Russia and Finland have many common ground. These are trade relations, and a wide land border, and a century-long historical period when Finland was part of the Russian Empire. All these factors make Finland a very interesting country. In neighboring Karelia, a large number of people who have family ties with Finns live, so one cannot do without the Consulate of Finland in Petrozavodsk. In addition, its proximity to the Russian Federation significantly increases the demand for tourist visits.
Finnish Consulate in Petrozavodsk
Karelia is not the main representative office of this country in Russia, but only its branch in Petrozavodsk, so its scope is somewhat limited. The Consulate General of Finland is located in St. Petersburg.
The main task of the Petrozavodsk representative office is to issue visas to Russian citizens living in Karelia. Karelia borders on Finland, most of the visits to this EU country are made from here, so it was decided to open a separate consulate here, which will regulate visa issues for residents of Karelia.
Features of work
The Consulate of Finland in Petrozavodsk serves only the interests of the residents of this subject of the Russian Federation. If you do not have a permanent or temporary registration on the territory of the Republic of Karelia, then you will not be served at this consulate, but will be redirected to another one.
An exception is possible only if you manage to prove that you live in Karelia without having a local residence permit. In practice, such cases almost never happen.
The Finnish representation works both by appointment and directly with those citizens who decide to visit the representation without prior arrangement. We advise you to make an appointment in advance, it is more convenient to do it by phone, which can be found on the official website of the representative office. Do not waste time - do not email in the hope that you will be put in a queue, it is better to immediately dial the organization's working phone number.
Services
The list of services provided by the Consulate of Finland in Petrozavodsk is rather limited. No work is carried out here to regulate Russian-Finnish relations, and legal assistance is not provided to Finns living or staying in Russia. All such questions are redirected to the St. Petersburg Consulate General of Finland. Petrozavodsk only accepts applications and issues visas to residents of the Karelian Republic.
Here they issue only a visa to Finland. The consulate in Petrozavodsk does not issue visas for other countries, as it happens in the representations of someother states where, by mutual agreement, it is allowed to obtain not only a visa of the country that owns the consulate, but also some others.
Otherwise, the work of this branch is no different from the activities of other representative offices of Finland in the Russian Federation.
Conclusion
The Consulate of Finland in Petrozavodsk is a small branch of the general representation. It was created purposefully to relieve the St. Petersburg consulate from numerous visa applications.
Every year more than a million Russian tourists come to Finland, most of them are from Karelia. Thanks to the work of the Petrozavodsk consulate of Finland, it is possible to successfully process many visa applications submitted by Russian citizens. The high-quality work of the branch increases the interest of Russians in shopping and recreation in Finland, which can be easily seen by looking at the statistics, which indicate an increase in demand for this trendy tourist destination.
