craz

Thanks but that says for single or double entry a way around that would be to simply go back and forth between SPB and HEL and TLL, which will allow a 72 transit Visa, only neg is not being to book a hotel for 5 nights and pay only for 4 with pts

Since we will be staying at the W this time and our dates arent flex it doesnt bother us being locked in with them. 41K in pts for 5 nights late June is a steal ( pay 4 get 5th free and then a 35% reduction as a requalified Plat promo otherwise it would have been 90K) And the hotel emailed back they would send the support docs for a 6 night stay even thou the res is for only 5 nights at this time

So in our case if on our own w/o paying anything more if we cant get a 3 yr Visa, a 2nd Visa would be only $90 (140 - 30 for the letter via the site you mentioned and the extra $20 now for a 3yr over a 1 time visa means saving $50 now so the next Visa would cost 140 - 50 = an extra 90 and if we dont get back within 3 yrs we are ahead) Id rather pay the 160 for 3 over 140 for 1 time if possible

thanks for the link to that site!

stockmanjr

Never use VisaHQ for a Russian visa from the NYC office. Total disaster with them submitting the wrong photo then telling me the wrong time to appear at the consulate for a personal appearance.. Their screwups might destroy my Trans-Mongolian adventure.. Btw does anyone know the difference between an interview and a personal appearance?
Cheers
Howie

craz

Dont know about VisaHQ, but the NY consulate isnt the best way either. My 1st mistake was not realizing its Closed on 5/1 May Day. Went back yesterday got there @ 11:15am only to be told its Closed. I said the sign says your hours are 9:30am - 12:30pm.

Then I was told by someone on line the jest , they only give out x chits a day to apply for the visa, that guy got there @ 9:15am and was the last 1 to get 1 yet some 2 hrs later he still was waiting outside. Then a girl walks up and says she was there but they didnt like that she was smiling in her pic so they told her to get another pic taken. She was on line @ 8am and got in @ 9:30am

People left and right were walking up saying they were told to come for an Interview and they were told for the 1st time they arent done till 2pm come back then. I believe that the reason for the Interview is to determine if they will or will not isuue said person a Visa. Was told if a person will be staying for longer then apx 10 days then you will be called in for an Interview. I think Personal Appearance means simply doing things by yourself and showing up at the RC, istead of using ILS or any 3rd party

Myself the RC is just too much of a pita I will pay the $30 and use ILS. For NY you dont p/u the PP when its ready at the RC but at ILS on Maiden Lane near Wall St

stockmanjr

Went back today and they accepted my documents. Trick is to get there around 8:30 as I was the 4th person in the queue for the visa section and out was out by 9:45.
Cheers
Howie

gotofly

Just a brief of my experience for Russian visa. Actually I flew to Washington, D.C. Office and personally applied for a 3 year multiple visa. The visa inspector was very nice and she told me I had three mistakes in the form and also Marriot hotel in Moscow who had issued me free invitation letters had put my wife's passport number incorrectly . But she was very helpful she went back and corrected all the mistakes in the forms and let me call Marriot hotel in Moscow request them to send another invitation with correct passport number and when I received it after 15 minutes she let me forward to her email so she can print it out.guess what? This time they had spelled my wife's name incorrectly and I went thru the same process of calling them and sorting it out. All this took about 2 hours and she patiently worked with me to correct every situation so my visa would not get rejected. Though I paid $25 extra for correcting the application it was well worth it.
If you go in person things do get faster and also they won't accept the application till everything is ok. My advice go personally if you do not have much time.

danger

I started the online application today for a Russian visa here in Australia and couldn't believe the information they want.

In addition to the usual it's necessary to provide details of all post-secondary education and you must list every country you've been to in the last 10 years as well as the date of entry for each. In all seriousness that would take me several hours to collate the information then enter it.

Is all that really necessary? Do you folk in the US have to go through all that? And AUD120 for a single entry visa seems near extortionate.

I note there is some information about transit visas but I haven't been able to find the cost or whether you still need to complete the amazingly laborious application. If the transit visa is free and you don't need to go through the entire personal history, I will cut my four day stay in Moscow short by one day.

homelyboy

It seems they don't go into details as to who asks what. The US and UK visa application forms have that question - so they have it on their 'long form' common for all countries whose VAFs are huge (and Australia has a huge VAF although without that question).Strange. Australian visa fee is 130 AUD, so it looks like the Russian MFA doesn't do good job in keeping it reciprocal.

craz

1- online only allows 10 entries for where youve been to, use the last 10 and especially any in the PP youre giving them

2- do answer all the questions and dont give them any reason to deny the Visa or have you come back they told me my pic wasnt any good since it was over 6 months old, it was the same as my PP pic which was from 4/13. I said I can bring you a 5 yr old pic he said yes if it still looks like you do today no problem, he even said if I used a different pic in my PP he would have taken the 1 I handed in

2- For us in the US the Visa is $140 1 time entry

3- yea that 72hr free visit is sweet, I believe it works as long as you are heading to a 3rd Country.So SYD-SVD-SYD wont help you any just as JFK-SVD-JFK wont help me.Also I believe its by air only as well. Is it already in place?We going for 7 nights so Visa it is

danger

Thank you both.

I received an email back from the Russian Embassy here in Australia who noted that the transit fee is also AUD120, the same as a single entry visa, so I'm not sure what the benefit is over a regular tourist visa.

It seems my decision, therefore, is Russia or no Russia. It's not a question of Russian for four days or Russia for three days or less. I'll have another look at the form.

craz

could be they havent implemented the free 72 hr thing yet. From the other thread it did say you had to fly in on a Russian carrier. Dont think any fly to OZ and yet OZ was listed as 1 of the 20 Countrys. Maybe its enough to purcahse it on a Russian tkt stock and fly into and outof Russia ona Russian carrier.

I can tell you this I went down to the NY consulate by mistake on May 1st (forgot its a holiday for them) sign said reopen on Mon. I went Tues and got there at 11:15am (its open for Visas 9:30am - 12:30pm) the guy tells me its Closed , ?? a person on the line says yea they post those hours but they only take x people per day so if you arent on the line early enough youre SOL. went back a 3rd time only to be told you sent the paper work to the service office either redo it or go there. I paid the $33 to the service office just to be done with it. Pt is until someone posts or you read elsewhere that the 72 hrs works dont rely on it

also that 72 hrs which means you better have gone PP control and be in the sterile area by 71h 59m 59secs I wouldnt chance anything else with those guys unless Russian Roulette is your type of game (pun intended) but after what Ive gone thru that probably means according to them theres a bullet in every chamber but 1

a7m

I have to get my wife and daughter Russian visas and, as it happens, I live close to the consulate in NY . I know the consulate outsourced its visa operations to some (badly-run?) private company downtown, but it looks like the consulate still accepts visa applications directly. My question is... does my wife & daughter have to go there, or can I just drop the papers for them at the consulate?

craz

1- ILS the company handling the Visas happens to do a great job, after I struck out 3x at the consulate I gave up and it was very simple and they were great

2- A) you still need to fill out the electronic form for each person and I think theres a form they must sign for someone else to handle it, of cause they can always say OK papers in order but we want to interview both of them, in which case they will have to go after 2PM. Make sure you chose the consulate as the place you want them to send the forms to, if you decide afterwards for whatever raeson to go to ILS on Maiden Lane , you will have to redo all the forms and have them sent to ILS

B) Make sure to be at the consulate by 8:45am although they are open 9:30a - 12:30p they only give out x number of walkin apps each day once they were given out youre SOL

C) pics must be taken within the last 6 months so if its the same pic as the PP and the PP is more then 6 months old, SOL. If the pics arent the same as the PPs then as long as they still look like the pics it should be good enough

*3 there is already a thread about Visas why did you start a new thread?

a7m

I just wish they fixed their site so that I can make an appointment, but ok, I'll go down there.

Does anyone know whether a multiple three-year tourist visa can be granted if the passport expires in 25 months? I read someone that visa will be multiple but will be set to expire 6 months before the passport does. Is that so? I really do not want to get another single-entry visa...

rankourabu

There is a limit of entries, I think about 15.

Not every visit is necessary, I just stuck to the ones that had stamps in my passport, and then couldnt fit anything past 2011 anyway, it didnt matter.

ILS in Canada did a great job. Passport came back to them requiring proof prepayment of hotels, so had to find a workaround to that, and they were great submitting it all back.

a7m

Here is a silly question (but not silly to visa bureaucrats). As you know, the Russian application site allows you to generate a pdf of the application, which then has to be printed out. The printing instructions tell applicants to uncheck "choose paper source by PDF size," which, when I do it, makes the graphics not fit entirely on the page: the Russian two-headed bird on top of the application lost its heads. Not sure what to do. Any advice?