Last Updated on Wednesday, 7 October 2026, 22:48 by Writer
President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday openly expressed disgust at the European Union (EU) for the protracted delay in processing Schengen Area visas in Guyana.
“The European Union is still backward in this region. You have to travel to Suriname and Trinidad to get biometrics to do it.
In a day of digitisation and AI (Artificial Intelligence), we have the EU that is operating from a Stone Age kind of operation and they’re our friends; we can tell them frankly,” he said at the opening of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) 2026 being held in Guyana.
The French government had previously stated that the Schengen visa being issued by the French embassy in Guyana is “strictly” for visits to France for specific purposes but that could change only if France reaches agreement with other EU member states to allow Guyanese to enter the EU area from other countries.
The Guyanese leader lamented that partnerships and friendships could not be built by barriers such as spending four days to obtain visas before travelling to EU member states.
“You want to host international conferences so you invite us to all of the beautiful conferences that we want to attend but we have to invest four days before we get the visa to attend,” he said.
Dr Ali said the modern world could not be that complicated, suggesting that biometric data could be easily collected to ascertain whether applicants have criminal backgrounds.
The French embassy in Guyana captures biometric data, collects payments, application forms for visas to France and courier envelopes to return passports to Guyana.
Alternatively, prospective travellers to other EU member states can apply for Schengen visas in person by travelling to The Netherlands’ embassy in Suriname or the German embassy in Trinidad and Tobago.
