Article 19 Admissibility

The competent consulate or the central authorities of the competent Member State shall verify whether:

• the application has been lodged within the period referred to in Article 9(1),

• the application contains the items referred to in Article 10(3)(a) to (c),

• the biometric data of the applicant have been collected, and

• the visa fee has been collected.

Where the competent consulate or the central authorities of the competent Member State find that the conditions referred to in paragraph 1 have been fulfilled, the application shall be admissible and the consulate or the central authorities shall:

• follow the procedures described in Article 8 of the VIS Regulation, and

• further examine the application.

X1Data shall be entered in the VIS only by duly authorised consular staff in accordance with Article 6(1), Article 7 and points (5) and (6) of Article 9 of the VIS Regulation.

Where the competent consulate or the central authorities of the competent Member State find that the conditions referred to in paragraph 1 have not been fulfilled, the application shall be inadmissible and the consulate or central authorities shall without delay:

• return the application form and any documents submitted by the applicant,

• destroy the collected biometric data,

• reimburse the visa fee, and

• not examine the application.

By way of derogation from paragraph 3, an application that does not meet the requirements set out in paragraph 1 may be considered admissible on humanitarian grounds, for reasons of national interest or because of international obligations.