6 November 2003
Visa waiting lists, times now shorter at Polish consulate in Brest, officials say
The lists of those waiting for a visa at the Polish Consulate General in Brest have grown shorter, and consular officers promise that they will shorten further within this month, as the consulate opens a new building for handling visa applications.
The consulate has reportedly issued 15,000 visas since Poland introduced stricter visa requirements on October 1. As Visa Consul Alina Chernyavskaya told BelaPAN, the consular staff, working two shifts, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., have been issuing between 600 and 700 visas daily, compared with 200 to 300 in early September, when they worked one shift.
On October 29, the Belarusian foreign ministry summoned Polish Ambassador Tadeusz Pawlak to hand him an official note that urged his country's consular offices to clear the backlog of visa applications.
Waiting times have shortened as well, from two weeks in September to just five days. There are no more long lines of vehicles at Brest's border checkpoints. It now takes about an hour to complete all
customs formalities at the Zapadny Bug custom house. Nonetheless, there are no plans to reduce the number of inspectors, according to Sergei Maksimov, spokesman for the custom house. "The staff used to be overloaded with work. Now they work in a normal mode. Why should we cut the staff?" he told BelaPAN.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news478.html