The Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg, whose address is Preobrazhenskaya Square, 4, is doing a lot of work on issuing visa permits. Every year, at least a million different documents pass through the hands of its employees. Almost all applications for travel to Finland are resolved in a positive way, the rejection rate is extremely small, usually not exceeding one. This indicator is the smallest of all Schengen states.
Visa to Finland (St. Petersburg) through the consulate
The visa application process at the Finnish consulate has one of the most simplified forms. Finland is clearly interested in the flow of tourists from Russia constantly increasing, and the country's economy only benefits from this. Tourists bring significant profits to Finnish hotels, shops, cottages, as well as entertainment and recreation.
To apply for a tourist visa at the Consulate of Finland in St. Petersburg, in addition to a passport and medical policy, you must provide a completed application form with a photograph. And also it should be confirmed: the purpose of the visit, the place of stop in Finland and the availability of the necessary funds for the tourist. The traveling passport must have at least two blank pages. Its validity period must exceed the date of return from a trip by at least three months. If you have a previous passport with a permit obtained earlier, it should also be presented to consular officers.
Features of filling out visa documentation
The Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg puts forward the requirement to fill out the questionnaire only in Latin, it is allowed to use the Russian language using transliteration. Both manual and computer filling of the application form is acceptable, but the tourist must sign it. The form for a minor can be filled in, except by parents, by third parties, and it must be signed by a guardian or by one of the parents.
A tourist can confirm a place of residence in Finland by submitting a hotel reservation. If you plan to stop at a private trader, you must present a document from the owner of the home, a lease or a letter with the intention to provide the tourist with housing. The tourist purpose of the visit can be confirmed by a tourist policy or a program of a planned trip. In the latter case, a ticket reservation should be presented. The minimum cash coverage for tourist visa insurance for Finland is thirty thousand euros, which meets the Schengen requirements.
The insurance should begin immediately after sending a package of documents for applying for a visa to the Consulate of Finland in St. Petersburg , and it should be distributed throughout the Schengen territory. The insurance company must be accredited at the Embassy of Finland. You cannot fill out the policy by hand.
Financial solvency can be confirmed by a certificate, which indicates the size of the tourist's bank account or wages at work. In the case of the presentation of a sponsorship letter, the availability and viability of the sponsor should be documented.
Clearance procedure
To obtain an exit permit yourself, you must contact the Finnish Consulate in St. Petersburg directly or the visa center located there. In the case of residence in other regions, it is also acceptable to contact consular officers in cities such as Moscow, Murmansk, Petrozavodsk, Yekaterinburg, etc.
Some firms offer intermediary visa services. The submission of a package of documents is necessarily accompanied by the execution of consent to the processing of personal information, as regulated by Russian law. The registration procedure includes the selection of the necessary type of visa and the preparation of the appropriate package of documents.
It should be remembered that an appointment at the Consulate of Finland in St. Petersburg, as well as at any other selected department or visa center, is made in advance.
Then, at the appointed time, you should come to submit documents. After an appropriate waiting period, you can pick up a visa and passport. In some cases, the applicant may be called for an interview in order to clarify some issues regarding travel to Finland.
About the timing
It is advisable to make an appointment with the consulate one month before the planned visit.
The term for processing documents for departure is fourteen days. In fact, a passport with a visa is issued even earlier than this period. In exceptional cases, the verification time may be extended. The exact date can be specified on the corresponding website.