Finnish Visa Application Centers in Russia now accept about 1,000 applications per day. This was announced on Wednesday, August 17, at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow. From September 1st, five hundred time slots per day will be available for visa applications, of which only 20% will be reserved for tourism purposes.
It is noted that from September 1, each visa application will be processed individually.
“20% of them (time slots – Ed.) will be for tourist visas and 80% [для виз] for other reasons. If necessary, quotas can be changed to ensure the functionality of the system and prevent misuse,” the diplomatic mission said in an interview with TASS.
Plans to reduce the number of visas issued to Russians by 5-10 times compared to the current level were announced by Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto a day earlier. He clarified that when issuing visas to Russians, priority will be given to those traveling for family reasons, study or work. Later, Haavisto explained that Finland does not plan to cancel Schengen visas already issued to Russian citizens.
In turn, residents of the center and east of Finland interviewed by Izvestia said they did not see any logic in the government’s initiative to reduce the flow of tourists from Russia. They believe the decision will hurt the budgets of cities like Lappeenranta, where Russian travelers make up over 90% of foreign tourists.
On August 8, the head of the consular service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Jussi Tanner, spoke about plans to impose restrictions on transit tourism for Russians to Europe on Schengen visas issued by Finnish missions.
Back in late July, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that Finland’s cessation of issuing visas to Russians would be seen as an openly discriminatory political measure.
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