Prize awarded to the one-millionth visa applicant for 2010 in St. Petersburg – and over a million visas granted

Press release 374/2010
30 December 2010

The Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg awarded a prize this afternoon to the one-millionth person to apply this year for a visa to Finland. The historic visa application was submitted for processing just before Christmas by Irina Lebedeva, a medical researcher from St. Petersburg.

Lebedeva is one of the great majority who hold a visa for multiple entry to the Schengen area. The first member of the one million club need not pay for her next visa, as the Consulate General will grant it without a fee. VR Group, in turn, has given Lebedeva a gift voucher for the Allegro high-speed train, which means she will visit Helsinki for the first time ever.

“I like being out in nature, especially fishing in winter, and I have enjoyed holidays spent, in particular, in Forssa, where I have gone from St. Petersburg to seek peace. But of course I am looking forward to my trip to Helsinki with enthusiasm,” says Lebedeva, surprised by her good fortune.

Finnish diplomatic missions abroad have had a record year for processing visas. The one million mark was also passed in the number of visas granted when the embassy in Moscow decided on Boxing Day to grant the one-millionth visa.

About 95 per cent of all visas were granted by Finland’s diplomatic missions in Russia. Of these, the leading position is clearly held by the Consulate General in St. Petersburg, where three out of four visas to Finland are written.

In December, an average of over 6,000 visa applications a day was filed at all of Finland’s diplomatic missions together. Such high figures were not seen in previous years. The record date for the Consulate General in St. Petersburg was 7 December, when as many as 8,500 visa applications were received.

Additional information: Counsellor Vesa Häkkinen, Unit for Passports and Visas of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, mobile tel. +358 40 726 1379, and Press Secretary Niko Nurminen, Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg, tel. +7-921 908 7930