Fingerprinting to obtain a Schengen visa does not result in the collapse of visa centers

The procedure for the collection of fingerprints to obtain a Schengen visa, starting in Russia in September 2015, may not result in the collapse of visa centers, the first vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia Vladimir Kantorovich said.

The Russians will take the fingerprints once every five years. Later to obtain a visa in any Schengen consulate, delivery of biometrics is not required. At the same time, tourists will have to be fingerprinted and to deliver applications in one place, ie, you can not be fingerprinted at the visa application center in one city, and to send the documents by mail to Moscow to another consulate of the country which is actually going to go," Vladimir Kantorovich said.

He added that each consulate will decide itself the question of queuing in visa centers, whether it will be pre-arrangements or live queue.

According to the Russian Union of Travel Industry, fingerprinting for citizens of Russia starts on September 14, 2015 in all the consulates of the Schengen countries. The official announcement is to appear in early May. According to representatives of the European Union in 2013, all the consulates of the Schengen countries, had issued 7,000,000 visas fir Russians, including 55% of multi-entry visas, in 2014 - 5.7 million visas, 60% of them are multi-entry visas. Visa refusal amounted to less than 1% of the total number of applications.