11/08/2019 17:01

Vizas equality

[IMG=18006-3398] The cost of visas to Austria, Finland, Malta, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Great Britain will considerably drop in the near future. It follows from this week’s agreement between Russia and the European Union, according to which a common cost of visas will be introduced for Russian tourists into all countries of EU. The cost will be 35 Euros. At the same time the new introduction will not affect the cost of the entry documents to other European countries. For instance, the cost of visas to Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Latvia, and Lithuania will not change. To the contrary, the consulate fee in the embassies of Poland, Estonia, and Portugal will rise. What is more, official representatives of both parties coordinated the basic regulations of the facilitation of the visa regime and repatriotisation (the returning of peoples who illegally gained into the surrounding states). The final documents will be signed by the end of the year. The experts interviewed by BANKO reacted calmly to the forth-coming changes. ‘The facilitation of processing visas will mostly concern certain categories like journalists, students, diplomats, etc but will not concern ordinary tourists,’ reflects Andrey Karpyichev, head of the visa department of Jet Travel. Natalia Zhitukhina, Director General of Interunion, echoes his sentiments: ‘The EU is still not ready to make a serious step to facilitate the widespread availability of visa processing for the Russians’. The operators however agreed that this important step will happen not only when the unification concerns the cost of the visa but also when it concerns the terms, documentary requirements and conditions for receiving the visa. ‘This would ease the life of travel firms a great deal, rather than the common prices which are almost the same with most consulates anyway,’ says Svetlana Stroganova, Director General of Euro-Expo.ru. According to her, the drop of cost will be noticeable only for Great Britain; the UK visa is currently 80 Euros. On the other side, some experts believe that the united cost will bring a huge inflow to Europe. ‘Any improvement in visa facilitation will benefit the market,’ said Viktoria Zhenchenskaya, DSBW Director.