Moscow is outraged by the US decision to classify Russians as a 'homeless' nation

Moscow is unhappy with the US decision classify Russians as "homeless" on visa issues, reports “Voice of America«.

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Russian authorities on Sunday expressed their dissatisfaction with the US decision to classify Russian citizens applying for US visas as homeless nationals who can apply for US visas in third countries.

Russian citizens are forced to apply in Warsaw (Poland) instead of their own country. After the US Embassy in Moscow stopped processing most visa applications due to the ban on hiring employees among Russians, the process of obtaining a visa in Russia became much more complicated and delayed.

On the subject: Along with Libya and Somalia: US State Department recognizes Russians as a 'homeless' nation

The US Department of State categorizes applicants as “homeless” from countries where there are no American consular offices or where consular officers cannot issue visas for political or security reasons.

Russia has become the tenth country on this list after Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants, and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, wrote on social media that for several years American diplomats have been "destroying ... the system of consular services in Russia."

“They have turned a technical procedure, commonplace for the XNUMXst century, into a real hell,” she added.

The US and Russia are in disputes about the number of diplomats they can send to each other's capitals; earlier this month, they were unable to make progress in negotiations on this issue.

In May, the Russian government recognized the United States along with the Czech Republic as "unfriendly countries"who must obtain a work permit for Russian citizens. Moscow has set the recruitment quota for Russian diplomats at zero level, which has severely reduced the number of embassy staff and its operations.

At the talks, Moscow announced its readiness to lift all restrictions imposed in recent years, and Washington said it wants parity in the number of diplomatic personnel and reciprocity of visas.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• State Department USA last week updated the list of "homeless" immigrant visa applicants to the United States of America (Homeless Nationalities). Now the Russians are also in it.
• All applications from Russian citizens will now be considered US Embassy in Warsaw (Poland). Applications from citizens of Belarus are also considered there.
• On April 30, it became known that the United States stopped issuing visas in Moscow, after which Russians have nowhere else to get visas. The embassy tried several times to resume work, but due to the fact that the United States had to lay off 182 Russian employees, there were large delays in processing applications.
• Earlier USA closed their consulate in Vladivostok, and the diplomatic mission in Yekaterinburg stopped serving US citizens and stopped issuing visas.

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