Finland Times

Last year, Finnish missions abroad and the Kouvola Visa Service Centre processed a total of 1,204,948 visa applications, which is 23 per cent less than in 2013.

A total of 11,296 visa applications were rejected in Finnish embassies abroad and the number is one percent of the total applications.

During the past year, changes caused by the unfavourable economic situation in Russia led to a fall in the number of visa applications.

More than 90 per cent of all visa applications were received in Russia where Consulate General in St Petersburg in 2014 processed 914,309 visas, nearly 27 per cent less than the previous year, while embassy in Moscow processed 112,720 visas, 21 per cent less than in the previous year.

Murmansk and Petrozavodsk, two wings of the consulate general in St Petersburg, processed 47,163 and 65,323 visas respectively and the figure was also 27 per cent lower than the previous year.

Among the foreign missions, embassy in Kiev processed 13,773 applications, consulate general in Shanghai proceed 7,224, embassy in Bangkok 7,447, embassy in Beijing 7,165 and the embassy in New Delhi 6,115.