In Murmansk, Nordic visa centers merge

The Norwegian Visa Application Center in Murmansk is moving out of its premises at Ulitsa Zelenaya and into the offices of its Finnish colleagues at Ulitsa Karla Libknekhta.

The new joint visa center will be officially opened on 15th February, Norwegian Consul Marit Jacobsen informs in a press release.

«We believe the new location of our visa center will be convenient for our applicants», Jacobsen underlines. 

In addition to Norwegian and Finnish visas, the new center will accept applications for Island, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Slovenia ,Croatia, Austria, Spain, Poland, Czech  Republic and Bulgaria.

The visa center merger comes on the backdrop of a significant drop in the number of Schengen visas issued to Russian. As previously confirmed to the Independent Barents Observer, year 2015 saw a 50 percent decline in the number of visas issued.

The Norwegian Visa Application Center in Murmansk opened with big bravura in 2013. Then, the number of border crossers between Russia and the Nordic countries was surging and pressure mounted on visa consulate staff.

As previously reported, the Norwegian General Consulate in Murmansk in 2015 issued at total of 11,800 visas, of which 98 percent were multi-entry visas with a duration of at least one year.

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Following the drop in applicants, the General Consulate from 1 February decided to cut the application processing time from seven to three working days.