Norway’s visa center will start operating in Yekaterinburg on May 10, 2012, the online portal TourBusiness reports.

Norway’s Embassy in Russia signed an agreement with VFS Services LLC Russia that entitles the latter to accepting and processing applications for all visa types.

‘The Embassy has seen a record-setting number of applications over the last few years. Last year, our visa section issued 30,236 visas, which was the largest figure among all of Norway’s foreign representations in terms of applications submitted and visas issued. The agreement will result in considerable expansion of Norwegian Embassy in Russia’s coverage area as well as time savings for those who apply for a visitor’s visa or for a residence/work permit. The service improvements will also be noticeable due to a longer working day in the application submission centers and due to the availability of VFS’s special information hotline,’ the Embassy says.