Slovakia stops accepting tourist visa applications from Russian nationals for July and August

Only sports-related Schengen visas and long-stay national visas will be processed during the two-month window, with existing bookings refunded

Russian nationals looking to visit Slovakia on a short-stay tourist visa will not be able to apply for one until at least September. The country has shut down Schengen tourist visa processing for the entire summer, canceling all appointments at its visa application centers for July and August 2026, according to The Moscow Times.

Both BLS International and VFS Global, the private operators that run Slovakia's visa centers, confirmed the move. Applicants who had already paid to book an appointment will get their money back in full.

VFS Global stated that during the two-month period, Slovakia's centers "will exclusively accept Schengen visa applications under the 'Sports' travel category, alongside national visas for all eligible long-stay purposes."

What remains open

While tourist visas are frozen, long-stay national visas are still being processed. These typically cover students, workers, and family members of Slovak citizens. However, BLS International cautioned that turnaround on these applications has slowed and may now exceed a month during the suspension period.

The narrow exception on the Schengen side is for sports-related travel, which remains the only short-stay category being accepted through the summer.

Limited practical impact for Russian travelers

The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) played down the significance of the suspension, noting that Slovakia barely registers as a holiday choice for Russians. ATOR pointed out that the country granted only 1,149 visas to Russian applicants across all of 2025, a tiny fraction of the broader EU visa picture.

Part of a wider European tightening

Slovakia's decision lands within a much larger pattern of EU countries restricting visa access for Russian nationals. The bloc suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia in 2022, and last November it went further by blocking Russians from obtaining multi-entry Schengen visas. The cumulative effect has been dramatic: the number of EU visas going to Russian citizens has plummeted from several million per year to just hundreds of thousands.

The pressure continues to build. Last month, a group of European countries called on the EU to bring in additional binding restrictions on Schengen visa access for Russian nationals who want to travel to the bloc for holidays.

Not everyone in the political sphere agrees with that direction. Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya pushed back against sweeping visa restrictions in September, arguing that broad restrictions would backfire by giving Moscow ammunition to argue that the West has turned against the Russian people as a whole.