Germany will continue to issue visas to Russian citizens

The German authorities do not plan to completely stop processing and issuing visas for Russian citizens. A European diplomatic source told Izvestia about this on Friday, October 9.

"Germany has no plans to impose a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians," the source said.

Germany tightened its visa policy in November 2025, when the EU effectively abolished the possibility of issuing multiple-entry Schengen visas to Russians. Berlin has explicitly stated that it intends to adhere to the recommendations of the European Union. According to the German Foreign Ministry, since the beginning of 2026, the agency has approved only 23.7 thousand Schengen visas for Russian citizens. In 2025, Berlin issued about 31 thousand such documents. The ministry separately emphasizes that this amount does not exceed 5% of the total number of visas that Russians receive in all countries of the Schengen area.

At the moment, no new official decisions have been taken that could change the procedure for issuing Schengen visas to Russian tourists. The issue of reviewing the visa policy for Russian citizens is included in the draft conclusions of the European Council. The meeting of the body is scheduled to take place in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, October 15-16, but so far it is only about the draft document.

So far, there is no talk of stopping the issuance of visas to Russian citizens, only restrictions are being discussed. The Russian Union of Travel Industry, in a comment to Interfax, also does not expect a complete cessation of the issuance of European visas.

Reception facilities: Russia and Indonesia are preparing to simplify the visa regime

The number of trips by citizens of the two countries continues to grow

"We do not expect Europe to leave the tourism industry. Rather, we may be talking about changing the terms, cost, and procedure for processing documents. The demand for European destinations remains, therefore, for tour operators, the key issue will not be the very fact of discussing new measures, but their specific content," explained PCT expert Mikhail Abasov.

Earlier, on September 30, it became known that Russia and Indonesia are preparing to simplify the visa regime. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the two countries are working on a draft intergovernmental agreement on the mutual abolition of visa requirements, which is associated with the growing number of trips by citizens of the two countries.