New form edge out private visa-invitations

While the Norwegian Foreign Minister continues to highlight the efforts to make the visa-issuing procedures as smooth and simple as possible for Russians that want to visit Norway, the Norwegian General Consulate in Murmansk has introduced a new extended form requiring very personal detailed information to be filled in.

The form applies to private individuals that want to invite a Russian citizen to come for a visit to Norway. The formula, posted at the web-portal norvegia.ru, requests far more detailed information than the formula posted at the web-portal of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, valid for private invitations for people from other countries in need of visa before visiting Norway.

Gunnar Sætra, a Norwegian with many Russian friends, tells BarentsObserver that the new extended form includes questions that make you think they are taken from the archives of KGB, translated to Norwegian and introduced as standard in Norway.

The Norwegian that invite a Russian friend need to present information about who is his employer and how long he or she has been employed. Attached must be the latest Norwegian tax certificate and at least one new pay statement.

You need to fill in where the person you are inviting will stay during his visit to Norway, either it is at your home or other places during the stay in Norway. This also includes the names of other persons and places the invited might visit.

Further, you have to fill in what kind of relation you have to the person you are inviting, if it is a friend, an acquaintance, a sweetheart, or something else. Thereafter you need to present information about why you are inviting the person and details about the persons doings in Norway will be.

The form continues; when, where and how did you get in contact with the person you are inviting and for how long have you know the person? The Norwegian consular sections in Murmansk, St. Petersburg and Moscow request you to be specifically detailed about when and where you met the person and requires that you attach a copy of the stamps in your passport to prove that you have been in Russia the dates you claim.

The form doesn’t stop there; further you need to provide information about the marital status and where the invited person’s children and spouse are living. Finally you have to fill in a line about what the person you are inviting are going to do after he leave.

In total the form requires you to answer 41 sets of questions before you can sign and go to the police to obtain their signature and stamp.

After the form is signed by the police, you have to send it to the person you are inviting, so that he or she can attach it to their own visa-application form to be delivered to the consular department of the Norwegain Embassy in Moscow, or one of the General Counsulates in Murmansk or St. Petersburg.

Gunnar Sætra discovered the new form when he wanted to invite some Russian friends to his 50-years birthday party later this fall. For more than 20 years Sætra has been traveling extensively in the Russian part of the Barents Region, both as a part of his job and privately. Sætra has also been a student for some years at the Pomor State University in Arkhangelsk.

- It does not belong in a democracy to ask such questions. Most of the questions are irrelevant for the persons stay in Norway, and they ask about issues that according to my view are outside of what the immigration authorities are allowed to ask, says Gunnar Sætra to BarentsObserver.

- One of the persons I am going to invite is a colleague I have known for more than 20 years. We have been traveling across Northwest-Russia several times, but I can’t remember all exact dates. Should I then eventually give details about all places and villages we have visited together, asks Sætra.

- How can I provide copies of the stamps in all my old passports, they are not valid any more. The police have never told me to keep record of all my old passports, continues Gunnar Sætra wondering what kind of rules the new form are justified within.

- Those who are working to improve the neighbor relations in the Barents Region should blush with shame when they see what kind of forms that are composed by the bureaucracy and presented to ordinary people.

Communication consultant with the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration, Sigurd Skjefstad says to BarentsObserver that Norwegian foreign service missions are free to introduce or change the invitation formula depending what kind of information they want before issuing visas, as long as this is in accordance with the Schengen-countries local practice.

Another Barents enthusiast that was shocked when he was informed about the new form introduced by the Norwegian Immigration Authorites is the head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat Rune Rafaelsen. –This form shows that Norway walks into the future with the back first, says Rafaelsen.

- This extended invitation form shows that Norway are doing the oposit of what President Medvedev and Prime Minister Stoltenberg talked about when they met in Oslo in April, namely how to make things easier for ordinary people to cross the Norwegian – Russian border, says Rune Rafaelsen.

- Norway should instead do what we can to make it easier for Russians in the Barents Region to visit Norway, says Rafaelsen.

In words, also the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre shares this view. In 2006 Foreign Minister Støre said in a speech in front of students at the Moscow State University:

- At a time when Norwegians can travel to most countries without a visa, it is a paradox that we need a visa to cross our own border in the north, as you do to cross your border to us. Our long-term goal is to abolish visas altogether. In the meantime we should make every effort – both on the Norwegian and on the Russian side – to make the procedures as smooth and simple as possible.

Read more about Norwegian-Russian visa issues in BarentsObserver’s special visa-section.