What is going on with the foreign travel permit stamp?

21/11/2007 - 12:32

While the Belarusian authorities keep promising to abolish the passport permit for foreign travel effective from the New Year, no official resolution has been issued yet. Embassies seem to be at a loss how to react and do not issue visas if passports have no stamp. OVIR (Department of Visas and Registration) refuses to put it, citing the official promises. The European Radio for Belarus has learned that the stamp will not be abolished in January.

One week ago, Aliaksei Byagun, the deputy head of the citizenship and migration department at the Interior Ministry, said in an interview with the European Radio for Belarus that there would be no permissive stamp next year. Today, he cannot confirm this information.

“The draft legislation is ready. A president’s decree will have to approve it. The president was expected to make a decision this month, but I cannot say that he will do it by the end of the month. We will know for sure in December. I can’t say by what date”.

When asked whether one can definitely count on the abolition of the permissive stamp, Aliaksei Byagun said: “Of course, not”.

Tatsyana Pachabinskaya, a staff at the Polish Embassy’s visa section, told the European Radio for Belarus that she had heard about the planned abolition of the stamp but received no official documents in this regard. It means that it is impossible to obtain a Polish visa for 2008 if you don’t have the foreign travel permit in your passport. In exclusive cases, when there is a letter of invitation, the consul would review the application and possibly issue a visa.

In the German Embassy, we were told that they worked only with the passports that have a permissive stamp. Embassy’s spokesperson Alena Lyapina is not sure that the stamp will be abolished in January.

“We accept passports with a stamp. Nobody has abolished it yet,” she said.

The Lithuanian Embassy gave the same answer. If you have a stamp valid for the next year, you will be issued a visa.

The French Embassy is the only consular mission which pays no attention to this permissive stamp. The French consular department said that based on the comments from the Interior Ministry they came to a conclusion that the stamp would be abolished soon.

“First of all, the stamp will be cancelled. Of course, I am not in the position to confirm it. Anyway, we are not interested in this stamp. We issue a visa whether the stamp is there or not. This is your problem whether border guards will let you out or not”, the French consular department said.

Belarus migration officials recommend putting a stamp valid till March 2008.

“They plan to abolish it, but I don’t know whether they will do it or not. Currently, we are told that people should get a stamp valid till March. Previously, we were told to issue stamps until the New Year. Really, I don’t know,” an OVIR inspector told the European Radio for Belarus.