Citizens of the 27 European Union member states and of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland may soon be able to travel to another country with only an e-visa. As Russia is planning to expand its e-visa program the country is looking forward to including the 27 EU countries and the four non-EU Schengen members.

The Russian Federal Security Service will launch a new e-visa system that will make it possible to apply through an app on any electronic gadgets. The system will be ready as of January 1, 2021.

Currently, the Russian e-visa is valid only for the nationals of a few selected countries. However, soon nationals of several other world countries will be eligible for one, including China, Japan and South Korea.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States citizens will not benefit from this visa program.

The exclusion of the citizens of these countries comes due to tensed relations that Russia has had recently with the three, following the annexation of Crimea, the Syrian conflict and the chemical attack on a former Russian spy in UK which the latter blames on Russian agents.

The e-visa is expected to come into force on January 21. It will be available for those wishing to travel to Russia for purposes as business, tourism, sports, cultural, scientific and technological.

Previously, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism Zarina Doguzova said that at first visas will be single entry and valid for at least fourteen days.

“I will lift the veil of secrecy here, it might be even longer is the Russian President supports us. But, generally, we are talking about at least increasing it from eight to fourteen (days) for sure,” Doguzova said.

According to her, though there is not a fee for this visa for the moment, later the fee may be about 50€.