You're reading: Ukrainians can apply for visas to travel to Latvia and Estonia

Starting from December 2010, Ukrainian citizens will be able to apply for visas to travel to Latvia and Estonia not only in Kyiv, but also in regional representative offices of Pony Express Ukraine in Odesa, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Simferopol, Lviv, Latvian Ambassador to Ukraine Atis Sjanits has said.

According to Sjanits, for the first time in many years Ukrainians have the possibility to submit applications to receive a short-term Shengen visa to travel to Latvia and Estonia not only at embassies in Kyiv, but also in a range of other Ukrainian cities. According to him, this became possible due to the realization of a joint project of Pony Express, an international courier company, and the Embassies of Latvia and Estonia for remote registration of Shengen visas.

"Now people do not need to go to Kyiv, [they] can submit applications at home… In a sense this is a revolution. Ukraine is a very large country," the ambassador said.

Estonian Ambassador to Ukraine Jaan Hein described the realization of this project as "a good example of pragmatism," as not having to go to Kyiv will save the time and funds of Ukrainians. He said the realization of the project with the Estonian Embassy would start on December 15.

The ambassador noted that this is only an additional service and anybody who wants to receive visa in the embassy in Kyiv can still do this.

Speaking about the terms of application registration, head of visa service department at Pony Express Ukraine Tetiana Turchanovych said that the company receives documents from Ukrainians, checks them, and on the next day sends them to the embassy via express delivery. According to her, clients can monitor the whole process of documents delivery on their own. The term of documents registration taking into account two days for delivery is seven working days. The cost of the service is Hr 300.