On Friday, October 27, Ukraine and the European Union initialed an agreement on visa facilitation within the framework of the Tenth Ukraine-EU Summit in Helsinki.
The document was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Borys Tarasyuk and EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
Embassies will be obliged to issue a visa within 10 days after the application is submitted, and in case of refusal, to provide a written explanation of why the visa will not be issued, writes 'Delo'.
Today, embassies set the issuance deadlines individually, and most of them do not bother to comment on the reasons for refusal. However, there is a small caveat: consideration of an application may take up to 30 days. However, it is envisaged that this will happen only in exceptional cases.
Another positive aspect of the agreement is that the price of a Schengen visa will be fixed at 35 euros for all embassies. Previously, a number of Western European embassies demanded that the price be at least 65 euros.
The agreement also specifies the categories of Ukrainian citizens who can obtain a Schengen visa free of charge - these are citizens who have close relatives residing in the EU, students, disabled persons, journalists and pensioners. For those who have a diplomatic passport, visas will not be required at all.
However, the simplification of the visa regime with the EU will take at least several months to materialize. It is necessary for all EU member states to ratify this agreement. All ratification procedures and embassy briefings are expected to take until mid-2007.