11/08/2019 17:00

The number of firms will be cut down; the terms of visa processing will remain

[IMG=18057-3452] In the evening of October 11th Székely Árpád, the Hungarian ambassador, László Böröc, the General Consul, and Marianna Dudić, the vice-Consul, and Marianna Dudich, the vice-Consul, had a closed meeting with Russian tour operators – members of the ‘Hungary’ club. The purpose of the meeting was facilitation of visa processing at the Consulate (see news from 04.10). To solve the problem of long queues during the hours of submitting document (from 1:30 p. m. till 3 p. m.), the embassy decided to carry out re-accreditation of travel companies from November 1st till December 15th and this way reduce their number. Today, according to Svetlana Toropchenkova, manager of Hungarian destination at ‘Euro-travel.ru’, there are about 70 accredited companies. ‘There are difficulties because of the huge number of companies. You can arrive to the embassy at 1 p. m. and submit the documents, on a different day you arrive by 12 p. m. and do not have enough time to submit the documents. This uncertainty slows down the work and sometimes can cancel the trip,’ comments Ms Toropchenkova. The conditions of the procedure are still indefinite, but experts believe the selection will be very thorough. However, the previous terms of visa processing (2–3 days) are very unlikely to come back in spite of operators’ expectations: the consulate can not handle the increased amount of work. ‘The changes are possible only in several months’, adds Angela Khabarova, manager of Hungarian destination of ‘Altus-tour’ operator. In principle, this time will be enough to install a separate automated telephone line with information about the rules of visa processing and the cost, which will enable the embassy to work quicker. What is more, destination experts interviewed by BANKO reported that the embassy of Hungary intends to update their web site and describe the new rule of visa processing. At the same time the representatives of the diplomatic mission promised that there will not be any significant changes in visa processing during the year.