Tbilisi – In the week 6-10 December 2021, IOM convened 21 Georgian officials of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a hybrid training session dedicated to sharing experiences as practiced in European countries in the area of processing applications by foreigners for Georgian visas.

A British expert guided his Georgian colleagues through the details of effective practices of interviewing visa applicants and which physical and psychological aspects to pay particular attention to. In similar detail, the trainer presented the common document forgeries and counterfeits that visa officers encounter and which technical aspects to pay particular attention to in order to assess the veracity of the presented documents. The importance of this course lies inter alia in stengthening Georgia’s capacities of first line immigration management structures, enabling them to act as reliable partners of the EU in countering irregular migration to and through Georgia.

The training audience consisted of a mix of officials from the Ministry’s Consular Department, complemented by diplomats stationed in 10 countries overseas where there are not uncommonly issues with the credibility of visa applications.

This course has been implemented as part of the project “Sustaining Border Management and Migration Governance in Georgia (SBMMG)”, which is funded by the European Union and runs until the end of December 2021.