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Travel to Russia

Tear down that wall

Aug 4th 2005

Ukraine is now easier to visit than Russia

THE art collections, the ballet, the romance of a cruise down the Volga. All these and more are good reasons to visit Russia. Yet getting there is no easy thing for residents of western countries. To obtain a visa, they must be officially invited to Russia by an individual or organisation; the invitation must then be taken to a Russian embassy or consulate where the would-be traveller has to cough up at least $25, often more.

A thriving business has been spawned by these procedures: lots of firms offer to sort out the paperwork—for a handsome fee. At the Russian end, this inevitably leads to a black market in issuing invitations.

Things used to be similar in Ukraine—but after a trial arrangement brought in for the Eurovision Song Contest, it was decided that things should be made easier permanently: from now on, European Union citizens can fly straight to Kiev and admire the cathedrals without getting a visa in advance.

Ukrainian officials hope this will prompt art-loving Brits, French honeymooners and German backpackers to visit their country in much greater numbers. Any lost income from visas should be more than offset by extra tourist spending. Alan Steel from Russia Gateway, a travel business, is sure that if Russia followed suit, there would be a “tangible increase in tourism”.

Russia does have a couple of reasons for maintaining its current rules, namely pride and the principle of reciprocity. Russians travelling to the west face stringent visa requirements, including interviews which some find humiliating. But then, very few western tourists are likely to try to start a new life in Russia, illegally—and the days when a few eccentric westerners settled in Russia for ideological reasons are gone. The Russians could lighten up on the rules and do themselves a favour.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=4254464

...foreigners can always get a US visa, and more: http://tinyurl.com/8ywbu

Something to think about while waiting a year for your K1...

LP, current time for K-1's are way down from where they used to be. On average now we are seeing 4 to 5 months as quite mormal. One client about three months ago got his lady here 3.5 months from start to finish and no one did anything special to quicken it.

Over the past 9 months I have really not seen any K-1's taking longer than 5.5 months.

Hope you be doing OK too. I was talking about a foreigner buying a US visa thru the EB-5 program. It's still slimy politics no matter how long the K1 takes.

So times are down huh? I find that hard to believe (what with the War On Democracy and all) but I'll take your word for it since I haven't been keeping up. I'm assuming the improvement has been in processing times for the petition approval rather than over at the State Dept end. Btw, I remind you 5-6 months was "normal" back in pre 9-11 days. How soon they forget eh?

I was talking to some worker bees in ICE a few weeks ago. Just the mention of MOB brings a grimace. They all say they would shut it down tomorrow if they could. Stories like the one above about the UA girl are more common than you'd think, although most don't end with corpses. I'm tellin ya, it's only a matter of time before some type of controls are imposed. Oddly, I'm beginning to feel they can't come soon enough.

50 marrying 21. Keerist. Can't fault her too much though, I can see how an immature kid from an impoverished country would be hard pressed to ignore such an "opportunity" after arriving. In some ways she did her husband a favor by cutting his losses...the odds are good she would've eventually dumped him for a younger guy anyway. Besides, he'll just go back and get another one. I hope you're keeping such losers at bay over there at FD, Lord knows there are plenty more where he came from. I realize you're doing what you can but it's still one screwed up business you're in.

Yeah yeah, I know...you sleep like a baby ;)

I suspect all nations that provide the illusion of a better opportunity and/or safety have their own  official "buy your way in" program.  They are all I imagine corrupt to one degree or another.  Any that don't have "formal" programs I am sure have "money talks" informal programs.

I am just disappointed that ours is so corrupt.  

Call me niave or an idealist, or perhaps it is my nationalistic arrogance.  Who do I think we are? In reality given the opportunity we are just as greedy and corrupt as every where else.  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1542100,00.html

In all fairness, additional research shows that there have been very few takers since 1990. (One could argue that's not the point however). Seems the vast majority of wealthy foreigners have no interest in emigrating to the US. They'd rather just buy our land and corporations while residing abroad. Can't say I blame them.

Nope, no cream of the crop for us. All we get are the tired, poor, huddled masses, the wretched refuse of their teeming shores, yearning to...build a little piece of their home country once they arrive.