Russia has skilled a rise within the curiosity of vacationers to the nation, which was observed within the elevated issuance of conventional paper visas by Russian diplomatic and visa service centres overseas.

In keeping with Prensa Latina, a accomplice of TV BRICS, the variety of visas elevated by virtually 65 % inside one yr – from 510,000 in 2022 to 840,000 within the following yr, VisaGuide.World reviews.

The issuance of 170,000 paperwork within the first 5 months of 2023, which resulted from the next months of the introduction of a unified digital visa programme, has been one of many causes for this enhance.

The top of the consular division on the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, Aleksei Klimov, revealed such knowledge, which confirmed that the issuance of each paper and digital visas issued, exceeded the a million mark.

As well as, round 221,000 visas had been granted to residents of nations which are thought-about to have performed ‘unfriendly acts’ towards the Russian Federation. Klimov famous that regardless of the diplomatic ties, foreigners inquisitive about visiting the nation are allowed to take action.

Russia is able to proceed to maintain its doorways open.

Accessible knowledge for 2022 present that 687,239 visa purposes had been filed by Russian nationals in 2022, up from 536,241 recorded within the previous years. Finland, Spain and Italy represented 60 % of all visas issued to Russians in 2022, with 105,323 visas out of a complete of 112,737 purposes.

As well as, 166,893 purposes had been filed to Spanish consulates, which granted 154,450 out of these requests.

The variety of different nations granting a excessive variety of visas to Russian candidates in 2022 embody Greece, which granted 61,840 visas out of 75,830 purposes, adopted by France with 55,285 out of 64,309 requests and 38,809 out of 48,895 purposes filed in Germany. As well as, Hungary granted 25,081 out of 27,595 visa purposes.

Nonetheless, knowledge additionally present that 83.3 % fewer Schengen visa purposes had been filed by Russians in 2022 in comparison with 2019 ranges, which may be because of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the warfare in Ukraine, with the latter being the primary purpose for sanctions, resulting in a lower in visa purposes.

In 2022, Schengen consulates and visa software centres processed a complete of seven.5 million short-term visa purposes, which is 55 % down from the variety of visas processed in 2019.