Visa

Hanno's Blog

Friday, July 15. 2011

Visa


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You are very politically correct, but inability to apply for a multiple visa, inability to get something on your own ( agencies which makes money), and fake hotel booking it's completely Russian problem.

Bureaucracy, bribery and unreasonable laws are just a few reasons why I left Russia.
#1 Anton on 2011-07-16 01:01 (Reply)
You're wrong. For exaple I'm living in St.Petersburg,Russia and if I wanna get schengen visa I should make a trip plan, book hotels and so on. And its not that easy to get such kinds of visa.
#1.1 Alexey Shvetsov (Homepage) on 2011-07-16 05:07 (Reply)
If you think that Russia has unreasonable visa laws, just compare them to American, British, or Schengen visa policies. I could tell you some real horror stories. Here is the most recent one.

I know an Indian citizen who obtained an American H-1B visa and worked as a software engineer in the US. Earlier this year, he went on a short vacation to visit his family back in India. In order to return to the US, he needed to get the visa stamped at the US consulate. And at the consulate, he was, to his utter surprise, told that to get the stamp, he needed to pass a new "background check" (even though he had already passed all the necessary background checks to obtain his visa in the first place, and had spent several years working in the US). So he waited for the results of the new background check... and waited... and waited... And a few weeks later, still stuck in India waiting for a reply from the consulate, he received an email from his American employer, telling him that his employment contract was now canceled for missing too many work days. Without an American employment contract, his H-1B visa was void and canceled. He is still in India, all of his possessions are in the US, and he has no way to access them.

To be blunt, while Russian visa policies are often silly, American visa policies are *sadistic* - and British policies aren't much better.
#1.2 A. R. on 2011-07-16 20:32 (Reply)
According to the Russian Immigration Law *you do not need a tourist visa* for the period of *up to 72 hours* if you travel on International Cruise Sea Ship and you have accomodation on the same shipboard as well as a group tourist program during your stay in the Russian seaport.

Is exist any visa-free offers in EU for Russian sitizens?
#2 yaleks on 2011-07-20 09:33 (Reply)
I have the privilege of attending conferences in both
Europe (Budapest, Hungary) and Russia (St. Petersburg) in recent times.
I am an Indian studying in US and also had to get my US visa renewed,
for which I in turn travelled to Mexico.

Indeed, I would agree that obtaining these visas is a bit messy,
takes a lot of time and adds a bit of anxiety.

Also, I would agree that information is scarce on the consulate websites
and it even takes some effort to locate proper information.
Specific issues:

1. Renewing the US visa caused me some anxiety.
I had to go to Mexico and there was a possibility
that I had to either go back to India or stay there for about a month,
in case they required some additional verification.
While it is usually recommended to get your US visa renewed
in your home country, I had two conferences lined up in the
following two months, so I decided to go for it.
There were quite a few grim stories floating around
(most of which are unfounded), but overall, I would say it
is a bit risky. Also required a lot of documentation.
I would also add that overall, the process
was pretty painless, thanks to people being cordial in
US consulate and also Mexico in general.

2. The Hungarian consulate (in Los Angeles) website doesn't even
make it clear that you need a prior appointment for the visa interview,
and the consulate itself is open only on two afternoons in a week,
and to add to that, it takes two weeks to get an appointment.
While there are not too many applicants, it takes about
30 minutes to 1 hour for them to process each application
(which explains the long wait to get an appointment).
Again, people at both the Hungarian consulate and Hungary
in general are very friendly and overall, it was a very smooth going.

3. The Russian visa was much more complicated, and thankfully
most of the process was handled by a travel and tour company
on behalf of the conference. They did most of the heavy lifting
and got a reference number from the ministry of foreign affairs,
following which it was a relatively easy interview at the consulate.
Oddly, you get a Humanitarian visa, and it is valid only
for the cities one is visiting.
It is also a little pricey (150 usd for regular 2-week and 250 usd
for 4-day processing).

@Alexey: Incidentally, I should be in St. Petersburg on Sunday :).
#3 Hirakendu Das (Homepage) on 2011-07-29 17:52 (Reply)

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This blog is written by Hanno Böck. Unless noted otherwise, its content is licensed as CC0.

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