Recently, the government started work on extending the list of countries in which foreigners may apply for visas to the minister for foreign affairs. The draft regulation was intended to lengthen this list (currently containing only Belarus) and include the following countries: Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Philippines, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates. We reported on the details of this draft here.

Nevertheless, during the Sejm’s session last Friday (7 July), the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the above draft has been withdrawn. The Government Legislation Centre’s website gives confirmation of this, as the status of the draft regulation (listed as no. 77) has already changed to “withdrawn”.