Moldovans will be able to get to Romania without visas

On March 31, 2010 Moldova and Romania signed an agreement on simplification of passport control. Under the new agreement, citizens of Moldova, living in the bordering areas with Romania, will now be able to get to Romania without visas. The agreement of abolishing visa requirements for bordering regions of Romania and Moldova includes the citizens of the two countries who live no more than 50 kilometers from the border.

From the current agreement will benefit in total 1.25 million of Moldovan citizens residing in the 361 towns of the country covered by the definition of "border region". Permission to cross the border will be given to wishing people by request for a period of 60 days in the Romanian Consulate in Moldova's capital Chisinau.

The agreement will be valid for a period of two to five years, depending on how soon Romania will enter the Schengen zone. As long as Romania will not enter the number of Schengen countries, crossing its border by the residents of Moldova does not require any payment. With the introduction of the same rules of the Schengen area, Romania is likely to impose a mandatory border fee which will be determined after consultation with the rest signatories of the Schengen area. Speaking about the timing of entry into the Schengen zone Romania itself prefer to call as the actual date the first half of 2011.

Moldova and Romania are the two traditionally close to each other states in terms of culture, language and customs. Moldova has long been a part of the Russian Empire. Then, after the fall of the Tsarist regime and the end of the First World War the country, known at that time as Bessarabia, was included to Romania. In 1940, after the division of Eastern Europe by Germany and the USSR, Moldova was incorporated into the USSR as the formally sovereign republic. Actual independence came to Moldova in 1991 after the collapse of the USSR. To date, approximately 80% of the inhabitants of Moldova are from the Romanian ethnic regions and equally well speak in both Russian and Romanian languages.