Tourist Visas

[Philb]

I was curious how everyone else went about obtaining a tourist visa to Russia.  I have always paid to have all of the processing done for me (160.00).  I would like to hear about the experiences of those who applied on their own.  How long did it take, did you run into any problesm etc..

[Rags]

... in response to Tourist Visas, posted by Philb on Apr 3, 2002

Check with the Russian Consulate site for visa info. It's not really that difficult to do if you allow enough time for processing. I think that you can get two week processing for a single entry visa for about $75 (plus the cost of three photos and a fedex return envelope).

You will need a letter of invitation from a hotel, tourist agency, or registered business in Russia. You can get one on the internet but be careful, I got in a very sticky situation doing this. I think it cost another $25 to get it and they wire it directly to the Consulate.

I got my visa and everything was fine until I went to register it at the police station upon arrival in Moscow. I was staying at my girlfriend's flat so she sent me with her "driver" to get it registered. He spoke very little English and at the time I spoke almost no Russian.

We went into this very serious policeman's office where he punched the name of the company on the visa into his computer. I could see that he kept getting an error message each time and each time he got a little more pissed. He got the message across to me that this company was bogus and wanted to know where I got my invitation. I had assumed that since it had gone through the Consulate that they would have checked this out. WRONG!

I just knew that I had flown half way around the world only to be put on the next plane back! (In retrospect that would not have been as bad as it seemed at the time as this girl turned out to be a clever little GC scammer.) But as fate would have it, my driver (who turned out to be an ex-nuke engineer on the sister ship of the Kursk and have a PHD in psychology) sweet talked this guy into a bribe of a bottle of vodka and a bunch of bananas. He gave us the address of a great little hotel where we could get my visa registered for the price of one night's stay (another $20 added to the cost). It was a real classy joint. It had a condom machine right in the lobby.

So, you can let a travel agency take care of things and relax or you can possibily have one of the most exciting and exhillerating expiriences of your life. Roll the dice.

I have done the transit visa a couple of times with no problems. (So I could save a few bucks by flying Aeroflop through SVO to get to Kyiv. Another BIG mistake that I would not recomend doing but that's another tale.)

[thesearch]

... in response to Re: Russian Tourist Visas, posted by Rags on Apr 4, 2002

The Russian consulate made a mistake and put a different date of departure than I had requested.  

So when I go to leave, my visa said I was supposed to return the day prior and I was rushed off to a little room and told that I was in Russia illegally.

Fortunately I had a copy of my request for Visa showing that the Russian embasy simply made a mistake and I was allowed to leave Russia but not before I paid a $70 fine.

So, the moral of the story, do not asssume the dates on your Visa are correct - double check

[Bobby Orr]

... in response to Tourist Visas, posted by Philb on Apr 3, 2002

I got my tourist Ukrainian visa the first time for either 50 or 60 dollars but had to go to the embassy in New York three times.  The first time I had to pick up the form and look at the times they were open because they never picked up the phone or returned phonecalls.  The second time I had to first get a money order and then get to the embassy between 9 and 12 am.  I showed up early and there was already a huge line outside the Ukrainian embassy.  The line just did not move.  Eventually by 12:30 they decided to keep the embassy open.  It was the summer and many people wanted to go to Ukraine.  By 1:30 I got to the window gave the one man they had processing all the forms my filled out visa application (make sure it is private) and gave him my passport.  He said come back in two weeks and wrote a date for me on the back of my money order slip.  I came back, I think a few Fridays from when I processed it and had to wait on line again for two hours or so and finally got my visa.  In the future I am happy to pay the $120 cash to the travel agent who just cuts all the lines and deals with the representative quickly.  I suppose Russia is very similar, but like I said, I am happier than anything to have the travel agent process it for me.  That is one expense I can spare.

[Quasimoto]

... in response to russia no, Ukraine once, posted by Bobby Orr on Apr 3, 2002

I dealt with the Ukraine Embassy in Chicago directly, and mailed all my paper work. I got the forms off the internet site. It took about 15 days. I saw no problem at all. As for Russia, I went through a travel agency and have no experience. I would recommend going through the Chicago Consulate. Here is the link:

http://www.ukremb.com/

Steve