The Common Visa Issuing Center housed by the Embassy of Hungary started to issue biometric visas, Hungarian Ambassador in Chisinau György Varga announced in a news conference on Tuesday, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. ”The Visa Information System is a new system in Moldova and in the world. This new procedure only stated to develop. The Embassy of Hungary is the first embassy that is implementing this system, but I assure you that all the embassies of the EU will work with biometric data in three-five years,” said György Varga. The center was outfitted with the equipment needed for running the new service. Besides the file with documents, the applicants must also have their fingerprints taken. Scanning will be performed once in five years. The procedure will not apply to heads of state, heads of government, high-ranking officials and children under 12. Biometric visas can be obtained by persons who have biometric passports as well as those who have old-type passports. György Varga said the price of a visa remained the same - €35. This year so far, the Common Visa Issuing Center has issued more than 20,000 persons with visas. Over 60% of the visas were granted free of charge, in accordance with the agreement to facilitate the visa regime. Only 7% of the applications were rejected.