changes in visa process

Renee (Stillings) Huhs renee at alinga.com
Wed Jul 13 20:16:21 UTC 2011 

Lynda,

The concerns are quite simple.

1. The system is very frequently offline.
2. When it is online, pages load very slowly and as they often put one
question per page, it can take you an hour to go through it - the first
time. And if you are told (by someone like me reviewing it) that you need to
fix something in question #40 you need to spend another hour getting to
question #40 to fix it again ... . This is an issue of both poor design of
the system and made much worse by slow speed.

If this was designed well, it could actually be of some help. As it is, it
is torture. We have reviewed already 10+ apps online for our students on
this and I have another 10 backlogged to check once the system is back up
today ... not looking forward to it.

Renee

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Park, Lynda
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 1:05 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] changes in visa process

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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