Russian visa query

[Josh Wilson]

All, 

For those reporting no problems with this - I would be very interested to
know:

1) the date that you last processed a outside your home country 
2) if you are American
3) what consulate processed your visa
4) what document your stay in Europe was based on (student visas?) 

There is indeed a 90-day rule. Russia legislated it many years ago,
although, as is their fashion, only started to implement and enforce it
about two years back. There is currently no European country that will allow
Americans to stay for longer than 90 days without an appropriate visa or
residency. Again, as with all things in Russian legislation, the enforcement
is known to be spotty and to change pretty quickly. 

I assume that many of these experiences are from folks that spent a semester
in Europe - and therefore likely had a student or other visa good for longer
than 90 days.

Ukraine has actually made a small industry of selling residency to
foreigners who need to have their visas processed outside Russia. Georgia
allows Americans to stay 365 days without a visa, so that's currently
another possibility. 

The advice here to call the particular consulate that you are planning to
apply to is solid - and the only way to be sure of how the rule is being
enforced at that particular consulate.

Processing the student visa a full semester in advance is also not possible
- the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not allow that. 

Not trying to scare anyone here - but Russian visas are tricky things and
always have been - you need to make sure that you plan well advance. 

Best, 



Josh Wilson
Assistant Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor in Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
SRAS.org 
jwilson at sras.org



-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Adams Carroll
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 8:18 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian visa query

Yes, although processing times will be longer and fees will vary by
consulate; expedited service is out of the question. Some consulates
(usually in smaller cities) will not process visas for American citizens, so
your student should call and check beforehand. In any case, he will need to
fill out an application specific to U.S. citizens (often available on the
consulate's website) and may need to provide additional documents at the
time of application. The process will be much easier if your student has
residence permit or similar document allowing residency in the third country
for more than 90 days. There is no standardization to these regulations and
they change frequently. Tell your student to get on skype and start calling
around! He should not plan on applying for his visa in a third country until
he has spoken with an officer at the consulate in question, and even then
should expect that the process will be a little more complex than if he were
to apply in the United States.

-A.C.

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 6:44 PM, Elizabeth Skomp
<elizabethskomp at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Dear SEELANGers,
>
>
>
> One of my students will be studying in France next semester and hopes to
> spend summer
> 2011 in Russia.  Ideally he'd like to avoid a couple of extra
> transatlantic flights if possible, but I'm unsure of the current visa
> regulations as they pertain to a situation like this one.  Because
> preliminary web searches haven't
> yielded the information we seek, I now appeal to your collective wisdom:
> may a U.S. citizen apply for a Russian visa at a Russian
> consulate or embassy outside the United States?
>
>
>
> Spasibo zaranee,
>
> Elizabeth Skomp
>
> Sewanee: The University of the South
>
>
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-- 
Adams Carroll
Program Manager
Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russia
+7 (812) 324 07 72
+7 (921) 951 01 76

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