German authorities have terminated the simplified procedure for issuing humanitarian visas for citizens of Russia and Belarus. The corresponding information was disseminated by Deutsche Welle and the SaveHumVisa22 initiative.
As DW notes, Germany has effectively reverted to the pre-war practice where such visas were granted extremely rarely based on vague criteria. These conditions remain not entirely clear even for specialized organizations.
Henceforth, German authorities will apparently consider protection requests only in isolated exceptional situations—either for opposition figures of particular importance to Berlin or in cases with significant political resonance. Thus, humanitarian admission will be limited to a few unique applications per year.
Applications from those who received visa approval before the program suspension but did not manage to have it stamped in their passports will be reconsidered. All petitions submitted before the procedure freeze are canceled, and applicants will have to undergo the entire process again according to the updated rules, informs SaveHumVisa22.