"To get a multiple-entry visa, you need to submit a passport and a visa application form with a new photo of the person where he lives," said the consul general, noting that citizens who do not reside in the Kyiv consular district will only receive single-entry visas from the Polish Consulate General in Kyiv.
The consul general explained these innovations by the heavy workload of Polish consular offices in Ukraine, the desire to "ease queues" and the gradual introduction of Schengen principles. Under the new rules, residents of Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, and Vinnytsia oblasts can receive multiple-entry visas in Kyiv. Residents of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Poltava, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts will be able to receive multiple-entry visas at the Polish Consulate General in Kharkiv. Residents of Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, and Zakarpattia oblasts must submit documents to the consulate in Lviv to obtain multiple-entry visas. Residents of Rivne, Volyn, and Zhytomyr oblasts - in Lutsk, and residents of Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa oblasts, and Crimea - at the Polish Consulate General in Odesa.
Sylwester Szostak also announced the introduction, as of May 1 of this year, of new requirements for photographs attached to documents for obtaining Polish visas. According to him, the new photographs must meet the requirements of the Schengen Agreement. The photographs must be color, clear, clean, and contrasty, printed on high-quality paper and on a light background; they must have been taken within the last six months before submitting the documents. According to the consul general, visa application forms with photographs that do not meet these requirements will not be accepted.
Answering a question from a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency about the timing of Poland's entry into the Schengen zone, Sylwester Szostak said: "It is planned that this will happen in the second half of next year." "The agreement between Ukraine and Poland on the visa regime exists and will remain until our entry into Schengen," the consul noted. "The clause of this agreement that visas for Ukrainian citizens are free will also remain until our entry into Schengen."
Based on materials from Interfax-Ukraine.