Russian visa query

[John Dunn]

In so far as it is necessary – or even possible – to explain the actions of Russian officialdom, it may well be that any clamp down on the issue of visas to non-residents may be connected to the vigorous campaign that Russia is at present waging to obtain visa-free travel between Russia and the EU (more properly, I suspect, the Schengen zone).   Now that Russians have started to travel to EU countries in vast numbers, they have discovered that visas are not quite as much fun as they always thought they were, but if they are going to reach the Nirvana of being able to visit Europe without the humiliation of queuing and supplying biometric and bank data to consular bureaucrats (President Sarkozy, who is relatively sympathetic to the Russian case, has said it will take 10-15 years), Russia will have to agree to take back people who arrive in Schengen countries without the appropriate entry documents.  In these circumstances no Russian consul is going to want to issue visas to p!
 eople who, having arrived in Russia, are unable to return whence they came or, indeed, to find any other country willing to accept them.

Not that this information is likely to be of much comfort to American students.

John Dunn.

________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Josh Wilson [jwilson at SRAS.ORG]
Sent: 09 December 2010 13:34
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian visa query

Just to let others know - a couple other folks from this contact me as well
concerning the questions - seems most were from this last summer, so indeed
it would seem that the clamp down that started a couple years back has
reversed itself again for students.

I asked on another message board for professionals based in Moscow - and
indeed for business visas and work visas, the clampdown seems to remain
tightly in place. Ukraine seems to have clamped down on the residency
"purchasing" recently as well.

Again, I would definitely call ahead to the particular consulate to make
sure of their interpretation of how this law is currently being implemented.


Josh

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