New Rules for Visa Applications in Austrian Consular Section

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   On January 23rd new rules for visa application were adopted by Austrian Consular Section. Firstly, tour operators must provide consular services with the original an invitation received from Austrian partners. According to experts this rule slows down the process of visa issuing in spite of the fact that a special person was appointed to deal with group applications of accredited companies. The Head of the Austria Department of ICS Travel Group, Alexander Skopintsev, pointed out: ‘It takes a consular agent quite a long time to find an original invitation for every tourist.
   Other operators interviewed by a BANKO correspondent believe that the necessity to proceed invitations originals will elongate visa issuing process. ‘At the moment we expect delays in document issuing’, stated Lilia Gorbunova, supervisor of Austrian Section of UTE Megapolus. Furthermore, travel market players point out that the new rule may also lead to increase in price of tour packages due to express post expenses: Austrian companies will raise invoices for Russian partners who will extra charge their tourists. But prices will not change dramatically, of course. ‘One letter by express post costs 50Euro but contains dozens of invitations’, said Maxim Pristavko, Commercial director of Jet Travel.
   Secondly, the consular Section has set a limit for a number of daily-proceeded documents. Thus, it can not exceed 400 applications per day, which is, according to market players, less than a current volume of the ski season. ‘We can not exclude a possibility that as a result even some charter programs ca be cancelled’, said Dmitryi Mazurov, General Director of Sunrise Travel Company.
   Therefore, tour operators made a decision to negotiate an optimal agreement with Austrian Consular Section. On the January 19th travel companies’ representatives met with Consul General of Austria with the support of Austrian Tourism Office. ‘Consular agents promised to make every endeavor in order to avoid cancellations and delays’, stated Gerald Boehm, PR Manager of the Austrian Tourist Office.