Russian visa situation

[Renee (Stillings) Huhs]

No, and generally it is just best to avoid NY right now. But often in the
case where an organization might be organizing the processing of visas for a
group (of students, for example) for logistical reasons it is easier to send
them all (regardless of where the student is from) to one consulate. I think
Houston and SF may be jurisdictional as well - meaning it doesn't work well
unless you are doing it on your own. Lots of little nuances that are coming
into play right now in terms of which consulate is operating more smoothly
one week and not the next, changing rules, etc.

 

With chaos also in some FMS offices in Russia and their resulting inability
to produce invitations, more are turning to these 3-yr multis as a stop gap
- including students going this summer.  

 

And still, for those in the middle of the country, a last minute ticket to
NY is not cheap. And you can't just do it "en route" to your flight as after
the interview they still might say you have to wait several days for it to
be ready. So at the moment just best to avoid NY if you are applying for the
3-yr multi.

 

  _____  

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 4:09 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian visa situation

 

It looks like the country (the US) is subdivided into jurisdictions, and
there are 5 consulates to serve each jurisdiction. So you do not have to fly
exactly "across the country", but if you are in Hawaii you do have to go to
Seattle, which is a bit of a distance:
http://www.russianembassy.org/page/russian-consulates-in-the-u-s

 

Alina

 

On Jun 6, 2013, at 6:52 PM, Renee (Stillings) Huhs wrote:





Dear SEELANGers,

 

I know we were all looking forward to those 3-yr multi-entry visas. A note
of warning. The New York consulate is now requiring INTERVIEWS for it - no
exceptions. Doesn't matter where you live. If this isn't bad enough in and
of itself, it has resulted in considerable chaos as visa agents try now to
all retrieve passports for their clients from the consulate. So far the
other consulates are not requiring the interviews, although they are going
over the apps with a fine tooth comb.

 

The interviews themselves are fairly pro forma - the usual how are you
paying for it, do you have insurance, why do you need a multi - basically a
rubber stamping motion after which they issue the visa anyway. That is
perhaps the more irritating part of it - that they want you to fly all
across the country for such nonsense. I know we can't really argue as they
will point out that Russians have to fly across Siberia to do interviews to
come here.

 

Renee

 

************************

Renee Stillings

Director, SRAS

rstillings at sras.org

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Alina Israeli

Associate Professor of Russian

WLC, American University

4400 Massachusetts Ave.

Washington DC 20016

(202) 885-2387    fax (202) 885-1076

aisrael at american.edu

 

 

 

 

 

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