Baltic States – CIS, Lithuania, Russia, Tourism
International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics
Friday, 29.03.2024, 13:23
Lithuania's ForMin to renounce commercial visa intermediaries in Russia
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the decision to stop
cooperation with commercial intermediaries in the Russian Federation following
the good practice of other Schengen countries to make the acceptance of
Schengen visa applications at consular establishments more effective and
transparent," the ministry said.
Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Slovenia, Latvia and
Estonia also no longer cooperate with commercial intermediaries in Russia.
Visa services can cooperate with commercial intermediaries only on
Schengen visas.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the change will reduce the
administrative burden for Lithuanian institutions taking part in the visa
issuance process since commercial intermediaries must be accredited, checked
regularly and constantly monitored.
"Since commercial intermediaries and foreign entities, a lot of
resources must be used to check their credibility," the ministry said.
Last year, Lithuanian visa services cooperated with 30 commercial
intermediaries in Russia and the latter submitted as few as 3% of all visa
requests.
Lithuanian visa services issued 92,922 Schengen visas in Russia last year
and the Baltic country was in the tenth place among Schengen countries in this
respect.
17 Lithuanian visa centers operate in Russia at the moment.
Lithuania has also renounced services of commercial intermediaries in
Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus this year.