Switzerland opens visa centers in Moscow

Switzerland is opening fifteen visa centers on September, 21 in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Krsnoyarsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Sochi, Kaliningrad, Irkutk, Ufa, Habarovsk and Vladivostok. It will be a separate visa center in Moscow and a window at existing visa centers of VFS Global that is providing the service for other countries.

Documents for the Shengen visa category A and C must be applied for, at visa centers of Switzerland in Moscow or General Consulate in Saint Petersburg. The requests for the national visa (category D, period of stay more than 90 days or work) will be processed only in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. In addition to the visa fee it is planned to apply a service fee of 23 euro per applicant.

Touroperators haven’t given a univocal appraisal to this innovation as they see there some pros and cons. To the experts’ opinion, the fact of opening visa centers in the regions is an obvious plus. “It is going to be another reason for visiting Switzerland for the people living in these regions, if the visa can be obtained close to their homes, and in such case they wouldn’t need to go to Moscow for that. It will increase the tourist flow”, said The General Manager of the Swiss company “Incotrade” Mr. Andrey Churkin. At the same time the number of individual tourists lost by the travel companies will also grow.

The General Director of the company “Megapolis Tour” Mrs. Viktoria Kizimova is sure that it will eliminate all the obstacles for the individual tourist. “Trips to Switzerland will get easier for the Russians, even for those who are living far away from Moscow, which will influence in the popularity of the destination”, she said.

The General Director of the company “Bureau-3-Viza” Mrs. Tatiana Molodsova is in approval of opening in the Moocow visa center a special separate window for the tour operators.

However, the tour operators have some questions which haven’t been answered. One of them is how the visa centre services will increase the visa value. “If the final price is too expensive for the regions, we better keep processing visa documents in Moscow”, Mrs. Kizimova noted. Besides, the price for the tourist packet to Switzerland has already increased because of the Swiss Frank strengthening.

Another question: what about the terms of the visa processing? Today the Consulate needs four days to process with the application. The necessity to use the visa centre service might increase this term up to one or two days.

“Are we going to be able to maintain a direct connection with the consulate in order to solve all urgent or complicated problems?” Mrs. Tatiana Molodsova and her colleagues are worried. And Mr. Andrey Churkin, whose company has a VIP status and doesn’t need to go through all the checks, considers visa centers being an odd link in this chain.

All questions and hesitations will be answered at the meeting that will be held at the Embassy of Switzerland next Friday. RATA-news is going to follow how it develops.