Finland
New Consulate General to open in Houston, Texas
On 25 April 2025, the President of Finland approved an amendment to the Decree of the President of the Republic on the Locations of Finland’s Diplomatic Missions. The amendment will establish Finland’s Consulate General in Houston, Texas, in the United States as of 1 July 2025.
The Consulate General will begin its work in temporary premises with the help of administrative staff sent from Finland. The permanent premises will be ready by the end of 2025 or early 2026 at the latest. The US authorities are currently processing permits for the premises. The procedure for appointing the Consul General will be completed within a few months. The recruitment of other personnel for the Consulate General will begin soon.
From the start, the Consulate General will provide services for people in distress and other urgent consular services requiring immediate attention on site. Other consular services will continue to be provided by Finland’s Consulate General in New York until the permanent premises in Houston have been completed.
The Decree of the President of the Republic also included some amendments to the provision of consular services by the existing missions. These amendments will enter into force on 1 May 2025, when the Embassy of Finland in Beirut will start providing consular services in full.
Furthermore, the services of the Finnish Embassy in Doha will be expanded as of 1 October 2025. The Embassy will start providing residence permit services within its consular district, replace the Finnish Embassy in Abu Dhabi in the provision of consular services to Pakistani nationals, and complement the services of the Finnish Embassy in Ankara to provide residence permit services to Iraqi applicants.
Georgia
Amendments to the rules for visa-free entry for certain nationalities
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has published
a statement clarifying the amendments adopted on 17 April 2025 to the existing Resolution which allows nationals of certain countries holding a visa and/or residence permit from a Gulf state to enter Georgia without a visa.
According to the Ministry, the amendments serve to tighten the right of citizens of certain countries to enter Georgia without a visa and serve to combat illegal migration.
According to the Resolution before the amendments, citizens of the listed countries had the right to enter Georgia if they held a visa or a residence permit from a Gulf state, although the validity period of the visa was not defined.
These nationals will now only have the right to enter and stay in Georgia without a visa if the validity period of the multiple-entry visa and/or residence permit issued by a Gulf state has a validity of at least one year on the day of their entry to Georgia.
Specifically, the restriction applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda who hold a visa and residency from one of the Gulf countries.
