Leszek Szerepka: You need to be fully confident to give a 5-year visa to so
Such long-term visas can be given only to the people whose future is known to the Polish Consulate.
3 or 5-year multiple-entry visas can be given today, but it happens rarely. Polish Ambassador Leszek Szerepka has explained to Euroradio that such “long-term” visas can only be given to the people the consulate is sure of.
Leszek Szerepka: “Nobody knows what a person will be doing in 3 or 5 years. If a bishop comes to us, I can give him a 3 or 5-year visa because I know that he will be a bishop all his life. There will be no problems. However, when a person having a good visa history is not sure what he will be doing in 3 or 5 years comes to us, it is a more complicated issue: on what grounds should we give a long-term visa to him?”
According to the Ambassador, the Polish Consulate gives visas for longer terms than it is indicated in questionnaires. Diplomats are trying to be balanced: to help people without violating the law. Furthermore, an entrepreneur with a 5-yera visa may encounter problems at the border if his becomes unemployed in two years.
The full interview will be published on the website in Zmitser Lukashuk’s author’s column “Ticklish questions”.
