Spivs dominate at Polish consulate in Lviv. Lines of visa applicants are 100 m long. Photo

Previous Next

On the morning of June 11 the line of applicants included up to 100 persons. 
For Olena Turchyn, 29, it was her 5th day in the line. She had to come to the consulate every day to see how her line moved. Olena is a doctor at a local emergency hospital, going to Poland for training.
 “Something very weird is going on near the consulate. No one tries to organize visa applicants. There are only spivs around. Yesterday the line moved by 30 persons although the consulate reported that 500 visas had been issued. It means that there’s corruption in the consulate. The guards let in only those who gave bribes, while a girl whose mother is in reanimation ward in Poland had to wait several days,” Olena complained.  
Earlier, there were no lines near the consulate – thanks to the computerized system, with applicants getting registered by the Internet. Then they used to come to the consulate on the appointed day and got their visas. Regretfully, the system was broken up a year ago.

The system was badly protected and was destroyed, allegedly purposefully, by hackers, Polish officials say. 

Anyway, the blame for the lines goes to the Lviv authorities who refuse to beef up security to deal with spivs.