The EU is said to make visa regulations easy for Belarusians. This statement was ratified by Lithuanian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Evaldas Ignatavicius. This was on an occasion that took place on 5 February where the inauguration of the visa service centers of Lithuania located in Belarus.
The head of the Lithuanian diplomatic mission said that they saw visa as chances for developing new contracts and contacts for the sake of business and culture. The four visa centers recently opened in Brest, Gomel, Minsk and Grodno are slated to give a boost to cultural cooperation, contribute to stronger regional contacts and expand business ties between nations.
Evaldas Ignatavicius remarked that in the year 2014, the count of visas issued had risen by 5 percent which made the number of times Belarusian visitors going to Lithuania rise by 20 percent. Belarus citizens are the leaders in making the maximum number of trips to the Schengen region. According to the diplomat, it was required to get ready for new opportunities. He specified by saying that more liberal visa regulations and the introduction of biometric visas would be helpful to Belarus citizens.
With the formation of the visa centers, Belarus citizens can do away with waiting in long queues in order to get visas from the Lithuania Embassy. The problem of hackers has also been solved. The Ambassador also said that this new system would be effective as well as transparent. Speaking to media, he said that in many instances, the Embassy of Lithuania eventually increased the number of one-year as well as two-year visas issued by them.
At the moment, there are 40 visa service centers in almost nine nations across the world. These centers make issuing of visas easier and Lithuania is no exception to this practice. It is the responsibility of the consular service and not the personnel of the Lithuanian Embassy in Belarus to either reject or grant visas.
