A new Italian Visa Center (IVAC) in operation since the end of October, is located on the 45th floor of Citic Plaza, 233 Tianhe North Road, Guangzhou.

Italian Visa Center. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]

The new center covers an area of 1,200 square meters, providing enough space for both individual visa applicants and travel agencies. Furthermore, there is also an area dedicated to the promotion of Italy and a corner designed for children.

To offer more convenience for applicants, the opening hours of the new center have also been extended to 8am-8pm during Monday to Friday, from the previous opening hours of 8am-5pm. Meanwhile, the process of issuing visas will only take an average of 36 hours, the fastest among European countries.

In addition to the fixed visa fee (60 euros), a Chinese citizen only needs to pay a 78 RMB service fee for applying for a tourism visa, a 50% reduction on past pricing. The fee for group visas is now only 62 RMB.

In addition, new mobile devices for the collection of biometric data will make visa application easier. Depending on the number of requests, instead of the previous requirement that applicants have to get to one of the 15 visa centers in China, a home collection service is now possible.

Italian Visa Center. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]

According to official statistics from Italy, a total of 3,100,000 tourists stayed in Italy for a total of 5,000,000 nights in 2018. The Consulate General of Italy in Guangzhou processed over 88,000 visa applications to date in 2019, expected to exceed 90,000 by the end of the year.

A corner designed for children. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]

An opening ceremony was held at the center on December 16th.

“This center is like a business card for Italy,” Ms. Lucia Pasqualini, the Consul General of Italy in Guangzhou, said during the ceremony, “What we want to show to visitors through this visa center is a beautiful, fashionable and stylish Italy.”

“In 2020, China and Italy will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic ties, and it is also the Italy-China Year of Culture and Tourism,” She also pointed out that. “Our goal is to let Chinese visitors get to know that there are more attractive places in Italy.”

Authors: Monica Liu, Wang Yifan

Editor: Simon Haywood