Good News Regarding Visas

June 2007: Last week, The Ukraine and the EU signed an agreement aiming to facilitate visa obtention. Under the new agreement, a decision on whether or not to issue a visa will have to be taken, as a rule, within 10 days and the documents that need to be presented have been simplified.

The agreement also sets out simplified criteria for issuing multiple-entry visas for many groups of people, such as close relatives, lorry drivers, people on business, students , journalists and members of official delegations. Moreover, visa fees applied by Schengen Member States are fixed at 35€. Visa fees are waived for some groups of people such as close relatives, students, disabled people, journalists and pensioners.

Though this is definitely a step forward and a clear sign of intent from the EU, for some countries, such as Georgia, the visa problem is actually worseing. Fees are rising  (previously a shrot stay in a Schengen country would set you back 35€ but that has now risen to 60€.). aFurthermore, many embassies have stopped issuing visas or it is almost impossible to get them.

For more information on the new visa regulation for the Ukraine click here