Visas are issued for about 90% of all visas applications to the Embassy of Belgium in Russia. Most of the visa rejections are due to falsifications of documents by dishonest intermediaries. These falsifications are immediately reported to the other Embassies of the Schengen Area. Visa rejections come from the Immigration Service in Brussels, not from the Embassy.

In many cases, the applicant is of good faith and doesn’t know that his/her documents were forged. For the sake of comfort or because he is misinformed, the applicant entrusted his visa application to an agent (often a travel agency) which falsified documents, for example by signing the application instead of the applicant or by including a forged invitation letter in the file. Applicants sometimes pay significant amounts of money to agents, whereas the visa fee should not be exceed: 35 euros for consular fee plus 900 rubles commission fee of the Visa Centre and in case of emergency minor expenses for documents courier delivery. In such a case a visa application can be rejected, whereas in case of personal submission and proper preparation of the documents, the applicant would have probably obtained the visa.
Sometimes, applicants do not even know that their application was submitted at the Belgium Embassy while they intended to travel to another destination.

In order to avoid a visa rejection, the Embassy of Belgium recommends:

• To fill the application form and to sign it personally. A forged signature or any other false information is a reason for rejection.


• To prepare the documents for applying the visa personally – this is not as burdensome as it seems to be – while filing only authentic and complete documents. A forged invitation letter, if an invitation is required – is also a reason for rejection.


• To apply for a visa at the Belgium Embassy only if Belgium is the main destination of your trip.


• To plan your trip early enough date, in order to collect all the necessary documents and to submit your application in time.


• In case the applicant used the services of a courier or travel agency, the applicant should insist that the documents should be submitted in the way they were handed by the applicant to the courier or travel agency and should firmly refuse to pay any fee that greatly exceeds the normal amount for a file processing and courier service. In any case, Visa Application Centre accepts applications by mail. Moreover, it is much cheaper to apply at the Visa Application Centre directly. When the Visa section has negative operational experience with several agents, visa applications submitted through these agents are subject to closer scrutiny.