Russian Visa Nightmare

Julesie

Travelling to Asia for two months this summer (leaving Friday July 18th), going from Moscow to Beijing on the Trans Siberian route and then down through China into Vietnam and Thailand.

Most parts of the trip are booked and we are now in the process of getting the necessary visas.

The first we have tried for is the Russian visa and to be honest it has been a complete and utter nightmare.

1st Attempt - Arrive at embassy at 9am find out opening times are not as stated on the website (10am - 1pm) and that there is a queue of 30+ people already there. Visa section closes at 12pm with 20+people remaining in the queue.

2nd Attempt - Arrive at embassy at 6.30am. First in queue. Queue patiently for 2.5 hours, 20+ people arrive after us. 9am random bloke emerges from embassy and informs us today is a Russian holiday so visa section will not open and will not be open the following day either. (No signs, posters, notifications posted anywhere in vicinity of embassy).

3rd Attempt - Queue again this morning. Visa section actually opens. Get to desk hand in application and are informed the visa will not be ready for collection until July 16th (one whole month from now, despite being promised a same day service if you queue in person). No amount of stating that we need the visa sooner so we can apply for all the other visas we need is entertained.

So basically now the Russian embassy has our passports and we somehow need to have at least a chinese visa on our passport before we leave on July 18th. China do not offer a same day service as far as I can tell so we need our passports back at least a week before that at a bare minimum.

I have tried calling the embassy all morning but unsuprisingly they are not answering their phones. I am at a complete loss as to what we can do now. Does anyone have any advice?

Lambsbread

I have lived in Russia for more than a year now and can understand your problems

The 12th June is Russia Day so we had a public holiday thursday and firday last week (doesn't help now i know!)

I do not understand how it is taking one month for a visa though.... that is completely wrong. Anytime i got a visa it was alsways on the same day (for both Business and Tourist visas). There are options to pay more for the same day service. I really do not know what they said to you, but from my understanding it is completely untrue!

RATM

Yeah I had the same kinda problems with the Ruskies when getting a visa. Its far from a welcoming process to traveling to their country.
Anyway I can't understand why they are taking a month, that sounds ridiculous.

AFAIK the Chinese take 4-5 working days for a tourist so you are cutting it tight.

One option you could do if you haven't booked flights to Russia yet is to research how quick/efficient the embassy in Berlin are. Then fly there on a Ryanair cheapie on a Sunday night, be at the embassy very early Monday morning and then go and enjoy 5 days in Berlin.
Before doing this make sure to check they don't have a rule stating you must apply in your home country ( likely not, that rule is mainly for working holiday visas but check nonetheless ). From there you can book cheapish tickets to Moscow via Air Berlin.

This all sounds long winded but it could be preferable to getting to July 18th and then not having enough time to get your Chinese visa sorted. It has the potential to ruin your whole trip if you already have the train booked for a certain date. The one silver lining is that you get 5 days to explore Berlin and surrounds, not a bad option in the circumstances.

One more thing-make sure absolutely everything about your invitation to Russia is in order- they can be real sticklers on it.

Julesie

Thanks RATM, unfortunately we have our flight direct from Dublin - Moscow booked already for the 18th. We also have booked our train which leaves on the 22nd.

There really isnt much lag time in there though as we leave late on Friday night (18th) and the train is early on the Tuesday morning (22nd).

I work in the UK during the week so my only means of contacting them is phone at the moment..unfortunately they do not answer it at any time of the day.

If I have no joy in the next couple of days I will queue (again!!) on Friday morning and try to "reason" with them.

Give me strength.

RATM

Fair enough, best of luck queuing on Friday, let us know how you get on.

Remember to be all smiling but to state the urgency of the situation, I know they are not very friendly on the desk but try your best to get your urgency across...
I read another post on Russian Visas over on the Travel Forum, seems a few ppl there recommend doing it by post, you could ask would that be quicker.

One other long shot is if you know anyone working for the Irish Diplomatic Corps they might know someone who knows someone in the Russian Embassy who could help things along.

Edit- forgot to ask- are you going thru Mongolia on the Trans-Sib? You need a visa for there too....