Article 2

For the purposes of this Regulation: GENERAL PRINCIPLES "third-country national" means anyone who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 17(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community; "Geneva Convention" means the Convention of 28 July 1951 relating to the status of refugees, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967; "application for asylum" means the application made by a third-country national which can be understood as a request for international protection from a Member State, under the Geneva Convention. Any application for international protection is presumed to be an application for asylum, unless a third-country national explicitly requests another kind of protection that can be applied for separately; "applicant" or "asylum seeker" means a third country national who has made an application for asylum in respect of which a final decision has not yet been taken; "examination of an asylum application" means any examination of, or decision or ruling concerning, an application for asylum by the competent authorities in accordance with national law except for procedures for determining the Member State responsible in accordance with this Regulation; "withdrawal of the asylum application" means the actions by which the applicant for asylum terminates the procedures initiated by the submission of his application for asylum, in accordance with national law, either explicitly or tacitly; "refugee" means any third-country national qualifying for the status defined by the Geneva Convention and authorised to reside as such on the territory of a Member State; "unaccompanied minor" means unmarried persons below the age of eighteen who arrive in the territory of the Member States unaccompanied by an adult responsible for them whether by law or by custom, and for as long as they are not effectively taken into the care of such a person; it includes minors who are left unaccompanied after they have entered the territory of the Member States; "family members" means insofar as the family already existed in the country of origin, the following members of the applicant's family who are present in the territory of the Member States: the spouse of the asylum seeker or his or her unmarried partner in a stable relationship, where the legislation or practice of the Member State concerned treats unmarried couples in a way comparable to married couples under its law relating to aliens; the minor children of couples referred to in point (i) or of the applicant, on condition that they are unmarried and dependent and regardless of whether they were born in or out of wedlock or adopted as defined under the national law; the father, mother or guardian when the applicant or refugee is a minor and unmarried; "residence document" means any authorisation issued by the authorities of a Member State authorising a third-country national to stay in its territory, including the documents substantiating the authorisation to remain in the territory under temporary protection arrangements or until the circumstances preventing a removal order from being carried out no longer apply, with the exception of visas and residence authorisations issued during the period required to determine the responsible Member State as established in this Regulation or during examination of an application for asylum or an application for a residence permit; "visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for transit or entry for an intended stay in that Member State or in several Member States. The nature of the visa shall be determined in accordance with the following definitions: "long-stay visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for entry for an intended stay in that Member State of more than three months; "short-stay visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State required for entry for an intended stay in that State or in several Member States for a period whose total duration does not exceed three months; "transit visa" means the authorisation or decision of a Member State for entry for transit through the territory of that Member State or several Member States, except for transit at an airport; "airport transit visa" means the authorisation or decision allowing a third-country national specifically subject to this requirement to pass through the transit zone of an airport, without gaining access to the national territory of the Member State concerned, during a stopover or a transfer between two sections of an international flight. CHAPTER II

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-15 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.