changes in visa process

[Park, Lynda]

As ASEEES has been writing many advocacy letters of late, we would be willing to take the lead in writing a letter to the Russian embassy as well as other relevant Russian administrative offices.  

If you could send me clear descriptions of the issues, I can issue a letter of concern quickly.

Regards,

Lynda Park, Executive Director
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 
(formerly AAASS) 
203C Bellefield Hall 
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260-6424 
USA
(412) 648-9788 (direct), 648-9911 (main)
(412) 648-9815 (fax)
www.aseees.org
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-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Jane Costlow
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 1:45 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] changes in visa process

  Just so everyone knows, here's Travisa's response to my inquiry of how 
to proceed (since the Russian Embassy site is down):

Good afternoon, there is an issue with the Russia web site, may I 
suggest that you try again later.

Several people mentioned good agencies to work with - it does seem the 
issue here isn't the agencies, but the Russian Embassy webpage.

Might this be a time to ask our professional organizations to raise the 
issue?

Jane



On 7/13/11 12:17 PM, Josh Wilson wrote:
> It is, simply put, a disaster right now.
>
> The server the site is hosted on is slow and crashes. The site itself is
> ugly and clumsy and apparently doesn't even have all the fields that are
> needed at last check.
>
> The site is being used on the directive of the Russian Ministry of the
> Interior, but against the will of the consulates that are actually
> encouraging people to go to the media and complain so that maybe Medvedev
> will hear something about it and get it taken care of.
>
> The site has bee in use in London for about a year now - apparently visa
> processing companies there have adapted to it by slogging through each
> online application (which apparently takes an hour now instead of a few
> minutes for the old paper kind) and charging clients a new "online
> application fee" of $35-50. You can go through a number of visa processing
> agencies in the US that can help you - not sure if they have increased their
> fees yet to reflect this - but one we've used often in the past is
> http://www.traveldocs.com/ .
>
> There are some very hopeful visa reforms on the horizon: 3 year
> tourist/business visas with the US that will not require invitations; five
> year professional visas with the EU... but as with all things, this is one
> step forward and at least a stumble back.
>
> Not sure if this particularly helps you - but hopefully it at least explains
> the situation a bit more.
>
>
> 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 Jane Costlow
> Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 7:49 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] changes in visa process
>
>    Dear colleagues,
>
>       I'm in the process of attempting to get a visa for travel to Russia
> later this month.  I had submitted everything and then got it returned
> because beginning July 1 all applications must be done on line.
> Currently the Embassy form is unavailable - the website is down - and
> the visa service they refer you to is not answering their phone.  Any
> suggestions?  Is anyone else in the middle of this?
>
>
> Jane Costlow
>
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