another invitation question

[Jack Kollmann]

Dear All,

        I'm looking at two options for getting invitations to initiate visas to
Russia for a group of students in September for 20 days:  (1) the St.
Petersburg travel company involved says it can issue invitations only for
the dates of our group hotel reservations (this sounds like the old
practice).  (2) Some individual students want to arrive early or stay late
on their own, and I see at <visatorussia.com> that one can ask for a 30-day
tourist visa, and visatorussia.com can initiate the invitation and visa
application regardless of one's hotel reservations or living accommodations.

        Option (2) sounds perfect for us, but I'm afraid of creating possible
glitches down the road (too many years of Soviet snafus).  Can anyone (a)
confirm that it is certainly possible to work with a letter of invitation
for a 30-day tourist visa regardless of one's hotel or housing
arrangements, and (b) should I trust visatorussia.com to handle our
invitations/visa applications, or do you recommend another method or company?

Thanks,
Jack Kollmann

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