From 60 to 80 euros, pandemic costs visas

“Services, including the documents we've arranged, stamps or style, translations, about 150 euros, have been made. Then we had my fingerprints paid, which cost me 20 euros, and today I'm paying 6 euros for the withdrawal of the visa. I have a family reunion. It means my husband's there and I have to go. If we're considering that I'm unemployed, I've had zero opportunities to pay. But all these expenses have been covered by the husband”, Kryeziu told Radio Free Europe.

Based on information reflected on the website of most embassies in Pristina, of countries belonging to the Schengen area, since February last year, the security of the Schengen visa for Kosovo citizens has been expensive from 60 to 80 euros.

Bashkim Hashan, representative of the insurance company Elsing, tells Radio Free Europe that even the insurance prices required for obtaining visas have been set up. According to him, a month-long insurance has been 20 euros and is now 25. The price for a 90-day insurance has been 60 to 65 euros, already stands at 75 euros.

If we go with month insurance, app and photos, these three are 35 euros. If there is anything to translate, it depends on the document on what a page is 10 euros. If there are more pages, then the price goes up. If we even calculate the application within the embassy, this application is 100 euros. In all embassies it's linear. So a minimum is 150 euros in expenses. There's too much in our terms. With an average salary of 200 to 250 euros, you have to calculate that you do not eat or drink at all. This is horror”, Elshani said.

Gazmend Rama from Fushe Kosova has applied for visa jobs, as has the Embassy in Slovenia. The services for visa-taking application are being done at the Centre for visa application VFS Global, which provides visa services for Slovenia, Croatia, Norway, Austria, Finland, Sweden... The payment of the use of services of this centre is 27 euros.

Rama estimates that an average Kosovo salary is spent to reach the visa, and until travel to the Slovenian state.

Some 200 to 250 euros are needed to start and get there. So for documents and roads. If they do not issue the visa, 200 euros are in vain”, Rama says.

Additional services increase spending
Insurance company representative Elsing Bashkim Hashani says working visas require more services, but document claims as well.

“The only difference in the labour visa documentation lies in whether to confirm certain other documents should be made in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (of Kosovo). So, court testimony, police confirmation, pension trust. All of this must be sealed (with a stamp) even in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There, any stamping of documents costs 10 euros, plus bank 1 euro. It means 11 euros for a document. They must be translated and each (translated) document costs 10 euros. For a work visit, if it goes in regular procedure, approximately 200 euros --” -- Hashan relates.

The embassies of European Union countries, including those in the Schengen area, which are in Kosovo, continue to provide travel visas to those countries for most categories, besides travel to tourism. It is similar with the German Embassy, the country in which they live and work a large part of the Kosovo diaspora.

Based on information reflected on the German Embassy's website in Pristina, visas to travel to this state are issued for Kosovo citizens targeting the family union, for business, visas for students, as well as for certain emergency cases. But tourist visas are currently not issued by the German Embassy, nor by most EU countries' embassies in Pristina.

But the exception does Croatia's Embassy, which provides visas for tourism, but that this EU country is not part of the Schengen zone.

For visas have applied 5 members of the family of a Pristina citizen, who was introduced with the initials D.K. He told Radio Free Europe that they have traveled to Croatia before, but did not need the visa application services because visas were obtained through the tourist agencies he has travelled with.

But since the announcement of pandemic, it does suggest that visas are more expensive. Only one person's services, for visa applications at the VFS Global, according to him, cost 99 euros. For five members of his family, these services have cost 495 euros.

“Plus additional documentation to be adjusted to the city where you live. Suppose you live in Pristina, you also need documents from the bank, from ATK, birth certificates. With all the agency's services, plus another 100 euros,”, the citizen from Pristina stressed.
These amounts of money Kosovo citizens spend on visa application services to travel to EU countries do not account for the expenses of guarantees their relatives provide in respective states.

Otherwise, the average net salary in most employees in Kosovo, according to AKS data, is between 400 and 500 euros per month.

Kosovo continues to be the only country in the Western Balkans, which has not yet been approved visa liberalisation, despite meeting the criteria set by the European Union.

The decision on this issue is stalled because of the scepticism that countries like France and the Netherlands have shown.