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Public Monitoring of the EU Member States’ Visa Issuance Policies and Practices in Ukraine. Analitical Report

Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine presents the results of large scale research project which was carried out during the second half of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. The research was focused on monitoring of visa issuance policy and practice conducted by EU Consular establishments in regard to Ukrainian citizens after the Schengen zone expansion (on December 21st, 2007) and after the Agreement on Facilitation of the Issuance of Visas between Ukraine and the EU (VFA) had entered into force (on January 1st, 2008).

The research was held in the year 2008 by consortium of independent think-tanks/NGOs representing Kyiv and 6 regional centers of Ukraine. 
The research was held by means of respondent survey at the exit of consulates (or Visa centers). 840 respondents were polled, covering applicants to consular establishments of 11 Schengen states located in Kyiv (10 consulates and Visa centers) and other regions of Ukraine (11 consulates) – i.e. 40 applicants to each consulate. The choice includes only applicants who personally passed through the whole visa application procedure – starting from applying and to the final decision concerning visa issuance. The choice does not include those who received visa via tour agencies. 

Countries of the research (in parenthesis – number of consulates surveyed): 
Germany (1), France (1), Italy (1), Spain (1), Belgium (1), Greece (2) – “Old” Schengen states 
Poland (5), Hungary (3), Czech Republic (3), Slovakia (2), Lithuania (1) – “New” Schengen states. 

The research is aimed to assess visa issuance for the citizens of Ukraine by Schengen States’ consulates according to the following parameters: 

• Queues; 
• Waiting period for Consulate’s decision; 
• Visa refusals: number and reasons; 
• Availability of multiple entry, long terms and free of charge visas; 
• Validity of multiple entry visas; 
• Visa procedure cost; 
• Documents, complexity of the procedure and treatment towards applicants; 
• Evaluation of changes in visa procedure; 
• Distances to consulates 

The outcomes demonstrate the existence of the following TENDENCIES: 
Positive: 

• General decrease (taking into account the whole Schengen zone) in the number of visa refusals – up to 8% (July) and 6,6% (November), while during previous years such indicator generally equaled to 12-14% 

• Introduction of new visa processing technologies enabled consulates of several EU Member States (mainly “old” ones) to shorten visa procedure period and overcome the problem of queues to a certain extend. Visa application processing in “Old Schengen” states in more than 50% of cases lasts up to 1 week. In most cases visa application queues do not exceed more than 1 hour in “Old Schengen” states. 

• “Old Schengen” states issued 23,5% (July) – 31,8% (November) of multiple entry and 27% (July) – 25,7% (November) of free of charge visas which is by 2-3 times more than during previous years. 

• Majority of the applicants rather positively evaluates the atmosphere of communication with consular officers. 

• The results of the second stage of the research show the increase in positive responses and evaluations made by applicants of “New Schengen” states and balance of numerous data correspondingly with the indicators of “Old Schengen” states, i.e. gradual overcoming of most evident negative outcomes of Schengen zone expansion. 

Negative: 

• Significant complication of visa procedures and visa requirements in “New Schengen” States. In July applicants stressed on degradation according to all parameters: «queues», «procedure duration», «fees for the services», «document requirements», «clarity of visa demands and criteria» and «visa refusal risk». However, according to November survey a certain progress and leveling of the situation was noticed. This fact is partially caused by improvement of consulates’ activities as well as by seasonal factor. 

• In most cases the situation with visa issuance in “New Schengen” states is far worse than in “Old” ones, in particular in terms of time spent in queues (cases of queues that last 2, 3, 4 and even more hours are rather frequent) and period of waiting for visa decision (overall about 25% of respondents waited for more than 10 days which does not meet the provision of VFA). This situation undergoes seasonal impact – queues are substantially longer in spring and summer, and rather shorter in autumn and winter. 

• 23% (in July) and 40% (in November) of applicants to “Old Schengen” states note the necessity to pay extra fees to the outsourcing intermediaries (Visa centers). As a result, visa procedure fees exceed 60 Euro instead of maximum of 35 Euro as defined in the VFA. The share of persons who pay additional 
fees to the intermediaries is increasing. 

• Before the Schengen zone enlargement Ukrainian visitors to the CEE states (“New Schengen”) didn’t pay a visa fee. Now in the most of cases (about 70% in both stages of the research) applicants of those states had to pay 35 Euro fee at least, about 30% only obtained visas free of charge. 

• In 2 out of 3 cases in July and 1 out of 3 cases in November of visa refusal the reasons of refusals were not explained. 

• Validity of multiple entry visas in most cases does not exceed 1-3 months. Only 13-15% of multiple entry visas were valid for a period over 6 months. 

• The survey did not define the decrease in the number of the documents required from the applicants by the Consulates. This fact questions the quality of implementation of Article 4 of the Agreement which stipulates an exhaustive list of documents for confirmation of the purpose of visit for certain categories of citizens. 

Data presented above give ground for the following CONCLUSIONS: 
Agreement on the Facilitation of the Issuance of Visas between Ukraine and European Community (VFA) became the first step in the right direction but it has not managed to compensate all negative outcomes of significant migration changes in Eastern Europe over the last 8 years – primarily introduction of visa regime by new EU Member States and their accession to the Schengen zone. 

VFA contributed to some extent to certain improvement of the situation with visa issuance for the citizens of Ukraine mostly in “Old Schengen” States. At the same time the Agreement has not yet turned into efficient instrument capable of compensating negative outcomes of Schengen zone expansion for the majority of Ukrainian citizens traveling to EU Member States. De facto there is a lack of mechanisms of direct action as consulates continue to apply instructions that either ignore certain provisions of the Agreement or interpret its ambiguous provisions not to the benefit of Ukrainian applicants. 

Organizers of the research expect that the problems revealed during the research will become the subject for discussion at the meetings of Joint Expert Committee on Implementation of VFA between Ukraine and the EU as well as for the political dialogue and cooperation on justice and home affairs between Ukraine and the EU.