Results of the public study of visa policy of Consulate General of the Republic of Poland and Consulate General of the Czech Republic were presented in Lviv

Within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Consortium of Public Organizations “Europe Without Barriers”, NGO “Lviv Legal Society” presented the results of a public study of visa policy of consular institutions of the Republic of Poland and of the Czech Republic, located in Lviv, in 2008-2009.

The aim of the study was to determine in detail the level of ease of getting visas to EU countries for Ukrainian citizens and the level of onerousness of visa procedure.

Visa policies of the European Union countries were the object of the study, in particular, the state of fulfillment of the Agreement between Ukraine and the EU on simplification of issuance of visas by the Republic of Poland’s and the Czech Republic’s consular institutions, located in the city of Lviv.

Ukrainian citizens’ evaluations of visa process in consular institutions of the Republic of Poland and the Czech Republic in Lviv were the subject of the study.

The results of the research showed that the effect of the corresponding agreement partially improved a rather tight visa situation and processing of Ukrainian citizens’ applications; however, on the other hand, the agreement also aroused numerous technical problems in implementation of its provisions and created possibilities for various interpretations and, sometimes, for abuse, and enabled existence of new myths.

Unfortunately, this agreement has not yet become an effective and quality instrument for ensuring implementation of the right for movement for citizens of Ukraine. Improvement of conditions for introduction of visa-free regime has more likely become a component of political discussions and speculations, a topic for expression of completely opposite positions and commentaries, which are partially characterized by lack of basic understanding of the problem.

For more details on the results of the study, please see here.

The study was conducted under the general management and according to a methodology of Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy (city of Kyiv) within the framework of the public initiative “Europe Without Barriers”.

Fulfillment of the study has become possible under the support of the European Program of the International Renaissance Foundation, within the framework of the project “Expert study of visa policy of consular institutions of the Republic of Poland and of the Czech Republic, located in the city of Lviv”.

Time periods for running field stage of the study: July 10-17, 2009 – near the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland (5, Smilyvykh St., city of Lviv); August 10-25, 2009 – near the Consulate General of the Czech Republic (130, Antonovycha St., city of Lviv).

Citizens of Ukraine, who underwent the entire process of getting a visa themselves — from submission of documents to receipt of a decision, were the universe of the study.

The survey was done according to a method of spontaneous, disproportional, stratified and systematical sample. The study applies cluster sampling, based on random selection of respondents. Randomness means that all potential respondents (visitors of a consulate) have equal chances to be polled; also, this approach will enable real statistical analysis of obtained data.

			Daryna Nakonechna, European Program Project Coordinator tel: +380 (44) 461 9500 | fax: +380 (44) 486 0166 email: nakonechna@irf.kiev.ua office: Kyiv, Bekhterevsky Lane, 13-a, room 5