Along with heightening its presence and establishing a local office in Guyana, the French Government is also prioritizing allowing Guyanese to have easier access to the Schengen Visa when the office here is fully ‘up and running’ instead of them having them travel to neighbouring Suriname.
Stabroek News on Tuesday spoke to Resident Representative of the French Embassy in Guy-ana, Pierre Gate, who said that the Schengen Visa which allows persons to travel to 27 countries in Europe will be one of their top priorities when their local office, which will contain a full-fledged diplomat but not a full-fledged embassy, is set up in September.
“The thing is that having a full-fledged diplomat in a local office is the first step in delivering the Schengen Visa here in Guyana because the full-fledged diplomat has the power to do so… so it’s a good step doing so… so we’ll let the diplomat take up post here first and then he will see how he can push this because that will be his top priority… as for now when you need a Schengen Visa you still have to go to the Dutch embassy in Suriname.”
The Schengen Visa is a visa which entitles Non-Europeans to travel to any of the 27 Schengen countries, namely Austria, Bel-gium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Fin-land, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also allows for a stay of up to 90 days.
Just last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd, and Non-resident Ambassador of the Republic of France to Guyana, Nicolás Bouillane de Lacoste met and the ambassador announced the upgrading of their presence.
According to a release issued by the ministry, the establishment of the French Office in Georgetown is scheduled for September 2023, while noting the office is not an embassy but will have a full-fledged diplomatic representative to aid in the furtherance of mutually beneficial cooperation and bilateral relations between Guyana and France.
It further stated that the French Republic had appointed Gate in August 2021 and as such his appointment in Guyana was the French Republic’s first step towards materialising the commitment to establish a French Embassy in Guyana.
