Consular Department
Its consular employees abroad perform different consular tasks (issuance of passports and personal identity cards, visas, and certificates of vital events, accepting applications and taking fingerprints for residence permits, etc.).
The Department monitors and implements legislation, actively participates in drawing up amendments thereto, and deals with matters relating to personal status, family law, citizenship, customs, pensions, and social matters. It performs tasks related to requests for international legal aid by Slovenian and foreign judicial authorities and requests for the extradition of offenders. It legalises documents for and from abroad and assists Slovenian emigrants abroad in inheritance matters. It participates in the preparation of intergovernmental agreements in the consular field.
It actively participates in the fulfilment of Slovenia's obligations within the EU and the implementation of the Schengen Agreement in the Contracting Parties. It draws up legal and organisational regulations for visa issuance procedures. It prepares programmes for training consular employees and consular instructions on the issuance of visas at diplomatic missions and consular posts abroad in accordance with the EU acquis and the Schengen acquis.
Common Application Centre (CAC) Ljubljana
Third-country nationals requiring Schengen visa (Airport Transit Visa - type A and Short-term visa - type C) to enter France, Latvia, Hungary or the Netherlands, may, as of 1 May 2008, apply for such a visa at the Common Application Centre Ljubljana.
The relevant embassies are therefore no longer authorised to issue Schengen visas in the Republic of Slovenia. The cooperation between the Member States is based on the principles and rules of Schengen representation.
The purpose of the Common Application Centre is to:
- Facilitate and speed up the procedures for short-stay visas for third-country nationals;
- Enable rationalisation of visa operation for the Member States, since in the near future, the acquisition of biometric data will become mandatory for third-country nationals, bringing about higher costs for individual Member States.
