New visa procedures for foreigners wishing to enter Albania

TIRANA, June 2נThe Albanian government approved a regulation which sets new procedures and conditions for foreigners who are required to obtain a visa to enter the tiny Balkan country. The decision was taken in April, but only went into effect this week in the Official Paper.
The new regulation will set similar standards to the Schengen Visa System applied by most of the EU countries. Foreigners will be asked to provide hotel reservations, return flight tickets, employment contracts and other proofs, salary slips, financial guarantees, bank data, an invitation and a guarantee from a sponsor in Albania, life insurance for travel, enough funds to cover the costs of stay in Albania and other similar documentation. In a few words, every applicant for an Albanian visa will be required to provide a load of papers of various proofs and guarantees.
The new regulation, rather than an Albanian attempt to play hardball against the lack of visa liberalization from Western European countries (one might say the visa discrimination it suffers), is actually a step toward fulfilling EU requirements for the liberalization process. A number of decisions were taken during April and March in order to fit working permission for foreigners with EU standards, but it seems that such decisions came a bit too late to have an impact on the Brussels verdict on the visa liberalization process. A first report published a couple of weeks ago pointed out that Albania has yet to fulfill any of the main conditions for liberalization it must fulfill.