73% of the visas issued last month were so-called Pomor-visas, a multi-entry visa where Norway don’t require the applicants to hold a prior invitation from a partner. All inhabitants of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Nenets regions in northwest Russia can apply for Pomor-visas to Norway, and by that the entire Schengen area as long as Norway is the main destination most times.
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Over the first 11 months, the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk has issued a total of 17.647 visas.
- Since more than half of the applicants now are registering their application via internet, the queues are reduced although the number of applicants increases. We expect the total number of issued visas by the year end will be more than 20.000, says Lars Georg Fordal, head of the visa-desk at the Consulate General to BarentsObserver.
The Consulate encourage more people to use the internet registration. In a promotion campaign to get more applicants to register online, the visa-desk gives a free CD with Norwegian music to everyone using the service. Also, the handling period for those who uses the internet is now only three working days. The applicants will receive an SMS or e-mail when the documents are ready to be picked up.
