On October 6, the consular department of the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Moscow and Cyprus Consulate in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Krasnodar resumed after a week break the acceptance of documents from citizens of the Russian Federation for a Cyprus visa. By
data
Tourdom
, by nine in the morning in Moscow on Povarskaya, 9, about 150 people gathered. An hour later, the machine that removes fingerprints could not withstand the stress and broke. At this appointment of visitors was completed.
What has changed?
Recall that from October 6, the rules for receiving a Cyprus visa have changed for Russians over 12 years old. In addition to a standard set of documents, you need fingerprints and a biometric scan of the face. This means that a person will need to personally come to the consulate - travel agencies will not help.
However, there are only four Cyprus consulates in Russia. In Krasnodar, they have not yet introduced the surrender of biometrics, but it will not work out remotely to send documents remotely. That is, residents of other cities of Russia will have to come for Cyprus visas to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Krasnodar.
What is the situation?
According to Tourdom, in Moscow, the list of people who wanted to get to the Cyproses of Cyprus began to be compiled in the evening of Sunday. Soon the first scandal arose: 10 people were present, and they entered 27. "For money?" -someone suspected.
“There should be only physically standing people in the queue, and not those who signed up and left in the evening,” demanded another and offered to make a roll call at one in the morning: they say, who is not, we will cross out.
- Here I am a resident of Kaliningrad. Because of the new rules, I cannot go through the agent, so I’m flying to Moscow and right now on an airplane! At one in the morning, of course, I will not in place, - the third was indignant.
By nine in the morning of Monday, an impressive crowd gathered at the entrance. But everything went wrong as planned. The consul called on its list by departure dates: in the end, those who have departure from October 7 to 20 were in the forefront.
At 10:10 stood in line they reported that the reception was over today because the apparatus for removing fingerprints has broken. In an hour and 10 minutes, only about 40 people were able to get into the Cyprus consulate.
By 15:00 there were already 189 applicants on the new list. They were appointed curators who will be on duty at night and include brand new ones. For this on the morning of October 7, curators will be able to go first. If the consul does not amend its amendments.
- I arrived at 21:30 Sunday and waited all night. The list was fifth and in the end did not pass. I am ready to be on duty from Wednesday for Thursday -
From nine in the evening to five in the morning, just do not remove me from the line, ”said one of the tourists.
How did Cyrus explain the innovations?
1) On October 12, an automated system of entry and departure of citizens of third countries (Entry/Exit System - EES) will be introduced on the external borders of the countries included in the Schengen zone. At the first crossing of the EU border, they will be required to provide fingerprints and biometric data of the person.
2) The Republic of Cyprus is not included in the Schengen zone, but is preparing to enter it. This, according to the Cyprus Embassy in Moscow, will require the country's authorities both to strengthen control over the entry of foreigners and bringing the procedure for issuing visas into line with general Schengen requirements.
Strokes
The issues of revising the procedure for applicants with limited mobility, employees of shipping companies and often flying specialists will be clarified in the near future. Biometry will simplify the process of travelers identifying and reduce the risk of fraud with documents. It will have to be taken once every five years. It does not increase the cost of a visa. Konsoli fee for the design of a Cyprus visa - 8800 rubles. It does not give the right to enter the Schengen zone countries. The owners of open Schengen multivisions can get to Cyprus without problems. For the first eight months of 2025, the Republic of Cyprus visited a little more than 40 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation. This is 31.8% more than in the same period last year.
