What do I need to get a Russian visa?
 

I am traveling to Moscow later this month and need to get a visa. The Russian consulate website lists several things I need, including a special letter from my hotel, which I have, and a separate letter from my travel agent. But I haven't used a travel agent: I booked everything myself. Do I still need this letter?

No you don't need a letter from an agent. Just bring a copy of your flight record and your hotel invitation, and money. :)

......and any secret files you can lay your hands on.....that'll get you in pretty quick...... :D

I made one up when we went last year! I'd booked all of our arrangements as well, so I made up an Itinerary on the letterhead of the "R&R Travel agency" using a clip-art picture of an airplane as the logo. Got our visas with no problems.

What you really need is a visa agency, one that specialises in Russian visas (most of them are run by Russian expats), who will just do all the stuff including getting/writing the required letters for you, know the ropes, know the people at the consulate, etc.

I don't think you are going.

Typical visa processing time is 2+ weeks.

You can get your visa faster if you can find the correct visa processing center and send an extrs $50 or so.

A lot of the processing centers on the web now look very phoney to me. Just fill out the form, and mail us some money and we will have a visa for you in 3 days. I don't think so.

Search in the Russia forum for old postings of servicable, reliable visa processing centers.

Same day processing is $300. Make it a day trip to NYC. Go down early, to hopefully avoid a major crowd, turn in the paperwork, have a few hours on the town, and then collect your passport and go home.

Be warned that the Russian want all of the paperwork in order, and they can be very picky about what they accept. In May, I got turned away one day because the fax of the letter from the Interior Ministry (business visa) was not crystal clear.

My Russian visa experience: I was going to a meeting with some scientific collaborators at an institute near St. Petersberg. They faxed me a letter of invitation, and I had all of the application documents in order. I took everything in person to the consulate in San Francisco and found that they were closed for some Russian holiday that was not listed on the calendar on their web site. I tried again the next day, waited in line for half an hour, and the person behind the window looked at the invitation letter and nearly screamed "WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?" at me. I explained what kind of research we do, and he replied with "the consul will consider this application." I came back the next week to pick up my passport, and it had a visa in it, so I guess there was no problem in the end.

St. Petersberg is a truly beautiful city, BTW--it's worth the paperwork hassle to go there, especially in the summer during the White Nights.

Just to say you should really have no problem. There is no reason to spend extra for same day service unless of course you are leaving tomorrow. Once you have everything that is needed you should be ok. If you can get to a consulate get assurance everything is complete before you leave. If you can't, use a visa service and get confirmation from them. Otherwise www.gotorussia.com is a fabulous website. We got our invitation letters from them rather than our hotel. It's very useful if you are going to 2 or more cities.

You'll have a wonderful trip!!

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I will be in NYC most of this week, so my plan is to go to the consulate myself and try to get the visa. If I encounter any difficulties, I'll hire a visa service.

The whole process turned out to be incredibly easy. As I indicated in my original post, I had the requisite letter from my hotel, which turned out to be all I needed.

Last Thursday, I printed out the Visa application from the Russian consulate website, picked up a $200 money order from the post office ($200 is the fee for next-day service), and picked up three instant passport photos on Lexington Avenue before heading up to the consulate on 91st Street. When I walked in, there was only one other person in there and no line. The only hitch I experienced was that they did not like the way my application had printed out, so they handed me another one and I had to fill it out again, which took about 10 or 15 minutes. Then I went back to the window, gave the clerk my application, the letter from the hotel, one passport photo (that's all they needed, even though something I read indicated they needed three), and my passport. She walked away and came back in two minutes with a receipt, and sent me over to the cashier to pay the $200. After paying, I brought the receipt (now marked "paid") back to the original window. She gave me a copy and told me to return the next day after 11:00. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes, excluding the time it took to re-complete the application.

The next day, I showed up at around 11:30 and had my passport (and visa) in hand and was out the door in less than 30 seconds.

Glad to hear your visa came off without a hitch. Enjoy Russia!

On a seperate subject, has anyone dealt with the Embassy and the NY Consulate? Is the Consulate much easier to deal with than the Embassy is?

Just thought I'd add this for posterity:

If you plan to be in Russia for 72 hours or less, you can pick up a Transit Visa and you don't need an "invitation." All you need is cash and proof of your flight dates.

As far as I understand, the visa fees vary according to location. The Russian embassies and consulates try to take the highest possible fees allowed by local "market conditions". In some Asian countries getting a Russian visa might be a 300+ $ experience. :mad:

Good to know, as CO will possibly be announcing non stops to Moscow in 2005 and just about all my trips (anywhere in the world) consists of long weekends with a max 2 night stay.