Czech Republic will be issuing five-year visas to Ukrainians

Czech Republic took unilateral measures to further simplify the visa procedure for citizens of Ukraine.

This is stated in the letter of the head of the Consular Department Pavel Pesek to the correspondent of the "ZN".

"Upon presentation of copies of previously used visas (at least one one-time short-term visa issued by any Schengen country), the applicant may apply for multiple short-term Schengen visa for one year," – the letter reads.

It was also reported that used multiple entry visa for one year provides an opportunity to apply for a visa for 2 years, and the term of next visa may be as much as 5 years.

Thus, according to the practice of the Consular Department in Kyiv, when taking the decision to grant multiple-entry visa, in most cases (90%) citizens are ganted multiple-entry visas at least for a period of 1 year, and often for a longer term of up to 5 years.

The practice of issuing short-term multiple-entry visas with a shorter term is almost never applied in the Consular Department in Kyiv.

This policy is also practiced by neighboring Slovakia. Consulates in Kyiv and Uzhgorod issue five-year visas to citizens of Ukraine with positive visa history much more often than Polish consulates.

After the first trip to the country, that issued a five-year visa (the Czech Republic or Slovakia), the multivisa owner may visit all Schengen countries, including Poland during the period of its validity.