe's golden visas in 2026.

The second option is a second passport from a country with visa-free access to Schengen. You then enter as a citizen of that country, and the visa rules for Russia do not apply to the trip. Which passports give visa-free entry to Schengen in 2026 we covered in the news item on Caribbean passports and Schengen visa-free travel; one example programme is St Kitts and Nevis citizenship by investment. How residence differs from a passport and what suits your goal is explained in the comparison of citizenship by investment and a golden visa. EU visa-free regimes are not permanent either: the EU has a suspension mechanism, and once ETIAS launches an electronic travel authorisation will be required.

I am not saying everyone who visits Europe once a year needs a residence permit. If you need one holiday in Italy, a single-country visa will most likely do. A residence permit or second passport makes sense if you need Europe regularly: work, children's education, relatives, property. If the whole family is involved, see our guide on residence for families. How the full cost and timelines are calculated is described in the guide on calculating costs and timelines.

What this means for you. A visa depends on the consulate's policy at the time you apply. A residence permit depends on whether you meet the programme's conditions. The second is easier to plan.

What to do now

How this article was prepared

Primary sources used: the EU Visa Code, Regulation 810/2009 as amended (Articles 24, 25 and 34); the notice of meeting and provisional agenda of the Council visa working party for 14 October 2026 (document CM 4357/1/26 REV 1 of 12 October 2026); the EU visa policy strategy, Commission communication of 29 January 2026; Commission statistics on short-stay visas issued by Schengen consulates in 2025 (the figures for consulates in Russia are our calculations). The content of the German non-paper, the Finnish foreign minister's letter of 12 October, Ireland's position and the Czech foreign minister's statement of 19 October 2026 are known from European press reports: official texts have not been published. The timing of the Visa Code draft is according to press reports. This article does not replace advice on your trip or documents.