Is it easy for a Belarusian to get to Shengen?

A month ago, on the 21^st of December, the Shengen zone widened and now borders Belarus: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta joined the territory with no control on the internal boundaries. How did the conditions of receiving a visa to the countries, mentioned above, change for the Belarusians? Radio “Svaboda” (“Freedom”) report from the queue in front of the embassy of Poland in Minsk. 

By the two windows, where passports are given, there is a line of approximately 50 people. But almost no one, who has a ticket for getting back his documents, is sure that he’ll get a visa. The consulate has a right to deny a visa without explaining reasons. It has always been this way, but after the Shengen visa was introduced, it became much harder to get a permission to enter the neighbouring country, the people in the queue told me.

One of my interviewees is an entrepreneur, his business is logistics.

“I’ve received the Shengen visa before; I’m in business for a long time. We have a bank account, transfer statement, but even in that case they wanted us to show them a contract… We weren’t ready for that. They must simply haven’t know, which documents they should demand. And they still don’t give us any information about the process. This is kind of unfair. We couldn’t have been ready for that and they must have had the necessary knowledge and this situation shouldn’t have happened”.

Correspondent: “And how much time did it take for you to receive a visa”?

 “First time I signed up for handing in the documents on the 28^th of December of previous year. I was the 101^st in line. They took 15-17 people a day. Only one window worked. First time I handed in the documents on the 8^th of December. After that I was collecting the additional papers”.

 My interviewee was even more impressed by the situation of his neighbour in the line:

 “The woman had a fax note about the booked room in a hotel in Poland. The embassy worker told her that the fax note won’t do, they need the original. The woman asked – how am I going to get the original when I’m here and the hotel is there? So the worker asks, “Well, do you at least have the tickets?” “No, I don’t.” “Then buy them and come back later”. The next day she comes with the tickets and they tell her: why did you buy the tickets, they may still deny you a visa”.

 Two men with a disappointed looks on their faces move away from the embassy window. One of them is waiting for the permission to go to Poland to get goods. He has a contract with a Polish firm. He wasn’t denied a visa, they just informed him that the decision wasn’t made yet.

“I’ve handed in my papers on the 4^th of January and they don’t tell me anything – neither “yes” nor “no”.

 Correspondent: “And how do they explain it”?

“They say, they have technical difficulties… At first I wanted to apply for a national visa, but the embassy employees told me that I need Shengen one. I don’t know what they are checking there…”

 My other interviewee is a children’s ski jumping team coach. He tries to obtain a visa for his team and himself to go to the world championship among the juniors. Our competitors are practicing in Zakapany since the 14^th of January, the coach explained. And when the visas for Belarusians will be ready, is unknown.

 “Even the sport and tourism ministry tried to help us, asked the embassy to give the team visas for free. But they’ve made a 46 euro fee for children. They promised us that on the 11^th they’ll be ready. But they weren’t ready themselves…”

  Yulia Rymashevskaya.

  http://www.svaboda.org/content /Article/871571.html