Harmonized visa policy? The comparative analysis of Schengen and marriage visas delivering practices at the consulate of Belgium, France, and Italy in Casablanca.

This contribution focuses on the comparative analysis of three Schengen Member States implementing the visa policy in a same third country. Based on in-depth ethnographic research carried out at the consulate of Belgium, France, and Italy in Casablanca, this analysis seeks to unravel the factors that foster or hinder the harmonization of the visa policy beyond the legal distinction between Schengen visas, regulated by the common visa code, and national long stay visas. This paper builds on the comparison of the delivering practices of Schengen visas and family reunification visas for spouses, in each of the observed consulates:I will put forward work routines and the justification of practices in assessing the “migratory risk” as well as the “legitimate marriages”. The street-level view (Brodkin, 2011) of the visa policy highlights what I term as “the foreign affairs dimension” of the visa policy implementation, largely understudied in previous research (Neumayer, 2005;Bigo& Guild, 2003; Zolberg, 1998). The visa service management is influenced by the relation with the country and has consequences on the relation with the country. Locally implementing the visa policy entails taking into account such interdependence and its implications. In this understanding, Moroccan key actors (press, political and economic establishment) affect the implementation of the visa policy at different extents from one consulate to the other one. Each consulate work routines can be explained by diplomatic concerns. Therefore, I will argue that the specific role Morocco plays for national consulates is one of the factors hindering the harmonization of practices.