I am planning a trip to Russia in May of this year. I am in Seattle so I have a local Russian Consular office to go to so I am hoping to do the visa process myself.

I plan to use BMI miles for LH flights and open jaw into/out of St. Petersberg and Moscow and take the train between the 2 Russian cities. I am not sure if BMI will issue ETicket or paper ticket for the LH flights to Russia.

Ideally I would want to book now only the first hotel stay (say 3 nights at Moscow) using hotel points. The entire time in Russia would be a week (very little time I realize but work limitations as always).

I have read what I can here and on the web and remain somewhat confused.

It appears it will be fairly simple to get the big-chain hotel to give me my 'invitation/visa support document, but this involves only a 3 day stay. As I mentioned, my air travel may be via ETicket.

I have also read here it's best to get your visa validity period for a bit longer than you actually plan to stay so I was thinking 14 days total.

So, my question(s) is(are) can I just provide the 3 day support/invitation, some sort of 'evidence' of an ETicket, put 14 days on my validity request, and get 14 days? Is my validity period precisely based on my first hotel, say May 7th... if my flight was delayed to May 8th, would this be okay? There are many statements on various websites about just getting the first hotel and being sure to register in each city (2 in my case) and not worrying the rest. But I'm still not clear on how to fill out the papers so that I get the length of stay needed (with a cushion preferably). Do the Consular folks just see the 3 day hotel and 14 day request and think 'no problem' and give me the 14 days?

I must admit I've been perplexed by the multidocument, don't worry the rules/etc. of the Russian visa process but I had determined to get there this year (I'll be in Germany already to see relatives). I know I sound like an idiot but if someone experienced could show me in a concrete way how to deal with the ambiquity I see in the process (dates on support vs dates of validity of visa) I sure would appreciate it!

many thanks,

NewK2