OMFG, we have Russian visas!

For anyone following the epic saga that has been this process, you will understand just how thrilling this development is. It also means we don’t have to immediately leave for the UK to try and organise Russian visas over there. Phew.

For anyone who’s not been close to the saga, and my ever-greyer hair (and more ulcery stomach), suffice it say that getting visas out of the Russian consulate here (or, we’re told, pretty much anywhere else) is an extremely stressful, difficult and expensive affair.

Indeed, while I had always appreciated the finely-tuned and comedic stylings of one Franz Kafka, I now feel I understand his pain quite a lot more…personally.

Our Russian visas. Phew.

What makes getting a Russian visa so difficult?

Russian embassies are, apparently, little fiefdoms to themselves, and operate quite independantly of the motherland. Which means that some can be rather more chaotic/difficult to deal with than others – there’s no standard applied to them. I had thought that the New Zealand branch might be quite cruisy, but not so.

Primarily, the problem is that they seem to require an awful lot of paperwork and hassle (as do all Russian embassies). They’re also very difficult to contact: don’t bother trying to phone the visa office. They never pick up, and they answer emails infrequently if at all. They’re also not very helpful in explaining what the requirements actually mean, and how (if possible) to deal with them.

Our story

This all began about 3 months ago when, in good time, I began to email the Russian consulate here. I had read their webpage, including the bit saying they needed a letter from our host/tourism agency, and also a detailed itinerary and proof of where we will be staying each night.

All well and good, except we’re doing the Mongol Rally. So the above are simply not something we have. Concerned, I contacted the Consulate, erroneously believing that this wouldn’t be too difficult to sort out.

For anyone else in New Zealand, here’s how to go about the whole horrifying process. I imagine it’s not dissimilar in other countries, too :)

How to get your Russian visa or:
An exercise in going grey

Prelude. Do not presume that this will be as easy as it was for the other countries to which you’ve travelled.

It will not be. Well, unless one of those countries was China :P

1. Start early

You are allowed to apply for a a visa anytime earlier than 90 days before you intend to arrive in Russia. Do not assume, as I did, that this gives you lots of time. It doesn’t. Getting anything out of the Consulate could take several weeks to months, no matter how many emails ands telephone calls (both obviously unanswered) you send their way.

Something that I found helped a little was having a friend waylay the Russian Ambassador at a function and extract from said very confused man an actual NAME to which I could direct things.

This ending up making no real difference, as although my emails started getting answered (huzzah!)  my questions/concerns weren’t really addressed, and, unlike the Mongolian Consulate*, there was absolutely no budging.  Still, though, it’s never a bad idea to have a name.

2. Look very carefully at the paperwork you need.

It will include such items of terror as

A standard tourist Confirmation (“Podtverzdeniye”) and a tour Voucher (original of it or the additional proof of payment of the tour is required if it is purchased directly and not by means of a correspondent NZ travel agency) from an authorized hosting Russian travel agency, registered in the Russian MFA. Confirmation and Voucher [ed: also called an invitation letter/visa support letter/invitation] must be issued in a due form, have a REFERENCE-NUMBER of the hosting company, personal data of each tourist, dates of trip, itinerary in Russia, services paid.

and

Cover letter from your travel agency in New Zealand containing:

• dates and points of arrival and departure in and from Russia, means of transport
• itinerary in Russia
• name of the hosting Russian company and its reference number
• payment information (full payment of services provided by hosting Russian agency is required)

If, like us, you are undertaking the Mongol Rally or, indeed, any bit of tourism wherein you don’t have each frikkin’ night planned for, booked and paid for, then worry not! Ish.

After much research and asking around, it became clear that there’s an entire industry devoted to organising people tourist ‘invitation letters’, which a hotel will give you when you ‘book’ with it or which the companies forming this industry will organise for you, for a fee.

All well and good, but by this time you may be starting to run out of time (see 1), and also not want to rish having your visa application refused, both for reasons of time AND money. Russian visas are pricey. More on that later, though.

Also, it’s worth realising that Russian Embassies are each their own little fiefdoms, meaning application rules and fees will olikely differ between them. Check carefully what your local Embassy wants.

Some more info from the lovely peeps at Lonely Planet, here: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/russia/practical-information/visas

3. Figure out for which dates you need the visa. Exactly.

You may have assumed that a Russian tourist visa is for a defined period. Say, oh I dunno, 30 days. You would, like me, have been entirely incorrect.

No (and this is not clear in anything I read, by the way), you need to ask for a visa for a specific number of days numbering up to 30.

Remember that something happening on your trip might mean that you are delayed and run out of visa time. Fair enough, but that could cost you a couple of days’ stint in a Russian prison (FUN) before you are thrown out of the country. Plan extra time, folks!

Of course, be careful here, too – we had wanted the full 30 in case of breakdown/drama, but our agent (see 4) suggested we trim that to 3 weeks. Why? Well, another Kiwi rallier had applied for a visa for only 10 days _ what the trip across Russia will take if all goes well – and he was concerned too great a discrepancy could get our application denied.

That other Kiwi is very brave…

4. Consider NOT filling out and submitting all the paperwork yourself.

You could. You totally could. And it would cost you less. BUT it’s worth considering paying that little bit more for that little bit less of a stomach ulcer.

The UK’s The Visa Machine can sort this and pretty much any other visa out for you, for a pretty reasonable price. Of course, if you’re not in the UK, that means you have to trust your passport to international post. Not necessarily a problem if you paid attention to 1. and have lots of time for it to get lost and replaced, but yes.

If you’re in New Zealand, you could also contact Vostok Services‘ Ian Roberston. He’s had business dealings with the Russians for years, and so has a relationship with the Embassy here. For an admittedly stiff fee, he will sort the invitation and paperwork, and also explain your situation to the Embassy. Once the paperwork’s in it’s out of his hands, but it gives you a far higher chance of getting the damn thing. It certainly worked for us, and means our passports never had to leave NZ (although they did travel unnecessarily back to Auckland once the visas had been issued**).
5. Be prepared for the visa to take longer to issue than you had thought.

Just that. And remember: it may be very difficult or even impossible to check on the status of your application.

Additionally, be very careful about which address the passports are returned to. Remember that (as was the case for us), you can’t just go and drop off/fetch your passports.

6. Once you have your passports, reserve your joy and celebrations until you’ve checked that the details on them are correct.

Well, at least as far as you can. Do the dates make sense? Do they match the dates on your co-traveller’s? Is your name correct, at least as far as you can tell?

Ours seem to have our names written in phonetic Russian, so it’s a bit tricky to make sure that they’re spelt correctly. We can only hope…

And allow yourself to giggle at what we assume is phonetic Russian. My surname’s ‘Vuitkroft’, for example (giving me an automatic Russian accent when I say it, teehee), and my first name is 6QMI. I can only hope that says ‘aimee’…

7. Enjoy Russia

Don’t let any possible horror you’ve experienced getting the visas put you off your trip. It’s extremely likely that the Russians you will meet, and the country you will experience, will, for the most part, be awesome :)

Oh, and you’ll need to register once you get there.  Details again in that lovely Lonely Planet page I mentioned above :)

Final thoughts

We can’t wait to see Russia, and think the people on the ground will, for the most part, likely be pretty awesome.

But we couldn’t help wondering – why make it so difficult for people to come to one’s country and spend money? If we didn’t HAVE to go through Russia, the whole drama might well have made us decide to go somewhere else, and I’ll bet that happens a lot…

—-

* Hooray for the Mongolian Consulate! Upon explaining the situation re itinerary, we were told that a simple letter from The Adventurists, stating that we really were takin part in the Mongol Rally, would suffice. Problem: solved. Also, they answered my first email, and on the same day, within the hour of my sending it.

** The Embassy is in Wellington. We live in Wellington. Vostok Services is in Auckland, which is why they were sent from there to the Embassy in the first place. However, they could simply have been sent straight to us here in Wellington. Hell, we could even have gone to pick them up, if something so easy and efficient had been possible.

—–

aimee