Disclaimer and limitations of liability

The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Sweden and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Gothenburg have concluded an agreement with Interlink Service LLC to provide the following outsourced services: acceptance of applications for Russian visas from citizens of Sweden and other countries intending to travel to Russia, processing of submitted documents and returning the passports to the applicants. 

Interlink Service LLC has appointed its subsidiary Interlink Service Sweden AB as a provider of these services in Sweden.

Therefore Russian visa centers in Sweden constitute a range of services of acceptance, processing of visa applications and handover of ready documents provided by Interlink Service Sweden AB on behalf of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Sweden and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Gothenburg.

Interlink Service Sweden AB provides the services and is only responsible for the following functions:

  • to accept the applicant's passport, filled in application, supporting documents (hereinafter referred to as "documents") and the respective consular and service fees;
  • submit the documents and transfer the visa fees to the Russian diplomatic mission on behalf of the applicant;
  • once the documents are processed by the diplomatic mission, to receive the applicant's passport and other documents from the diplomatic mission and return the documents to the applicant or his/her representative or, at the applicant's request, send them by mail or courier to the address indicated by the applicant. In certain cases despite the procedure described above, the diplomatic mission may transfer the respective documents directly to the applicant, bypassing the visa center.

Interlink Service Sweden AB informs applicants about the following:

  1. The fact that the visa fee is paid by the applicant does not automatically grant a right to receive the visa.
    The decision to issue or refuse a visa is at the sole discretion of the diplomatic missions of the Russian Federation.
  2. Interlink Service Sweden AB and its employees have no influence on the procedures, timelines and outcome of the visa application processing. 
  3. The standard processing time of a visa application by the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation is from 4 to 10 working days. In some cases this period may be extended up to 30 days. During this period the applicant's passport will remain at the respective diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation.
  4. Russian diplomatic missions reserve the right to request the applicant to provide additional documents, to invite the applicant for an interview and to refuse a visa.
  5. Providing incorrect data, falsification of documents and submitting an incomplete set of documents may result in refusal of the diplomatic mission to issue a visa.
  6. Regardless of the outcome of the visa application processing, and in case of a refusal/withdrawal by the applicant of his/her application, the consular and service fees received by Interlink Service Sweden AB from the applicant or his representatives are not refundable.
  7. Interlink Service Sweden AB shall not be liable before the applicant for the loss of the applicant's documents resulting from an accident, unlawful acts of third parties, natural calamities (force majeure circumstances), as well as other reasons that Interlink Service Sweden AB cannot foresee and/or influence. 

Privacy policy

Interlink Service Sweden AB

1. About Interlink Service Sweden AB

Interlink Service Sweden AB, org. no. 556938-9439, is a wholly owned Swedish subsidiary of a Russian company Interlink Service LLC. Interlink Service LLC has entered into a contract with the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Sweden and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Gothenburg for executing visa handling services in Sweden on behalf of the above diplomatic missions. Interlink Service LLC has appointed Interlink Service Sweden AB as a provider of these services in Sweden .

In addition to acceptance and handing over of documents we can also help you to fill in application forms, take a photo, receive and return your documents by post or courier service, book taxi service and other services provided by us or our selected partners on our website or in the office. Using additional services is not obligatory and always depends on your choice.

When you apply for a visa and/or order additional services we need to collect use and process your personal data in order to provide these services.

2. Implementation of the Privacy and data processing policy

This Privacy and data processing policy (hereinafter referred to as "Privacy policy" or "Policy") is applied to collection, use and processing of your personal data. We collect, use and process your personal information when you use our service as a customer or a potential customer. This policy is also applied to the services that are provided in our offices, via our website or call-center, as well as to postal applications and email correspondence.  

3. Processing of personal data

3.1 Booking an appointment

When you book an appointment on our website you will be asked to provide your name and email address. When you change your booking, come to submit your application or seek our assistance otherwise, we will process the above-mentioned personal information collected from you.

This information will not be disclosed to third parties. But to fulfill our legal obligations, we may disclose your data to the police or other state authorities.

The information you have provided for booking an appointment and appointment management will be stored until the appointment date and will be deleted at the end of the day of your appointment.

3.2 Submission, online document checkup, postal application, courier delivery and other additional services

When you submit documents in our office and/or order additional services (photo services, online document checkup, postal applications, SMS-notifications, courier delivery or other additional services) you provide your personal data: your name and surname, passport number, date of issue and validity, as well as your contact information: postal address, email, phone number.

We will use your personal data to perform our duties in accordance with the services you ordered: acceptance and processing of visa documents, informing about the results of online or manual documents checkup, handover of processed documents, notification about the readiness of your passport, other additional services. The above mentioned services involve Email and SMS notifications (if ordered) or phone calls regarding your application, postal or courier delivery and other additional services. Postal/courier delivery SMS-notification and other additional services involve third parties and we will need to disclose your name and contact details where necessary to these third parties. The purpose of processing this data is to provide the services ordered by you.

If payment is made online you also have to provide your payment details (e.g. card number and expiry date) in addition to other personal data to complete your payment. These data, in particular your name, address, e-mail address and IP address will be disclosed to our payment service providers in order to receive your payment and complete your order.

The information you provide for documents submission, ordering online document checkup, postal application, courier delivery and/or other additional services will be stored for quality control for up to 1 month from the date of providing this service. This information may be disclosed to fulfill our legal obligations to the police or other state authorities.

3.3 Contact center and customer support

Interlink Service Sweden AB may use various forms of customer support in order to provide assistance. In order to provide customer support we will process your personal data to identify you and help you as best as we can. You can contact us by phone, via email or post and we will help you with inquiries, questions or feedback concerning our services.

After your interaction with our contact center or customer support we may examine the content of our interaction, for instance, check the recordings of our phone conversation or email correspondence regarding your inquiry. It is done to control the quality of the service provided to you. For this purpose your personal data such as your name and contact details may be processed.

The information you have provided for the purposes of customer support will be stored for the purpose of quality control for up to 1 month from the date of your inquiry.

We may transfer the functions of the contact center and customer support to a third-party organization. In this case, your data will be processed by this third party. To fulfill our legal obligations we may also be requested to disclose your personal data to the police or other state authorities.

4. Disclosure of your personal data

We do not use your personal data for marketing purposes and do not share it with other companies for such purposes. We may only share your personal data in the following cases:

- when additional services ordered by you involve services provided by a third party we may share your personal data with these third parties;
- the data can be shared with our third-party service providers that perform operations or work on our behalf and according to our instructions as data processing operators, for the purposes indicated in this Privacy Policy; or
- when it is required by law, judicial decision, or by an official request of a competent public authority or government. 

If you do not wish to provide your personal information we will not be able to provide our services.

5. Your rights

You have the right to request access, correction, access restriction and deletion with regards to your personal data handled by us, and to receive a copy of your personal data in a structured machine-readable format. Inquiries regarding processing of personal data and access requests shall be directed to the point of contact provided below.

You also have the right to object to data processing. Provided that we process your data on legitimate grounds (as described above) you also have a right to object to this. These rights may be limited in some cases – for example, when we can prove that we have a legal requirement to process your data.

We need your personal data only in order to provide the services that you ordered (to conclude and perform the contract) in compliance with the legal requirements. Therefore, it is mandatory to provide this data. If such data is not provided to us, we will not be able to conclude a contract with you and fulfill our contractual obligations.

6. Transfer of personal data to other countries

In the above cases we may transfer your personal data to third parties (domestic and/or foreign) in order to prove the services you have ordered. Transfer of personal data to a third country will only take place if appropriate safeguards are guaranteed, e.g., by Binding Corporate Rules, by concluding EU Standard Contractual Clauses or if the receiving party is certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield.

7. Changes and amendments to this policy

Our website will always contain the current version of the Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may be changed or updated without prior notice.

If you do not agree to the current version or any of the updated or amended terms of the Privacy Policy, you should discontinue the use of our services.

8. Jurisdiction and applicable law

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Sweden and be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Sweden.

9. How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments about our personal data processing practices or the current Privacy Policy. You can reach us online at data.protection@interlinkservice.ru. You can also contact us via mail at the following address:

Data Protection Officer Interlink Service Sweden AB
Klara Östra kyrkogata 2A,
111 52 Stockholm, Sweden

If you have any unresolved issues you also have the right to complain to data protection authorities. In this case Swedish Data Protection Authority will be the relevant organisation. 

Effective date: March 15, 2019 / Last updated: March 15, 2019