Adding relatives of Schengen residents to the list of those who are allowed to enter Estonia on Schengen visas

Dear recipients,
In accordance with the decision of the Finnish government of 29.09.2022 to restrict the entry of Russian citizens into Finland, immediate relatives of Finnish residents (parents, children, grandchildren, grandparents) are allowed to enter Finland, provided they travel directly to Finland. However, due to the indefinite closure of the Finnish-Russian border, direct travel is not possible.

The shortest route from Russia to Finland now passes through Estonia. For a large category of people who cannot travel by air for medical or other objective reasons, this is the only possible way. However, restrictions on the entry of Russian citizens imposed by the Republic of Estonia prevent the realization of the opportunity to visit relatives provided by Finland.

At the same time, according to REGULATION (EU) 2018/1806 paragraph 2):
«This Regulation provides for full harmonization as regards the third countries whose nationals are subject to a requirement to be in possession of a visa for the crossing of Member States' external borders (also referred to herein as 'the visa requirement') and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement».

And also a person who meets all the requirements of Article 6(1) of REGULATION (EU) 2016/399 should not be subject to mass restrictions on entry into the Schengen area. Based on paragraph (e), the restriction may be individual but not collective.

In addition, please be informed that according to the decision of the Norwegian government, the restrictions on entry of Russians do not apply to immediate relatives of Schengen residents (both citizens and holders of any type of residence permits).

In view of the above, we ask the Government of the Estonian Republic to consider the possibility of amending the Government Decision of 08.09.2022 to include the immediate relatives of all legal residents of Finland in the category of citizens who are allowed to enter Estonia.

The amendments we propose to be made to the text of the Government Regulation are in bold:

«The restriction does not apply to all Russian citizens. The state border may still be crossed in the future by:
Russian citizens with the purpose of visiting relatives in ascending or descending line (children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents); a spouse; a person with whom there are common minor children. The person to be visited must be a citizen or have a permanent OR TEMPORARY residence permit in Estonia or another EU country, residing in Estonia OR ANOTHER COUNTRY OF THE SHENGEN ZONE».

The following note would need to be deleted to avoid contradiction:
«NB! It is not allowed to visit a relative, spouse or a person with whom there are common minor children living in Estonia on the basis of a temporary residence permit».

This will slightly mitigate the current breach of the Schengen Borders Code and move closer to compliance with common European legislation.

Respectfully,
non-profit public organization Aleksanterinliitto ry (Finland)