| 21 December 2007 Moldovan citizens will be able to apply for Schengen visas at the Single EU Visa Issuing Centre opened at the Chisinau-based Hungarian embassy starting from 21 December 2007. "Starting from 21 December 2007, the Single EU Visa Issuing Centre will work as representation of the Schengen area. Thus, the Hungarian consulate will be empowered to issue visas for Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia which are to soon join the centre. Starting from this day, it will no longer be necessary to send documents to these states or that their consuls come to Chisinau, as it has happened by now," Mihaly Bayer, Ambassador of Hungary in Moldova specified. The diplomat said that currently the embassy is preparing its consular service so that it runs in line with the Schengen requirements. At the same time, in order to ensure a high level of services provided to the Centre, the diplomatic mission will increase the number of employees and in March 2008, it will kick off the construction of two new desks in the consular section. Bayer also said that the centre is getting ready to cope with a bigger number of visa applications once the Moldova-EU agreement on the issuance of visas enters into force on 1 January 2008. The Hungarian diplomat recalled that under the document, 16 categories of citizens will submit less visa documents and will be exempted from the visa fee. At the same time, certain categories of people will benefit from long-term multi-entrance visas. The Single EU Visa Issuing Centre was opened in Chisinau on 25 April 2007 and was the first of the kind in Europe.
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