Tourists wishing to apply for visas have entered into an unequal battle with an army of bots and resellers. Fontanka has collected life hacks for those who do not lose hope of getting a Schengen.
Slots for September at the Finnish Visa Application Center in St. Petersburg sold like hotcakes. As the Consulate General of Suomi told Fontanka, the registration for the first month of autumn was opened at the end of August. But at the moment, “slots for applying for a tourist visa at the Finnish Visa Application Center have run out.”
Recall that from September 1, new rules for issuing Finnish visas came into force. The main essence of the changes: the number of openings for serving tourist purposes has decreased by 10 times. Now applications for a tourist visa can be submitted by appointment only in four visa centers – in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, and Murmansk. And only on Mondays – the rest of the days will be left for other types of visas. The number of applications considered per day has also decreased.
While the discussion of the new rules was going on, there was no entry for September on the website of the visa center. But even those who constantly monitored the slots could not catch the coveted window.
“I have been trying to sign up for a month and a half. During working hours from 10 to 18.30. On average, it turns out 5-7 times per hour, ”said Yevgenia, a Fontanka reader. According to her, at the end of August, only the fact that now you can choose a visa category has changed. But, as before, “there are no available places for this category of entry.” At the same time, the website of the visa center freezes, but when you refresh the page, it either throws it out for two minutes for an increased activity or forces you to check again that you are not a bot.
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