0,8 percent of visa-applications rejected
The Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk issued 13.589 visas to Norway in 2008.Only 0,8 percent of the visa-applications were rejected.
2008 was a historical year for the citizens of Barents region crossing the borders in the north. Both the EU-Russian visa agreement and the similar Norwegian-Russian visa agreement went into force. The visa agreements make it easier for many categories of people to obtain multi-entry visas valid for up to three years.
The first ever Russian citizens to receive three-year entry visas to Norway were from Murmansk, Maria Goman and Alexey Filin, both working for the regional office of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. They got their visas from the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk in February last year. The first Norwegians could get visas valid for more than one year from December 1st 2008.
500 work and residence permits
The Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk handles visa applications mainly from Murmansk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast and Nenets Autonomus Okrug. Last year 13.589 persons got visas to Norway, more than 13.000 of them with ordinary visa, and some 500 got work or residence permits to Norway.
104 rejections
Most interesting, only 104 applications were rejected. The reasons for rejection is not stated in the 2008 statistics from presented to BarentsObserver.com from the visa-department at the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk. 0,8 percent of all applications are some of the lowest visa-rejection percent at any Norwegian embassy or consulate abroad.
Visas for Russian to Norway are also issued at the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow and the the Consulate General in St. Petersburg.
900.000 visas to Finland
Finland is still far beyond Norway when it comes to issuing Schengen-visas for Russians. In Murmansk, the branch of Finland’s Consulate General in St. Petersburg issued 19.361 visas in 2008.
Totally, Finland embassy in Moscow and its consulates in Murmansk, Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg issued more than 900.000 visas last year. The majority were St. Petersburg residents travelling to Helsinki.
