EU visa waiver for the Gulf states: the Council has started the process, but visas are still required

In brief

• On 19 October 2026 the Council of the EU approved conclusions on launching the visa waiver process with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar (documents 14630/26, 14621/26, 14626/26, 14627/26 and 14629/26).
• At the same time the Council endorsed five visa waiver action plans. The Permanent Representatives Committee approved both packages on 7 October.
• Each set of conclusions says that lifting the visa obligation will only be considered once the benchmarks are completely fulfilled.
• For visa-free travel to start, Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 must be amended by the European Parliament and the Council. The 2022 proposal on Kuwait and Qatar is still awaiting Parliament's position.
• Only citizens of the five countries are concerned. Gulf residents holding another passport and holders of passports that already travel to Schengen visa-free are not affected.

What the Council of the EU decided on 19 October

The decision was taken without debate, as an "A" item at a Council meeting in Luxembourg on 19 October 2026. Formally it was a meeting of employment and social policy ministers, but the agenda carried five items under the heading "Justice and Home Affairs": one each for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. For each country there were two decisions: approve the conclusions on the launch of the visa waiver process and endorse the visa waiver action plan. The Permanent Representatives Committee, where EU ambassadors prepare ministers' decisions, approved these packages on 7 October.

The text of the conclusions is short, and I give its meaning almost word for word. The Council welcomes the Commission's intention to launch a visa waiver process with the country and to fully associate the Council and the Member States with each step. The possibility of lifting the visa obligation for the country's nationals will only be considered upon the complete fulfilment of the benchmarks. The five documents differ only in the name of the country. They contain no deadlines, dates or promises of an outcome.

The action plans themselves, with the list of benchmarks, had not been published in the Council's public register at the time of writing. According to European press reports, the benchmarks cover security, migration and border management. Judging by past EU decisions, they usually include biometric passports, cooperation on return and readmission, information exchange against terrorism and human rights. But I would only rely on the specific list for each country once the official text is published.

What this means for you. If you are a citizen of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman or Bahrain, the way you travel to Schengen has not changed yet. You still need to apply for a visa as before, with the same documents and timelines.

The table uses the Commission's statistics for 2025. One important detail: the Commission counts applications by the country where the consulate is located, not by the applicant's nationality. Consulates in Saudi Arabia receive applications both from Saudis and from foreigners who live and work there. So the figures show the flow from the country as a whole, not only from the citizens whose visa waiver is under discussion. Detailed data on each country's visa regime is available in the BRIDGES passport index.

What already applies: five-year visas under the cascade

There is no visa waiver yet, but the EU made life easier for Gulf citizens earlier. The mechanism is called the cascade: by a Commission decision, consulates in a given country may issue long multiple-entry visas straight away, without the applicant first building a visa history. On 22 April 2024 the Commission adopted three such decisions: for Saudi nationals residing in Saudi Arabia, Omani nationals in Oman and Bahraini nationals in Bahrain. An applicant who meets the entry conditions receives a multiple-entry visa valid for five years. If the passport expires sooner, the visa ends three months before the passport's expiry date.

For Kuwait, the Commission adopted similar rules in September 2023: five-year visas are available to all eligible applicants, including first-time travellers. Qatar has a separate Commission decision dating from January 2022. The statistics show how this works: at consulates in Saudi Arabia, 92.5% of the visas issued in 2025 were multiple-entry visas; in Bahrain 90.5%, in Oman 89% and in Kuwait 88.1%.

The cascade has a limit that many people miss. The Saudi decision states plainly that for nationals of other countries living in Saudi Arabia, the standard rules of the Visa Code apply. That includes Bahraini, Kuwaiti, Omani and Qatari nationals if they live in Saudi Arabia rather than in their own country. Schengen states may issue them multiple-entry visas of up to five years, but only in justified cases and at their discretion.

What this means for you. Until visa-free travel arrives, the five-year multiple-entry visa is the best option available to citizens of the five countries. Apply from your country of citizenship and residence, with a passport valid for at least five years plus three months.

Why this is not yet a visa waiver: the steps ahead

The list of countries whose citizens need a visa for short trips to Schengen is set out in Regulation (EU) 2018/1806. Annex I lists countries whose nationals need a visa; Annex II lists those exempt for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. A country can only be moved from one annex to the other by amending the regulation. That is the ordinary legislative procedure: the Commission makes a proposal, and the European Parliament and the Council must both approve it.

So the path looks like this. First the country fulfils the benchmarks of the action plan, and the Commission checks and reports on progress. Then the Commission tables a legislative proposal amending the regulation. Parliament and the Council adopt their positions, negotiate and adopt the text. After that the EU usually concludes a visa waiver agreement with each country so that EU citizens can also travel there without visas. In 2022 the Council added one more condition for Kuwait and Qatar: the waiver would not start before the launch of ETIAS, the European travel authorisation system.

There are no deadlines at any of these steps. In past visa liberalisation dialogues, the road from an action plan to visa-free travel took years: Ukraine received its plan in 2010 and visa-free travel in 2017, Georgia its plan in 2013 and visa-free travel in 2017. The Gulf starts from a stronger position than those countries, but the legislative part still has to be done.

What this means for you. Claims that Gulf citizens will "soon travel to Europe visa-free" are premature. I would not plan trips, studies or negotiations on the assumption of a visa waiver in 2027: there is no official date, and there cannot be one while there is not even a legislative proposal.

The lesson of Kuwait and Qatar: the 2022 proposal is still waiting

This is not the first attempt. On 27 April 2022 the Commission proposed moving Kuwait and Qatar to the visa-free list for holders of biometric passports. The waiver was to start only after bilateral agreements were concluded with each country, to maintain full reciprocity for EU citizens.

On 29 June 2022 the Permanent Representatives Committee approved the Council's mandate for negotiations with Parliament. The Council added three important points. First, the agreements would not apply until the effective start of operation of ETIAS. Second, the agreements must include clauses on return and readmission. Third, the Commission should assess the situation of other Gulf Cooperation Council states with a view to exempting them from visas too once the conditions are met. The decision of 19 October 2026 is essentially a continuation of that line: all five countries whose citizens still need a visa are now in the process.

In the European Parliament, the civil liberties committee adopted its report on 1 December 2022. The report proposed adding Oman and Ecuador to the list. On 12 December 2022 the plenary referred the file back to the committee for reconsideration, against the background of a corruption scandal in the European Parliament in which Qatar was mentioned. On 13 November 2024 the newly elected Parliament resumed work on the file. According to Parliament's legislative database, the file is at the stage "awaiting Parliament's position in first reading".

What this means for you. Even a finished Commission proposal with a Council mandate can wait years for a vote in Parliament. That is the main timing risk for all five countries.

The EU-Gulf summit in Riyadh has been postponed

The Council's decision came five days before the second summit between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council, scheduled for 24 October 2026 in Riyadh. On 15 October the Council of the EU announced that the summit had been postponed and that a new date would be announced in due course. The statement says the EU remains committed to the partnership and wants to sustain the momentum built since the first summit in October 2024. The EU statement gives no reason for the postponement. According to regional press reports, the Gulf side linked it to attacks on Saudi Arabia and the closure of Riyadh airport.

There is therefore no joint summit statement, and no new top-level agreements on visas yet. When the summit does take place, I would expect political wording on the visa waiver process there, but not dates. Dates only appear in the regulation.

Who is affected and who is not

An EU visa waiver is tied to citizenship, not to place of residence. The Council conclusions refer to "nationals" of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. For the millions of foreigners who live and work in the Gulf on residence permits, this decision changes nothing. An Indian national with a residence permit in Riyadh, an Egyptian in Kuwait or a Central Asian resident in Doha applies for a Schengen visa under the rules for their own passport, as before.

As for the UAE: Emirati citizens have travelled to Schengen visa-free since 2015, and the 19 October decision does not concern them. But there too the waiver applies only to citizens. If you live in Dubai on a UAE investor residence permit or a golden visa, the Schengen visa regime of your own passport still applies. That is why consulates in the UAE received 298,064 applications in 2025, mostly not from Emiratis. The share of visas not issued there was 24.2%, several times higher than in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

Citizenship of the Gulf states is very hard for a foreigner to obtain, and there are no citizenship by investment programmes there in the usual sense. We covered the limited options in the Emirates in the article on UAE citizenship by investment. So a visa waiver for citizens of the five countries will not open new paths to Europe for foreigners who have moved there.

What this means for you. If you live in the Gulf on another country's passport, your Schengen situation depends on that passport, not on the 19 October decision. What determines how easily you travel is your visa, your travel history and a second passport if you have one.

What it means for Gulf residents with another passport

In practice nothing changes, but it is worth understanding where you stand. Schengen consulates in Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait City, Doha, Muscat and Manama continue to accept applications from foreigners holding residence permits in those countries. The five-year cascade visas are designed for the country's own nationals; everyone else receives visas under the standard rules: shorter visas first, then longer ones as the visa history builds up, with room for exceptions.

For travel within the Gulf the reverse direction matters too. A valid Schengen visa helps with entry to some countries in the region, as we described in detail in our analysis of the Vanuatu passport in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. If you travel frequently both to Europe and around the Gulf, keep your Schengen visa valid and do not overstay: every border crossing is now recorded by the EES system.

If you have moved to the Emirates and plan to become tax resident there, keep in mind the difference between a residence permit, tax status and citizenship. We explained how it works in the article on UAE tax residency. For Schengen, only your passport matters.

What this means for you. If you travel to Europe regularly and your passport requires a visa, the EU decision on the Gulf will not solve that for you. It is a reason to assess separately whether you need a second passport or a European residence permit.

What it means for holders of passports with visa-free Schengen access

For holders of passports that already travel to Schengen visa-free, the Gulf decision adds nothing and takes nothing away. Each country's EU visa waiver is separate and does not depend on how many countries are on the list. For example, citizens of St Kitts and Nevis and of Grenada enter Schengen without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. We explained how this works in the articles on visa-free travel with a St Kitts and Nevis passport and on travelling with a Grenada passport.

The topic shared by all visa-free travellers is ETIAS. The system is not yet operational, no official launch date has been announced, and the fee will be EUR 20. Once it starts, authorisation will be needed by UAE citizens, by holders of Caribbean passports and, in time, by citizens of the Gulf states if they obtain a visa waiver. The latest status of border systems is in the articles on why ETIAS will not start in 2026 and on ETIAS and EES at the Schengen border.

The Gulf story also holds a lesson for anyone choosing a programme. An EU visa waiver can take a long time politically to obtain, and it has to be kept up constantly: Regulation 2018/1806 contains a suspension mechanism. So when choosing St Kitts and Nevis citizenship, Grenada or another country, I would look not only at today's visa-free list but also at the country's relations with the EU and its willingness to meet Brussels' requirements.

What this means for you. If you already hold a visa-free passport, you need to change nothing. Keep an eye on ETIAS: once the launch date is announced, you will need an authorisation before travelling, including for children.

What to do now

If you are considering a second passport or a European residence permit, start with the costs and timelines of programmes and an online consultation, where we will look at your passport, country of residence and travel goals.

How this article was prepared

The article is based on primary sources: the five Council of the EU conclusions of 19 October 2026 on the launch of the visa waiver process with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar (documents 14630/26, 14621/26, 14626/26, 14627/26, 14629/26); the Council's list of "A" items for 19 October 2026 (document 14363/26), noting approval by the Permanent Representatives Committee on 7 October 2026; the Council mandate of 29 June 2022 on the proposal concerning Kuwait and Qatar (document 10851/22); the legislative file 2022/0135(COD) in the European Parliament database; the EU Delegation to Kuwait's announcements on the Commission proposal of 27 April 2022 and on the visa cascade for Kuwait; the Commission decisions of 22 April 2024 on multiple-entry visas for Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain; the Commission's 2025 visa statistics for consulates; and the Council of the EU press release of 15 October 2026 on the postponement of the summit. The content of the action plans and the reasons for the summit's postponement are known from press reports and are flagged as such in the text. This article does not replace advice on your own situation.