The Norwegian Embassy in Ankara intend to make visa procedures easier for persons travelling to Norway for business purposes
18/03/2008 ::
As the only Nordic country, Norway does not have the possibility to issue Norwegian Schengen visas in Istanbul. We are aware that this does make it particularly difficult for persons intending to travel to Norway for business purposes. As the ambassador of Norway to Turkey, I am not happy with this situation. Therefore, we intend to make visa procedures easier for persons travelling to Norway for business purposes. We are currently implementing the visa facilitating program “Business Express Program”. By this, we want to help the business community to obtain Norwegian Schengen visas efficiently and quickly for employees who are visiting Norway for 90 days or less, on company business. Membership in this program will mean that the Embassy will weawer the requirement for personal appearance at the Embassy in Ankara. Only exceptionally should it be necessary for the Embassy to require an applicant to meet in person at the Embassy. Members of this program will be able to send the application with necessary documents by post to the Embassy. The Embassy will process the application within 2-3 working days.
The Business Express Program was implemented the 1st of September 2007.
We have introduced this program in order to assist the business community. However, we do need you to take responsibility for your part of the cooperation agreement. Please ensure that applicants from your company are properly informed as to what documents they need to submit in order to get a visa. The details of the program are listed below.
Who can qualify for the program?
When your company has received written confirmation from the Embassy that your company is included in the BEP, the following persons might qualify for the program:
Employees in your company travelling to Norway for business purposes for 90 days or less.
Spouses of employees in your company travelling with the employee when the visit is primarily for business purposes.
Employees in your company must be going for short term business activities that do not contravene the Norwegian work permit requirements.
What are the application procedures under the Business Express Program?
Employees in your company should submit by post the following documents to the Visa section of the Norwegian Embassy in Ankara:
o A personally signed and fully completed application form.
o Passport with a validity exceeding that of the visa by 3 months and copy of the passport
o Copy of previous passport, used Schengenvisas in particular
o Two photographs on white background
o Receipt of paid caseprocessing fee; the business C-visa handling fee is 115 YTL. Must be paid in advance to the Embassy’s account – Garanti Bank, Tunali Hilmi, account number 107/1299382.
o Documentation of travel and health insurance. Must cover all Schengen countries and have a coverage og minimum 30 000 Euro. Please note that the insurance will have to be valid for 1 more day than your returndate.
o Guarantee letter of the applicants company stating the position of the applicant and the travel purpose.
o Applicants SSK-number
o Original invitation letter from the receiving company in Norway
All documents should be sent together in 1 envelope marked “Business Express Program” to the Embassy.
Please note that the applicant will have to pay the cargo-expenses.
The Embassy reserves the right to make random checks as to whether individual applicants have complied with the terms of their visa. If your company or one of your personnel is found to have abused the Business Express Program, regrettably, the Embassy will have to consider removing your company from this preferantial programme.
If you wish to register your company to the Business Express Program, please fill in the attached form and send it with the necessary documents to:
Visa attaché
Kristina Mørk Bjørvik
Royal Norwegian Embassy Ankara
Kirkpinar sokak no. 18
06540 Cankaya,
Ankara
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The Embassy looks forward to a good cooperation with your company and we hope that you will find this new procedure to be helpful to your business cooperation with Norway.
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Regards
Cecilie Landsverk
Ambassador