I have been to Russia three times on port calls to St. Petersburg and did not have to get an individual visa. I was going to tag on three nights in Moscow to a fall trip this past year and decided against it. I have been to over 100 countries and without a doubt the process and the attitude I got from their consulates was the worst. I could not believe the application. They really seem to want to discourage visits imho.

I am getting my visa done by 'Real Russia Ltd,they seem very good and do all the work for you,getting fingerprints done next week....so far,so good.

No, it doesn't arise from anything happening in Ukraine. The situation has been the same for years. UK and US visa bureaucracy can put Russia to shame. I will gladly assist ten Americans with their applications to Russia than one foreigner (any foreigner) applying to UK. UK visa website makes me cringe.

And by the way, sanctions are not applied to "all" Russians.

My visa is all done,sorted easily by using 'Real Russia' was a doddle,even getting the fingerprinting done was so quick,we jumped the massive queue that was waiting,as Real Russia have someone inside that sends you straight to the front!! Costs a bit extra,but well worth it.^

I am going to jump in this Russia visa thread because it seems to be the latest one

I am not having a nightmare yet, just starting. Also I live around the corner form the embassy so don't mind the walk.

Could be a bit more complicated for me because Colombians do not need tourist visas so I am sure the embassy will be a bit rusty.

Questions if anyone can answer them

1) Is there any indication which hotels will be able to send me an invite?

2) The application form asks when you last visited Russia, I last went in 2001 I think and I no longer have that passport. I do still have the visa but it is cyrillic so I cannot tell if it has the dates on. Exact dates required or reasonable guess acceptable?

1) In principle, all official hotels (e.g., the ones indicated as "hotel" on booking.com), so not guest houses, apartments, B&Bs...

2) Cyrillic numbers are remarkably similar to Latin numbers! And you will need the dates on the stamps, not on the visa.

3) Don't forget to get a translation of your health insurance coverage!

4) Have fun in Russia!

Thanks aufmatt

Thanks re the hotels

I cannot see any numbers at all on my visa, no idea what it says. Unless I can find the original boarding passes. I do not have a clue when I went aside from guessing it a bit.

I doubt my health insurance will cover me in Russia, so I presume this is travel insurance with health cover.

It only costs twice as much to become a Colombian citizen, I am still weighing up the pros and cons. Would be amazing if "becoming Colombian" turns out to be easier than getting a Russian tourist visa.

There is no such thing as "Cyrillic numbers". Russia uses arabic numerals, just like the rest of the western world. In some (rare) cases, roman numerals might be used to indicate the month, so for May 4, 2006, you'd have 4.V.2006 written instead of 04.05.2006.

But they do sometimes mix up ','s with '.'s

They don't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal...lSeparator.svg

Perhaps I should have used a ;) as I am aware of this.
I grew up in Germany and they do the same.

We can also talk about '9's that look like 'g's

Besides they have 31 months in a year :)

:D ^

I did not see anything about a Russian translation of the health doc. We are going to the agency that the consulate uses in San Francisco and hope they give us good advice. I am not sure I could stand the suspense if I have to wait 3 wks. Wondering if we can pick up the docs from ILS.

Oh really?

Now, that is *exactly* what I meant by remarkably similar, my non-ironic friend.