Yerevan /Mediamax/. Starting from April 3, the applications for Schengen visa for Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, and Sweden will be accepted not by the German Embassy in Yerevan, but by VisaMetric, a Russian-Turkish consortium.

This change concerns the entire process of admission, exchange and return of applications and documents for Schengen visa. VisaMetric will charge EUR 20 for each application.

German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler has answered the question from Mediamax regarding the change, saying:

“VisaMetric is a Russian-Turkish consortium with the holding company based in Turkey. This company has years of experience in providing individual service. VisaMetric took part in the tendering and won in several regions, including Central Asia and South Caucasus.”

The ambassador has stressed that location of the company had no influence on the results of the tendering.

“The tendering concerned not only Armenia, but the whole region. As for the reservations about security of personal data, I assure that it is of utmost importance to us and we can guarantee that no piece of information will reach users outside of the system. The local office will be run by an Armenian representative and the staff will consist of Armenian citizens exclusively,” said Kiesler.

He has informed that the decisions on visas will be made by the employees of the Federal Foreign Office of German, as previously.

There will be no changes for national visas and other consular issues. Only the German embassy will deal with them.

VisaMetric Representative & Project Coordinator in Armenia Elvira Bazirova has stated that the company intends to open similar centers in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and China.

The embassy’s visa section attaché Alexander Barthold has noted that the number of applications will double as a result of this change.

“We will focus on the issues purely in embassy’s jurisdiction, such as examination of the applications and decision making,” he said.

Barthold has also stated that the German Embassy in Armenia received 15,200 applications for Schengen visa in 2017 and issued around 14,000 visas. The share of denied visas made 7.8%.

“Now the applicants will be able to follow the progress of their visas online. They can also return their passports via post service. The applicants can use paid services in center as well, such as copying, translations, and passport photos,” he noted.