CJEU: passport cancelled – visa lives on

On 8 October 2010, an Indian citizen travelled from Moscow to Riga with Air Baltic. At the border control at Riga airport, he presented a valid Indian passport without a visa and a cancelled Indian passport to which a valid uniform visa issued by Italy was affixed. The Indian citizen was refused entry into Latvia on the ground that he did not have a valid visa. Moreover, the Latvian authorities imposed a fine of LVL 2 000 (approximately €2 850) on Air Baltic for transporting to Latvia a person without the travel documents necessary to cross the border. Air Baltic challenged that fine before the Latvian courts.In its judgement of Sep 4, 2014, the Court of the European Union held that cancellation of a passport does not mean that a uniform visa affixed to that passport is invalidated. Third-country nationals therefore may enter the territory of the European Union even if they present a valid passport without a visa and a valid visa inside an invalid passport.Source: CJEU press release 114/14 of Sep 4, 2014Full text of judgement in case C-C-575/12 – Air Baltic Corporation AS v Valsts robežsardze available here>>.

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