Wednesday, January 10, 2007

No New Diplomatic Missions in Macedonia

Sofia. Opening offices for issuing Bulgarian visas in other Macedonian towns is not possible, the director of Consular Relations Directorate in Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Dr. Ivan Sirakov said in an interview for Focus Agency.
Last week there were statements that Strumica, Stip and Kriva Palanka demanded offices for Bulgarian visas because Bitolja and Skopje were too far away.
“We would like to help Macedonians but still we consider it is not possible to open new offices for now,” Ivan Sirakov stated.
He explained that the services of a consulate were under a special control and implementation regime. The visa documents are processed and issued by a closed visa control system, the embassy in Skopje and the consulate general in Bitolja being part of it. The system has a user regime, which restricts the number of officials who have access to it. Moreover, the process of taking fingerprints will start soon, which also requires high security and control. I do not think such conditions could be established in new offices because considerable financing and extra personnel are required, Sirakov concluded.

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