Visa Information System (VIS)

VIS is a central database with fingerprints and facial images (biometrics) of persons applying for a short-stay visa within the Schengen Area. The system is used by the Member States’ consular offices around the world and allows authorities to exchange visa information for short-term stays in the Schengen countries.

Your rights

If you are registered in VIS, you have certain rights. You generally have the right to know what data has been registered about you in VIS, including which Member State has submitted this data to VIS. You also have the right to have factually incorrect data corrected, request erasure of unlawfully registered data and request restriction of processing of data in VIS.

If you want:

  • access to data about you that has been registered in VIS
  • to rectify data about you in VIS which you believe is factually incorrect or incomplete
  • to demand the erasure of data about you in VIS which you believe has been illegally registered
  • to demand restriction of processing of data about you in VIS

please contact the Danish Immigration Service by using the relevant form which is available on their website here.

Supervision

The Danish Data Protection Agency is the national supervisory authority in relation to the processing of personal data in the Danish national VIS, including the transmission of data to and from the Central VIS. This supervisory role mainly entails inspections and processing complaints from data subjects.

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with a decision made by the Danish Immigration Service concerning your request to access, rectify, erase or restrict processing of data about you in VIS, you can submit a complaint to the Danish Data Protection Agency or bring the decision before the Danish Courts.  

If you wish to file a complaint to the Danish Data Protection Agency concerning a decision made by the Danish Immigration Service, please provide the following information:

  • a description of the nature of your complaint
  • a copy of the decision or response that you received from the Danish Immigration Service
  • any other material that you think is relevant to your complaint

You can access our complaint form here.

If you are dissatisfied with the Danish Data Protection Agency’s decision you may bring the matter before the Danish courts.

More information

You can read more about the Visa Information System on the following websites:

Relevant legislation

New VIS Regulation

Amendments to the existing VIS rules have been adopted in July 2021. The amendments include, inter alia, an extension of the scope of the VIS Regulation to include rules on procedures for the exchange of data between Member States on long-stay visas and residence permits, and the VIS Council Decision is repealed.

Denmark has joined the new amendments to the VIS Regulation in December 2021, but the amendments are not yet applicable. By 31 December 2023, the European Commission shall adopt a decision setting the date on which VIS operations start pursuant to this new Regulation.  

It is noted that some of the amendments to the existing VIS rules will apply as of 3 August 2022. This applies, among other things, to the rules on the rights of data subjects, which will extend to a right to restriction of processing of personal data in the VIS.

You can read more about the new amendments to the VIS Regulation here: REGULATION (EU) 2021/1134