Registration for filing documents for obtaining a Schengen visa by Russian citizens has become more complicated due to the spread of special bots that interfere with slots and demand 4–7.5 thousand rubles for them. newspaper reports “Kommersant” with reference to the participants of the tourism market.
Yulia Otvagina, vice president of visa and immigration department at Continent Express, said these robots book all vacancies on the visa centers’ website, repeating the search task every minute, making it difficult to register.
Dmitry Gorin, vice-president of the Russian Travel Industry Association, said that the additional load from the boats added to the limited number of vacancies and increased visa demand.
According to the interlocutors of the publication, there are problems with registration, especially when applying to the visa center of France in Moscow, and visa centers of Italy and Spain. At the same time, Russians may encounter boats while applying for visas to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, the submission of documents takes six months or more.
As Kommersant found out, bot services are promoted on specialized travel forums and advertising sites, entry into French visa centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg is offered for 7.5 thousand rubles, in the regions – there for 4 thousand rubles. Similar offers on Avito. Nikita Kulikov, founder of ANO PravoRobotov, explained that custom bots are made and sold on DarkNet.
Experts advise tourists to start issuing visas six months before travel, if possible, to apply through VIP lounges in regions or visa centers.
Earlier in 2022, Russian tourists loss Travel to 37 states.