Information that Ukrainian citizens are to leave their internal passports and/or other documents as guarantee so to obtain a Schengen visa at some consulates of European Union member states in Ukraine is untrue, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said.
"Our European partners confirmed that the said information does not have any grounds," the director of the consulate service department at the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, Andriy Olefirov, told Interfax-Ukraine this week.
He said that reacting to the said media reports, the Foreign Ministry urgently held consultations with ambassadors of some EU member states accredited in Ukraine and a meeting with heads of the consulate departments of Spanish, Italian, German and French embassies.
"Guiding by requirements of the EU Visa Code and national laws, a top priority task of the consulate departments of the Schengen zone countries is to make sure that the purpose of stay of a certain citizen in the European Union answers the real purpose," Olefirov said.
He said that those who want to obtain permanent residence or get a job in the European Union are to obtain a national visa, not Schengen visa, according to which the term of staying in the Schengen zone state is not to exceed 90 days during 180 days. Foreigners who are planning to visit relatives in France are to apply for visas to the French consulate.
"Consulates use the said logics when demanding to present certain documents. Requirements of some consulates on registration after arrival to Ukraine are linked to this. However, according to official information of consulates of the above-mentioned countries, the procedure is allowed by their national laws," he said.
The Ukrainian ministry was assured that the registration is demanded only in exceptional circumstances when there are justifiable doubts that certain persons are really planning to return from the European Union to Ukraine after the Schengen visas expire.
"As a rule, this concerns a small number of citizens who plan to obtain Schengen visas for the first time," the diplomat added.
