Three days processing of visa-applications is history. “Always apply at least 15 days prior to scheduled departure. Our processing time is 10 days,” says Marit Egholm Jacobsen, head of the visa section at Norway’s Consulate General in Murmansk.
3-year-old Daria Dzhambanova became border-crosser No. 150.000 when she with her parents entered Finland from Russia’s Kola Peninsula on their way to visit Santa Claus.
Only 0,7 percent of the population in the Russian border areas to Norway have applied for the ID-card permitting them visa-free border-crossings. Among Norwegians, the interest is much higher.
KIRKENES: Russia’s General Consulate in Kirkenes outsources parts of the visa handling to a private company. Longer opening hours, free consultation and online applications are some of the advantages for the public.
Climbing this barbed wire fence with Norway in the horizon is one of the most difficult ways to enter Schengen-Europe. For those who try, the penalty is a Russian Arctic prison cell.
Visa applicants from remote areas in northern Norway can still send passport and papers by mail and have them delivered to the visa centre by some locals.
Voluntary border patrols of local civilians give invaluable help to the regular border forces along the Russian-Norwegian border, a regional border guard commander says. In the course of the last 10 months, these patrols have contributed to the detention of more than 70 violators of the border regime.
