The Ministry of Justice of Armenia is studying the activities of the  Turkish-Russian   "Vizametrik" JSC

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Justice of Armenia, on its own initiative, has begun to study the conformity of the activities of  Visametrik JSC which will handle visa  applications from the German Embassy, the RA Law on the Protection of  Personal Data.

Such a need, as the Armenian Ministry of Justice explains, arose in connection with the concern of the citizens of Armenia over the fact that "Visametrik" JSC is a Russian-Turkish consortium headquartered in Turkey. RA citizens are afraid that their personal data will be placed at the disposal of the Turkish side by means of JSC Visametrik.  In this regard, the Armenian Ministry of Justice intends to carefully monitor the activities of JSC Visametrik in order to prevent violations of the law on its part, especially in the process of processing information about the personal data of Armenian citizens. The Ministry of Justice promises that it will periodically notify citizens of Armenia about the activities of JSC Visametrik.

Note that since April 3 of this year, Armenian citizens will have to apply for a Schengen visa for a visit to Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden, not to the German Embassy in Armenia, but to the special center "VisaMetrik". This was reported Ambassador Matthias Kiesler. Speaking about the company "VisaMetrik", the diplomat said that she is a Russian-Turkish consortium, whose head office is in Turkey. At the same time, the diplomat stressed that the company was selected on a strict competitive basis, taking into account objective criteria. The competition was held for the  South Caucasus region as a whole, and not for a single Armenia. The Center also operates in Central Asia. The ambassador hastened to reassure the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, when submitting applications and activities of the center, the rules and standards of safety will be strictly observed. "The Armenian office will be headed by a citizen of Armenia, the employees will also be citizens of Armenia, no personal information can get into third parties," the diplomat assured. At the same time, he stressed that the processing of applications and the decision to grant a visa will continue to be in the prerogative of the German embassy. Explaining the reasons for the innovations, the diplomat noted that, in view of the large number of appeals to the diplomatic mission, queues accumulated for obtaining visas. The citizens had to wait 6-8 weeks to receive an answer. "After the cooperation with VisaMetrick, waiting time will be reduced to 48 hours, the quality of services will improve," the diplomat said. It is expected that after the transition to the new system it will be possible to increase the number of applications twice. The center's services will cost the citizens of Armenia 20 euros.