Hurricane "OVIR" struck at Zvartnots
This is what I understood from the first-hand account I heard. Excuse me if I got any of it wrong.
Yesterday, passengers departing at the lovely hour of 4:50am were informed that, the previous evening at 10pm it had been decided that OVIR (Armenia's visa department) would not be open at the airport anymore, and that extensions would have to be acquired in Yerevan, at the disgusting mess of a run-down office building, with lines like a herd of wilderbeasts, before departing (meaning they would miss their flights which departed in an hour and a half). Just what we want tourists who are kind enough to stay longer than 3 weeks to experience and waste their time on.
Of course many countries who actually want to encourage tourism, like say Cyprus, Israel, Australia, Turkey, automatically grant tourists 3 month multiple entry visas, even if they're coming for the weekend.
After over 100 stranded passengers from a couple of flights were left behind, it apparently must have been obvious that the disaster was reaching proportions any idiot could have predicted if they'd looked to see how many overstayed visas are extended at the airport. The third flight saw a mass of people rush the plane and take off - apparently without any extension at all, while those that missed their earlier flights were off to Yerevan to sign a document in Armenian stating they are criminals (yes, criminals!) and then extend their visas. Apparently the scene at OVIR yesterday was one of scores of tourists trying to figure out what to do (since explanations are never forthcoming) while one man sang Hayastan, Hayrenik, Drakhtavayr (Armenia, Homeland, a bit of paradise) and others were passing out snacks and making their wait as enjoyable as possible.
I have no idea what happened since then... any updates??
Yesterday, passengers departing at the lovely hour of 4:50am were informed that, the previous evening at 10pm it had been decided that OVIR (Armenia's visa department) would not be open at the airport anymore, and that extensions would have to be acquired in Yerevan, at the disgusting mess of a run-down office building, with lines like a herd of wilderbeasts, before departing (meaning they would miss their flights which departed in an hour and a half). Just what we want tourists who are kind enough to stay longer than 3 weeks to experience and waste their time on.
Of course many countries who actually want to encourage tourism, like say Cyprus, Israel, Australia, Turkey, automatically grant tourists 3 month multiple entry visas, even if they're coming for the weekend.
After over 100 stranded passengers from a couple of flights were left behind, it apparently must have been obvious that the disaster was reaching proportions any idiot could have predicted if they'd looked to see how many overstayed visas are extended at the airport. The third flight saw a mass of people rush the plane and take off - apparently without any extension at all, while those that missed their earlier flights were off to Yerevan to sign a document in Armenian stating they are criminals (yes, criminals!) and then extend their visas. Apparently the scene at OVIR yesterday was one of scores of tourists trying to figure out what to do (since explanations are never forthcoming) while one man sang Hayastan, Hayrenik, Drakhtavayr (Armenia, Homeland, a bit of paradise) and others were passing out snacks and making their wait as enjoyable as possible.
I have no idea what happened since then... any updates??
posted by Raffi K. at 6:18 PM
7 Comments:
OMG.. doesn't the OVIR belong to the ministry of foreign affairs? I don't know why, but I was always under the impression that it did. And if so... PLEASE PUT ME IN CHARGE OF OVIR!!!! lol That place needs MAJOR "remond" and I'm not just talking about the walls...
No extension at the airport?? What possible reason could they have for that? If Ovir was this PERFECT-WELL-OILED-MACHINE of a place, easy to find, helpful, and convenient, I'd say OK. But Ovir is NONE OF THE ABOVE.
They need to make Ovir a window office at Hrabarag, in the ministry building (like the ladies who sell bonchik on apovian). You walk up... they calculate ur days.. u pay the 1500xday... u leave.
guh.... ovir sucks
i was lucky enough to take care of my extension at the foreign ministry, that saved me a huge headache
I like to think of ovir as a black hole. Common sense and logic gets sucked into it and nothing comes out of it.
ovir belogs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
it is a very old and corrupt institution. The boss is Alvina Zakharyan who worked as teacher of armenian language at school. Due to her good contacts with Serj Sargsyna she has got this position.
Shat lirb kin e.........andastirak
Yeah, this comes under the "utterly incomprehensible" category...
What I wasnt too keen on was the flood of people shouting abuse at the guy who works in the office. It wasn't his fault. He kept saying, they took my stamp.
Some of the things people were saying to him were utterly rude. Although I can fully understand how frustrating it can be.
OVIR is an awful institution, but my experience with the guy who works in the office at the airport has always been nothing but positive. He is helpful, always counts my visa money in dollars , ( cheaper) and this time he even let me keep $20 incase I got hungry on the journey.
Working for such an instution is probably equally as annoying for its employees.
lol Arsineh, couldn't have put it better myself!
I've never heard a good story about OVIR - another thing that needs an overhaul.
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