Near 8,000 visas issued in Kirkenes
Russian Consul General welcomes simplified visa regime between Norway and Russia.
- We will make it easier to cross the border, says Igor Bulay, Russia’s Consul General in Kirkenes to BarentsObserver.
Near 8,000 visas were issued at the Consulate General in 2010, up more than 1,000 from 2009. Some few years back, the number of visas issued in the Norwegian border town was near 10,000.
Around 1,000 of the visas issued last year were multiple-entry visas to Russia. The Consulate General in Kirkenes issues visas mainly for people living in northern Norway.
In February, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre told the audience at a business-conference in Kirkenes that Russia should issue visas to Norwegians without requiring an invitation, like Norway issues visas to Russians in the north without demanding an invitation.
- Nothing is stated in the 2007 visa agreement between Norway and Russia regarding the possibilities to issue visas without invitation, says Consul General Igor Bulay.
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- According to the Russian law the visas are issued by invitation. Teoretically it is possible to change the law, but it is a lengthy process, says Bulay.
- One of the positive developments we have seen over the last year is the rising of numbers of simplified humanitarian visas issued to school-pupils, participants in sport events, artists and visitors to festivals in the Russian part of the Barents Region, says Igor Bulay.
