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Foreign Ministry: Demand for Latvian visas on rise in 2017 year

BC, Riga , 02.03.2018.Print version
In 2017 the demand for Latvian visas rose, said Latvian Foreign Ministry’s representatives, cites LETA.

Foreign Ministry’s state secretary Andrejs Pildegovics said that last year 171,087 visa applications were received compared to 169,301 applications in 2016. As in 2017 the visa-free regime for citizens of Georgia and Ukraine holding biometric passports came into effect, the increase in the number of visa applications suggest that interest of foreigners in Latvia has stabilized.


"An especially large rise, by 48%, in the number of visa applicants from India can be explained with the attempts of Latvian universities and vocations schools to export Latvia’s education. The number of rejections has also risen due to security and illegal migration risks," the ministry representatives said.


The ministry’s representatives said that at the end of 2017 the ministry started cooperation with VFS Global for student visa applications in India and Sri Lanka. In early 2018 the cooperation has been expanded to the Gulf countries, and in March VFS Global will start accepting visa applications in Tashkent.


In relation to other consular services, there is a rise for the services to Latvian nationals living abroad.






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