New Passport, Visa Office Opened in Luxembourg city

Following the relocation of the offices and offices of the Passport, Visa and Legalization Office (BPVL) on 1 August, Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, attended the official inauguration of the new premises located at 6 rue de l'Ancien Athenee, L-1144 Luxembourg-ville, earlier today.

Minister Asselborn unveiled the plaque at the main entrance of the new offices and conducted a site visit.

The Office of Passports, Visas and Legalizations (BPVL), which is part of the Department of Consular Affairs and International Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, now has 26 employees and is headed by BPVL officer Mario Wiesen.

BPVL is constantly looking for ways to facilitate and simplify interaction with citizens.

In the field of visas, the BPVL and the CTIE are currently collaborating to set up an application on MyGuichet, to allow the entry and electronic processing of care commitments, a preliminary procedure to a visa application.

In terms of legalisations, a new application has just been posted on Guichet.lu (on 31 August), which allows pre-registration and prepayment of an application for legalisation, thus allowing a faster processing of the application and direct communication with the applicant.

In the area of ​​passports, a new distribution system was introduced on 3 September, which allows citizens to collect their passports directly from their municipal administration. The BPVL also introduced a passport application form for young children (<1 year), available from municipal administrations, which allows municipalities to send a passport application with a photo of the child made available by the parents.

Other measures to facilitate passport applications are in preparation but will still require the adaptation of legal texts. In particular, these measures will have a positive impact for Luxembourgers residing abroad and those found in a consular emergency during a temporary stay abroad (e.g. loss or theft of the passport while on holiday).

In addition, Minister Asselborn recalled that in order to facilitate to Luxembourg nationals the possibility to ask, if necessary, consular assistance to a diplomatic or consular mission competent for temporary or prolonged displacements (European Union or other), travellers now have the opportunity to report their trips to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, on the site "Lëtzebuerger am Ausland" on Guichet.lu.