Several tours to Greece were canceled due to the situation with the issuance of visas to Russian tourists. Delays in processing thousands of passport backlogs at the Greek consulate came to light last week.

The queue at the Greek visa center in Moscow on Nikitsky Boulevard. April 25, 2016 (Photo: Dmitry Ermakov/AGN “Moscow”)

Press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) Irina Tyurina said that at least two dozen clients of various tour operators were unable to fly to Greece on Wednesday because they could not obtain visas on time. In a conversation with Interfax, she admitted that due to delays in visa processing at the Greek Consulate General in Moscow, the number of canceled tours could increase significantly.

“Flights for the May holidays begin today. Each operator has several hundred passports stuck at the consulate for the coming dates. And there is no certainty that all visas will be issued in time,” Tyurina stated.

The press secretary said that this week five Pegas Tourist tourists were unable to fly from Perm to Greece. “Their passports were submitted on April 14. The operator is ready to reschedule the departure date, and the clients agree, but the fact is that there are still no passports, they still need to be “pulled out”. Some tourists still haven’t received documents submitted in the first ten days of April,” Tyurina explained.

According to the PCT representative, in order to send all tourists on vacation, “it is necessary to clear the rubble” on both the 29th and the 30th, “and all holidays in general.” However, according to the published schedule, April 29 will be a non-working day for the Consulate General, she noted. According to her, the schedule also indicates that the consulate will not work from April 30 to May 3. “Greek visa centers in Moscow will be open on May 3 to issue passports, but it is not clear what they will issue,” Tyurina concluded.

The situation with the accumulation of documents at the Greek consulate became known last week. Then the PCT stated that more than 10 thousand passports of Russians were under consideration. There were queues outside the visa center building. On Friday, April 22, the wait there was about five hours. The PCT noted that the rush was preceded by a restriction on registration for the submission of documents, which the visa center introduced from April 13-14 at the request of the consulate.

The Greek Foreign Ministry, commenting on the situation, stated that all necessary measures for the timely issuance of visas were taken and not a single trip was disrupted. This week the Association of Russian Tour Operators said that the delay in issuing visas is up to 10 days .

“For several days now, couriers from travel agencies or tourists themselves, who have flights to Greece scheduled for the next day, or even in the next few hours, have been on duty near the building of the Consulate General or at the visa center until late in the evening,” Tyurina said. She also noted that “there is clearly no systematic work at the consulate.” “The next batch of issued passports may contain documents of a tourist who flies out in two or three days, but there are no documents for those who have a flight in a few hours. There are cases when passports of minor children are issued, but there are no documents of parents,” the press secretary continued.

The PCT emphasized that tour operators submit all documents on time, and the consulate’s reproaches for late submission are “nothing more than an attempt to justify themselves.” According to the union, since April 26, the diplomatic institution has been working in emergency mode. On the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the last batch of documents was sent to the visa center at about half past one.

Tour operators reported the first disruptions of tours to Greece due to visa delays