Operators await negotiations

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   According to the market players interviewed by the journalists of the BANKO Information Service, the situation with drawing up necessary documents for traveling to Hungary is ambiguous. As recently as the beginning of summer, the Hungarian Consulate prolonged the standard procedure from 3 days to 7 days, cancelled urgent visas and began to pay thorough attention to the appearance of documents. Originally, the diplomatic representative office announced that the change of terms of processing visas will be temporary. However, nothing followed the change. ‘Namely, inexplicable requirements to documents got considerably stricter,’ added Svetlana Stroganova, Director of Euro-Travel.ru. – ‘For example, passports with slightly torn cover or cracked photograph are considered to be invalid.’ As a result, tourists have to cancel the trips.
   The Hungarian specialists cannot explain the case. The Consulate refused to comment on the issue due to the absence of the Consul-General. Nonetheless, a representative of the diplomatic mission told a BANKO journalist that the changes were made under authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. He also added that the consulate issues more than 400 visas a day.
   As for operators, they are not in a hurry to demand explanation from the Consulate fearing to upset relations with it. ‘We just continue working’, comments Elena Yudina, the Head of the European department of ‘De-Visu’. Meanwhile, as BANKO discovered, there is a meeting to be held on the 11th of October between the Hungarian diplomatic mission and Russian operators to discuss the urgent matters. ‘I hope we will agree on returning urgent visas’, says Boris Blinov, General Director of ‘Altus’.
   What is more, a BANKO journalist found out the official site of the Travel Bureau of the Hungarian Embassy was not updated since August 2004. In the Visa section it is clearly written that ‘visa processing takes 2 working days‘. By special request, travel documents can be issued ‘the same or the following day’.