Italy has increased the processing time for entry visas for Russian citizens by one and a half times, as officially stated in an information notice published on the website of the VMS visa center, an official partner of the Consulate General of Italy in Russia.
Representatives of the visa center explained that this decision was made due to a critically high number of applications, as a result of which document processing now takes more than 60 days.
Analysts from the Association of Tour Operators of Russia note that recently Russians could expect to receive an Italian Schengen visa within 40 days. At the same time, according to industry sources, until 2025 the standard processing time for similar Italian visas for Russian citizens was only 20 days.
Against this backdrop, the official partner of the Italian consulate strongly recommends that Russian tourists and other applicants submit documents well in advance, namely no later than three months before the planned travel date abroad.
Appointments for submitting documents in Moscow are open for mid-July, although some free slots may occasionally appear for earlier dates. Notably, despite the significant tightening of visa rules for Russians and a sharp increase in visa refusals for multiple-entry visas, Italy still continues to approve and issue visas to Russian passport holders in more than 90 percent of all cases. In particular, last year, 2025, Rome approved around 160,000 visa applications from Russian citizens.
The slowdown in diplomatic services and the increase in processing times to two months has coincided with a number of other strict restrictions introduced earlier by Rome. In May, it became known that Italian visa centers in Russia had significantly tightened the rules for accepting documents for Schengen visas. This happened shortly after the high-profile arrest of former Italy’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, Piergabriele Papadia de Bottini di Sant’Agnese. The diplomat was accused of taking large bribes to issue long-term European visas to Russian citizens based on completely falsified documents.
As an immediate response, from May 12, accredited visa centers VMS and Almaviva completely stopped accepting any documents through various commercial intermediaries. The management of the centers required all applicants without exception to appear in person when submitting documents with the original passport and a confirmed online appointment. From that moment on, Russians have been strictly prohibited from submitting documents through travel agencies, courier services, or third parties by proxy.
In parallel, in June, Finland and Sweden issued a joint official call to the European Commission and all other EU member states to further tighten overall visa policy toward Russians, linking this need to a recent attack by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.
Amid these Europe-wide discussions, Italy nevertheless remains one of the most lenient EU countries, although it has increased document processing times by one and a half times, forcing Russians to wait for their passports for more than two months.
