Ukraine ranks second after Poland in the number of citizens that visit Germany. Every year about 130,000 people apply to the German Embassy for a Schengen visa, but this year there have been 350,000 applications in Kyiv alone. Although memories are still fresh of the recent visa scandals at the German Embassy, on Oct. 27 Ukraine and the EU initialed an agreement on relaxed visa requirements for certain categories of visitors. This and other particularities of the visa-related work at the German Embassy in Ukraine is the subject of the following interview with Reinhard SCHAEFERS, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, published in The Day, Segodnia, and Blik.
“Mr. Ambassador, is anything concrete being done to implement the initialed agreements?”
“We do not have to conduct any large-scale campaigns. All we have to do is apply the simplified procedure in the future to some categories of individuals under the agreement. These are businessmen, students, journalists, people who have relatives in Germany, etc. But this agreement has not come into force yet. It still has to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, and there should be preliminary hearings in the European Parliament for the agreement to take effect. This will take several months. As for the agreement, I would also like to add that the mass media often allege that the agreement obliges the embassy to justify every visa refusal. First of all, this is incorrect: there is no such clause in the agreement. Second, the German Embassy has been doing this since last April: accompanying a refusal with a brief written explanation. A standardized log drawn up by the embassy lists a total of nine possible reasons for denying a visa. More often than not, the following things stand in the way of obtaining a Schengen visa: submitting forged documents, providing false information on the application or during the interview, insufficient funds for the trip. The visa department can also have doubts about the listed purpose of travel or the desire to return after the visa has expired.”
“What are the reasons behind the different visa-issuing procedures in the Schengen countries?”
“All the Schengen countries have identical versions of visa applications and, to a large extent, the same prerequisites for issuing a visa. But the visa-issuing procedure itself is still under national jurisdiction. Therefore, like before, there may be differences between the embassies of various Schengen countries. But these differences only occur in cases when the General Consular Instruction does not apply or if no clear-cut agreement has been reached on regulation. There are not many cases of this kind. Of course, one can think about further cooperation within the framework of the Schengen Agreement and further centralization of the procedures, but there is no such intention at the moment, so differences, especially in the field of issuing specifics, will continue.”
“When are the Schengen countries going to take a step in response to Ukraine’s cancellation of entry visas for EU citizens?”
“This is rather a political and difficult question. I am fully aware that to Ukrainian citizens, i.e., potential visa applicants, the visa-issuing practice of EU countries might appear to be a policy of separation and create the image of ‘fortress Europe.’ As for relaxed visa requirements in the broadest terms, including the outright cancellation of visas, there is still a long way to go. There are several reasons for this. The labor market of the EU countries shows high structural unemployment, so these countries cannot afford to absorb additional workforces from other countries. Another factor is security considerations in the broadest terms. Ukraine is an open country that has partly ‘porous’ borders with third countries, which promote the transit of illegal migration to Europe. These and other factors comprise a complex of issues that is leading to the likelihood that the process of the possible cancellation of visas will continue for quite some time. The necessity of obtaining a visa will disappear once the above-mentioned factors vanish.”
“A big problem is the so-called ‘street consuls,’ who for a fee promise to help people get a visa. They usually work near embassies. How are you combating this phenomenon?”
“‘Street consuls’ are a really big problem that has received wide media coverage. But they do not act on our territory, so the German Embassy is not in a position to tackle this problem directly. We have repeatedly applied to Ukraine’s foreign and internal affairs ministries, but so far this has not led to a noticeable reduction of the scale of this phenomenon. These ‘street consuls’ either provide information that can in no way help the applicant or promise that they will bring forward the date of the interview with the visa department. In reality, they only impose additional and unnecessary fees on the applicant. For example, one female applicant paid 300 hryvnias for ‘assistance in filling out the application,’ although the questionnaire is designed in such a way that any person who can read and write can fill it out without any problems. Sometimes these people advise applicants to provide false information in the column entitled ‘Purpose of Travel,’ in which case the visa will supposedly be issued without any difficulty. Uncovering false information is not a problem for the embassy’s experienced employees. As a result, the visa will be denied. In other words, the applicant, who may have obtained a visa without any problem, will be refused a visa after this kind of ‘help’.”
“Many people have to travel from other cities to Kyiv for a visa, which is not very convenient. What is your attitude to the idea of opening consulates in other cities in Ukraine?”
“The German foreign ministry has already discussed this idea. We have studied statistics and conducted surveys, and decided to refrain from this step for the time being. I would like to emphasize that at issue here are official consular representations in other cities, not honorary consuls. I am not ruling out this option for the future.”
