.....
 

.....

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to our Travel->Russia forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Just pick a reasonable date, but I when I did mine I just added 15 days from the date of passport submission on my 1 YR ME BUS visa appl

Hope you didnt pay > $200 for your Bus invitation.

.....

You can enter/exit at any time between the validity dates of the visa.
Note, however, that there have been reports of refusals to issue multi-entry visas to first-time Russian visa applicants...

If you have an urgent need to travel to a foreign country on short notice, getting your Congressperson (or actually, their staff ;)) to intervene can work wonders (at least in some instances). It might be worth inquiring in advance with them to see what kind of assistance they would render if the situation arises again.

For example, an excerpt from Pelosi's web pages:

http://www.house.gov/pelosi/conservi...z_Visa_PP.html

Most of the Russian Consulate (e.g. Houston) websites have links to recommended visa processing services agencies. CIBT was very helpful with the complex process early this year.

+1 for CIBT. We use them where I work for all of our Russian business visas. While they aren't the cheapest they are very reliable and have many services included getting your invitation letter.

There are also a number of other threads discussing Russian visas in this forum. Various different visa service agencies are recommended in those threads.

And, I observed, when I went in person to submit my visa application to the Russian consulate in San Francisco, that the young man working there was quite friendly and helpful. Other applicants were asking him a boatload of questions about the application process, and he responded politely and didn't try to shoo them away. ;) However, other consulates and/or workers may or may not be as helpful. (Also, this was kind of in the "off season" and perhaps when the consulate is busier, they don't have as much time to spare to personally answer all your questions.)

The date is to give the consulate an idea when you would "likely" be making a trip. If you dont make that trip, no harm since your visa is multi-entry. You just didnt use it, thats all. Thats the flexibility of the visa.

In my case I submited my appl on 1Oct09 with travel date of 15Oct09. Got my visa on 14Oct09 and made my trip to Moscow on 12Dec09 and just got back.

No Problems.

BTW it was damn COLD there ! -24 celsius and beautiful at this time.

PS: You will need an HIV test for the 1 YR ME BUS visa appl. A matter of repriprocity.

anybody here recently received a russian visa? my friend just got one (last time she travelled was 3 years ago I think) and even though she showed dates when she's supposed to arrive and exist the country visa came with couple of extra dates attached...is that something new embassy is doing?

.....

Russia has become much easier for visa processing, not cheaper, just easier. There is an option for fast processing that allows same day issuance, but you'll pay handsomely for the privilege. Now that many Latin American countries are visa-waiver for Russia the number of visas the consulates are processing everywhere seems to be declining. Friends report similar experiences in the EU because there are fewer non-EU applicants due to the same Visa-waiver programs for much of Eastern Europe.

These days it is the US and the EU that have the problems getting visas. What a switch.

My fiance just got a tourist visa from the Russian Embassy in D.C. His dates of travel 12/24/10-1/3/11 requested - he got it for a whole month - 12/22/10-1/22-11 - so extra dates were given.

He used VisaHQ company recommended by others on this board - easy, breezy, no issues. Filled out an application online, dropped of his passport, go prossessed one week later at lower, 21+ day pricing fee ($140). ^

^ Haven't heard of this happening outside this forum, maybe the agencies are requesting the extra dates? I'm curious to know, since I always max the number of days for my visa type on the application to give myself as much room as possible for unexpected events.:) I have always assumed if I didn't add extra safety days, no one else would.