Travel | The government will outline the tightening of visas granted to Russians on Tuesday

Finland the government is scheduled to outline the tightening of visas for Russians next Tuesday.

The Estonian government announced the tightening on Thursday. Estonia limits the issuance of Schengen visas and entry to the country with Schengen visas already issued by Estonia.

Read more: Estonia prohibits Russian citizens from entering the country with Schengen visas issued by it, the issuance of visas is also restricted

According to Estonian newspapers, the country will also stop issuing visas for work, study and business.

Russians who have a long-term residence permit in Estonia and who come to Estonia to visit their close relatives can still get a visa.

Estonia also lets in Russians, for example, who can move in the country based on European Union legislation.

Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (vihr) said last Thursday that Finland intends to limit the possibility of applying for Russian tourist visas.

“The idea is to limit the time it takes to apply for tourist visas, in which case priority could be given to those visas that are necessary but other than tourism to Finland,” says Haavisto.

For several weeks now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has gone through how to limit the issuance of visas. The Ministry’s readiness will very quickly begin to limit the access of Russian visas to Finland.

The ministry informed HS on Tuesday that it is still waiting for the government’s political guidance on what kind of visas Finland is ready to issue and how much.

“In a political discussion, you have to go through how tight you want to turn the screw. And on the other hand, what are the special groups whose entry is to be secured. These guidelines should be made as a result of political discussion and not as official decisions”, said the head of consuls of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jussi Tanner for HS on Tuesday.

Read more: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is waiting for the government’s precise instructions on visas for Russians: “We need to go through how tight we want to turn the screw”

Consular Officer Tanner said that the ministry as such does not need a separate decision from the government, but political guidance.

“We at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can implement these as official decisions, but we want to know in which direction and how drastically we want to go.”

Tanner said there would be legal problems if tourist visas were banned altogether.

“There is now a particular concern that the demand for tourist visas clearly exceeds the supply. The visa applications of important special groups such as family members are drowned under tourist visa applications, and those applying for family member visas do not get filing periods.”

Tanner said that Finland can allocate a larger portion of the total pot of visa application submission times to family members and other special groups, leaving clearly less time for applying for tourist visas.

in the EU there has been an intensifying discussion about visas for Russians in August. Estonia represents a strict line in Europe.

Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz took a stand on the visa issue last Thursday and again on Friday this week.

Scholz said that he is not at all enthusiastic about banning all Russians from getting tourist visas to the EU, as, for example, Estonia and Ukraine have demanded.

The EU presidency, the Czech Republic, has announced that it considers a full visa ban for Russians possible in the next round of sanctions.