Russian visa help - unique situaiton!
 

Hi, I hope there are some here who can help me. I'm Russian citizen, living in US. I will be going to russia in april and my friend wants to come with me for a visit. Here's where it gets complicated: she's now in India (Indian citizen with H1 US visa), although will come to US for a month in march. I need to find out how to get her a visa. It seems the usual way is to have a hotel fax a visa support letter. but i own an apartment there and we will be staying at the apt. so, no hotel.
A private citizen can make an invitation, but from the info i have, i think i have to be inside the country to do it and it takes a long time. besides, i would need to collect russian paperwork. I can't go there ahead of time, as my vacation time is limited.
What is the best way to do it?

-Does anyone know about difference between Russian embassies in India vs. New York? She can do at either, since she'll be in NY at least for a month. US is mor expensive ($100 vs $50 in india), but if easier then it's worth it.
-There are online service that faciliate visas. Any experiences with those and any recommendations for reliable ones?
-will a hotel issue visa support letter if we make a cancelable reservation without prepaying, and later cancel our stay? I read that you also include a voucher that shows payment has been made.
-What else can we do to make it as painless as possible?

Thanks

First off, you need to make sure that Russian Consulate general in NY will agree to even consider your friend's visa application. In many instances they only consider applications for visas from actual RESIDENTS of NY state and the states surrounding NY. Same story with other Russian consulates in the States. You may want to call the consulate in question first. Most likely she can only get Russian visa in India.

You cannot make a faux hotel booking and not stay at the hotel when traveling to Russia without consequences. Upon arrival to Russia, your friend's visa will be registered by the hotel at the local OVIR service, and when he/she checks out from the hotel, her/his visa will be stamped by the hotel. Your friend will have serious problems at Russian immigration upon leaving the country if he/she did not stay at the hotel that sent the invitation.

Remember, your friend can stay in Russia without registration only for up to 72 hours.

Visa services work excellent in the US, but as I mentioned earlier your friend's visa will most likely have to be processed in India, I don't know anything about Indian visa agencies.

You are correct, you have to be isnide the country to get an "invitation" for a foreigner, however your family members can get one as well. In this instance, your friend will have to go to OVIR and register her/himself upon arrival within 72 hours from landing, and as you know, Russian OVIR's are a major pain.

With that said, PM me if you have any further questions, and good luck.

You might check out www.waytorussia.net -- they have some good information.

Typically what you can do is get a travel agency to make a tourist invitaion for you for $30. This includes a token hotel reservation that you don't have to use. Once you get there, there are a couple of ways to work out the registration. The official way involves several forms and is described on the above site. The other way is to pay your inviting travel agent to work it out, for about $30-50.

They don't care about the specifics of the reservation, or that it was at the same place specified on your invitation, they just care that you got some sort of registration.

I used WayToRussia's service on my last trip and didn't have any troubles.

thanks for quick replies! i wasn't clear earlier - my friend is employed by US company in NYC (thus the H1), but is currently on leave in india (to visit family) and will return to ny to work before going to russia in april with me. If there is advantage to doing visa in india, then there's an opportunity to do so. i think she'll be accepted by NY consulates, since she has an address in nyc and several years of tax returns and other docs with life here.

I'm all too aware of russian officialdom, having lived there most of my life. Unfortunately, i don't have any family there to ask and knowing how painful it is, i want to avoid asking friends to do the invitation.

I checked out the website - i'm still unclear if it's perfectly legal and if interrogated will it hold up, or are you just skating by on hopeful disinterest of officials? it sounds too easy - although i won't complain if that's all we have to do.
Off topic - i don't understand why they keep the old soviet paranoid laws now? it only discourages tourism and the big, bad american spies will get in anyway! and $100 for 1 month max visa is ridiculous for the level of country. yes, they are getting back at US for making it difficult for russians to enter, but still. For my $100 i got a 5 year multi entry visa to Brazil!
nothing is easy in russia... i've been looking into selling my apartment there, and it seems close to impossible, especially getting the money out of the country without carrying it in a briefcase! arghh...ok, rant over.

The Russian Embassy in Delhi used to be quite simple to get a visa from as recently as a few years ago. They even used to offer "self-sponsored visas", but those usually required leaving some sort of security bond with the embassy - and I doubt those are still offered anyway.

Still, Delhi will be much easier to get the visa than New York - I would reccomend she calls or visits the Russian Embassy while she is there and find out what paperwork they will accept - you may be able to get away with it.

This is not correct. I live in Moscow and have had visitors many times who used a hotel invitation to get their visa and then cancel their reservation, without any problems leaving. The one problem you might have is with "registration", which is required if you are in Moscow more than 72 hours. The hotel usually provides the "registration" stamp when you check-in (although there are other sources-- see www.expat.ru for more info). Without registration you could be hassled and/or fined by the police. But the passport control officers who process you at the airport are have no authority to ensure you have registration (only the police do) and therefore cannot make any problems for you upon exit. (They may try, but I have not seen that happen in a long time at major airports and like sheremetyevo or domodedevo. It is more likely to happen if you go through some out of the way airport where the border guards dont often see foreigners and there is little control over them).

If she is from India, she'll have to get her visa from India. You can get a friend in Russia to write her a letter saying they will rent a place and present it when she applies for a visa. Thewn you must register at OVIR which in itself can be a nightmare. If I were you, I'd get a cheap hotel to stay at for a day or to so they can register the visa. If not, get a travel agent to get the Izvechenia and then get them to register it. Simple, but either way you have to pay. It is better than being hassled by the Гаи!

Lots of different opinions here. Some of them are not my experience.

If you use a visa service to get your Russian visa, choose one of the specialists that are usually run by Russian expats. They will tell you exactly how to do it, they know all the regs, have friends at the consulate, etc.

The registration on arrival in Russia is something you have to know about. If you get a tourist visa (the easiest) the visa service will get an invitation for you part of their fee. You do not have to stay in this hotel, but you do need a hotel name/address to write on the arrival documentation. It is not cross-referenced on departure. The visa service will also give you details of how to get the hotel registration stamp at a local office (many of them tend to be travel agents) they know (tends to cost about US$30 locally for this). Take your passport to them one day, collect it the next. It will be stamped with some hotel you have never heard of, but no matter. This is much more efficient than going through the OVIR office.

Russian bureaucracy is not normally hard on people doing their own thing, but are more concerned that everything is properly stamped in the right place and that sort of fine detail. Apparently it's always been like this going right back into Czar times.

Call the Russian Embassy in NYC. They will gladly tell you all you need to know.

Applying for Russian Visas in India has its own merits, but I would stick to NYC if possible because 1. The number of applicants would be less. 2. It would theoretically be possible to make a call and get someone on the other end who can actually give relevant information pretty quickly 3. Some embassies have police verification that could stretch into weeks, meaning if your friend applies in India she could be stranded there if there are delays.

Hope this helps.

Anybody knows why getting a visa to visit Russia is still almost as difficult as when it was still the USSR? Travel to Russia is still no piece of cake for foreigners(including US citizens)

In fact, China now feels more like a free society, when compared to Russia... or is it just my imagination? :)

Under the USSR, it was to tightly control who went in the country and to track their movements. Now, however, it strikes me as a moneymaking scam. You pay a fee for an invitation, you pay a fee for the visa, you pay a fee for registration. It also gives the police an excuse to shake you down for bribes if your registration isn't right (or they claim it isn't).

The country overall would make more money if they got more tourists, but I think those collecting the fees now don't want the system to change.

Services such as this are standard. There is nothing wrong or illegal about this approach.

I do not know how the Russian Embassy in India works, but having a visa issued outside of one's home country is not necessarily a problem--particularly if your friend is an Indian citizen. I am a US citizen, and have had numerous Russian visas issued in the UK (where it is in fact faster and cheaper than in the US). However, nationals of certain countries can [formally] only get Russian visas issued in their country of nationality. As another poster stated, it would depend on how efficient the Russian Embassy in India is and the relative cost and convenience factors. If possible, I would suggest that your friend ask around aboout the general reputation for efficiency and accuracy of the Russian Embassy there, and then if the results are not too unfavorable to try to obtain the visa there. Faster processing is more expensive in the U.S. (and most other countries), and particularly if there is a problem/delay (e.g., from the U.S. visa status) when having the visa issued inthe U.S., the cost will increase commensurately. By starting the process in India, the month in the U.S. is still available as a fall-back.

Compared to Eastern European countries that have been liberated from communist rules for more than a decade, Russia is still very much a tightly-controlled nation.

There are still places where foreign tourists are "forbidden" to visit. It is still possible for a foreign tourist to be questioned when straying too far from major cities into the countryside. If your papers/documents are not 100% in order(whether true or fabricated), the police are more than happy to let it go for financial considerations.

Back to the issue of getting a visa... it is advisable to get a visa service agency to do the work for you. Most of them have "$pecial ties" with the Russian consulate and it is very easy to get a visa through them.(at least this was true as of 18 months ago)

if we'll go the agency route, can anyone recommend any in new york, national, or online? there's one that was mentioned earlier, but i'd like to hear who else people have used. this seems to be the best way to go.
thanks all for help. will keep you updated.
i also agree with other posters that Russia still has plenty of old soviet laws (and mentality) left, whether by inertia or on purporse. doind anything there is a major undertaking and i only hope it gets better. it's still a wonderful place to visits - just don't let the lack of service in various places put you off!