Artsiom Martynovich, Euroradio 21 September 2015, 21:25
All payments will be conducted only in Belarusian rubles. This is the new resolution of the National Bank. As a result - all visa centers of Belarus stopped working for two days, because they earlier took the visa fee in foreign currency, not in rubles.
On September 17 noon there were no queues near teh Lithuanian visa center. The staff did not know anything and suggested following the information on the center site. It only issued passports.
The same situation was at noon in the joint visa center of Danemark, Greece, Spain, Croatia and Hungary. Passports were not accepted, they did not know when they would start to take rubles for payment.
"We were supposed to submit documents yesterday's morning. But we were told that we did not have to come, describes Yulia from Minsk her trip to the Lithuanian visa center. They could not accept our papers, they did not know what to do either yesterday or today. It is advised to wait for some kind of information. "
Information appeared closer to the evening of the 17th of September. On 18 September, Lithuanian visa center accepted the documents, payment in Belarusian rubles at the rate of BelSwissBank.
"Visa Application Centre will operate from tomorrow, September 18. Payment of the consular fee will be taken at the rate of BelSwissBank," said the employee.
In the joint service center of Greece, Denmark, Spain the fee collection also is based on the BelSwissBank rate, service fee - at the rate of National Bank.
The National Bank is not going to change its decision.
"We have to ask the visa application centers, how they will solve these problems," briefly said the National Bank employee.
Earlier, the National Bank said that the decision was taken to "reduce the use of foreign currency in Belarus." At the same time, consulates can still take the money in foreign currency. But visa centers no longer can do it.
