The government has proposed increasing visa fees for Europeans
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The government has submitted to the State Duma a bill to suspend provisions in international treaties with the European Union, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein on the simplified issuance of visas to enter Russia, should from the Duma electronic database.
In particular, the amendments propose to completely suspend Art. 6 of each of the treaties, and in the case of Liechtenstein – Art. 7. Once the bill is passed, European citizens will be charged visa fees as per the 2010 regulation.
“In practice, this will mean that the cost of Russian visas will increase depending on the urgency and frequency in the range of $50 – $300, and the corresponding income from their issuance may increase by 2.8 times,” the explanatory note says.
The need to adopt the bill is explained by the “synchronization” of the regime for collecting visa fees for issuing Russian visas with the standards that these countries have established, including by increasing the rates of visa fees.
Russia and the European Union entered into a mutual agreement on the simplified issuance of visas in 2006. The documents were valid for up to three months, and for certain categories of citizens they could be extended many times. On September 12, 2022, the foreign ministers of 27 EU member countries decided to freeze this agreement in connection with the start of a special operation in Ukraine. When entering the EU territory, the rules that apply to citizens of third countries began to apply to Russians. The cost of obtaining a visa has increased to 80 euros ($83.8), and the processing time for the request has increased to 45 days.
The fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry has submitted to the government a bill to increase visa fees has become known October 3.
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