My wife and I travel a lot and have learnt to be really thankful that I was born in Britain and that travel is easy. As my wife is Ukrainian, she needs a visa for most places we go and Ive got used to the process of applying and what documents are required. Ive wanted to go to Japan for years (I was a backpacker around Asia in my early 20's and Japan was out of my price reach then) so I was delighted to get a great deal on Alitalia a few days ago to NRT. However, after speaking to the embassy today my excitement has has subdued somewhat.

It seems for Russian or CIS nations, there is an extra requirement that you need either need to book everything through a travel agency, or have a sponsor in Japan (who needs to submit quite a list of documents) in order to get a visa. So, in effect, no independent travel to Japan for CIS nationals.

If anyone has any suggestions, id love to hear them as at the moment im looking at connecting flights to anywhere so that we'd only need to be in transit at NRT, which would be a real shame, as I really want to see Japan!

Would suggest you visit the CIBT website- they provide detailed info for free regarding visa requirements based on country of citizenship and purpose of travel - cibtvisas.com

I've sponsored visa nationals coming to visit us in Japan before (but not CIS countries) and while the official immigration information about the documents required for each country is fixed, in practice the application process is unofficially different for each embassy. Basically, if the process can be a lot simpler if the applicant has permanent/long term status in a more "friendly" county. It was also easier when the visa national was traveling with someone from a visa waiver country and none of the detailed itinerary was required. If you have to apply in Ukraine, then it is going to be a lot more difficult. In this case you it's certainly worth talking to a travel agent to see what they can do to help you get round the rules or talk again to someone more senior in the embassy to see how willing they are to work around your case.

+1. Actual policies vary from consulate to consulate, so the best thing to do is just picking up the phone and calling the local consulate where you'd be applying. They are usually very helpful.

I think it is the same requirement for Italy too. I remember we had to ask our friend in Italy to be my wife's sponsor for her to get the visa for our honeymoon there. I think we also had to provide information about her income and assets in US. I think they are afraid that she will go there and never leave. This was over 10 years ago though.