Viewing topic: My ongoing Visa Rant

Okay folks, time to spill the beans about how the visa run went.

In a word, swimmingly.

I was worried that I wouldn't get the visa in my passport because I didn't have two adjacent (facing each other) blank pages (this news came at the last minute from browsing a visa agency website). I wouldn't even be able to get the visa in my new passport (part of the visa run was also to obtain a second passport - more about that later) because the invitation would have the details of my old passport on it. That also came from the visa agency.

Sure enough, at the consulate (Edinburgh) they confirmed my adjacent-page fears, and helpfully explained that for a multi-entry visa you should have a page opposite free for in-out stamps.

I managed to persuade them (quite easily, they were most accommodating) that it didn't matter at all because I only expected to go in and out once (I explained that I would be picking up a work visa invitation and coming back soon to get it in a new passport) and that there would be room on a half-empty page opposite one of the few remaining empty pages.

Sorted.

I didn't need the HIV certificate that I paid 30 quid for at the last minute in St. Petersburg (I've found a clinic that does HIV tests 24 hours per day, useful should you forget until the last minute - it costs about 700 roubles in normal working hours or 900 extra late at night and is ready within 30 minutes) this is apparently because we can't stay more than 90 days consecutively, thus we can't give anyone HIV/AIDS.

I got my second passport the next day (same day service, four hours) despite being told by the utterly useless information line that I had to jump through a series of arcane hoops to get a second passport and that it would take days or weeks to be ready.

The nice man at the consulate said that if I come back with the new passport and papers with an invitation made out for the old passport, then as long as I submit the old passport at the time of application, they will have no problems putting the visa in the new passport. This *should* apply to any visas.

As it happens, a fortunate blunder means that the work visa invitation is delayed, delayed, delayed, which means that it can now be made out for my new passport.

This means that, theoretically, I can leave the country, annul my current (160 GBP) commercial visa, send the new passport and invitation off to an agency in the UK (by courier) and then bugger off to Crimea with my old passport to wait for the new work visa.

Nice, if it works. I will let everyone know how it goes - if it works, then it's the perfect way to avoid a forced 'holiday' in your homeland every year.

Of course, with work visas there is supposedly no need to renew them outside of the country every year - they just get extended in Russia. You need to leave the country once every 12 months (don't know how long for, but I know where I'll be going when I do )

Further to bobs12's post above, I have found a clinic which will give a result and certificate in 2 hours from test: Price = 600 rubles.

It's on V.O. PM me if you need details.

Has anyone seen what the fine folks in China are doing? They changed their visa rules as well. Just in time for the Olympics. Folks trying to teach can only sometimes get a 30 day tourist visa.
They are also picky in who they give visas to. Some people in the country for years got tossed out. One lady had Tibetan ancestry, but was American. She was given 5 minutes to pack one bag and get out. She had been in the country 5 years.
Lots of fun in China.
Hey! Let's tell them to come to Russia!!

Not sure they'd have that much more fun over here My experience so far is that the Mothership visa regime is as lax and corrupt as ever! Just with more bureaucratic restrictions. I'm not finding it any harder on the whole so far, touch wood.

Robert, your "cheap" HIV test cost four times the price of a HIV test out here in the boondocks (Cheboksary); i.e. 150 roubles for test in the morning, cert issued in the afternoon. I had a test just before leaving for Tallinn on my abortive visa run (I see you've already passed on my negative info re Brits, Danes and Irish), knowing that the Tallinn consulate would certainly require a cert: the Consulate in London didn't want it and I was advised to hold on to it as the border control might want to see it (which I knew was nonsense, the passport control wallahs assume all required med certs have already been examined by the visa issuing consulate). Last week I had to undergo a battery of medical tests (HIV/AIDS, syphillis and other venereal diseases, tuberculosis, leprosy and vaguely defined narcotic related diseases) required for my application for residency (временное проживанное)===something it's taken me nine years of married life to a Russian citizen to get around to doing===and, as my HIV cert had been issued exactly a month earlier it was considered invalid, so back I went to the AIDS clinic. The doctor recognised me (well, I am the only native English speaker in Cheboksary as well as having an appearance that even my friends have described as "unfortunately unforgettable" and said "Give me the old spravka and 100 roubles." She tore up the old cert, wrote out and stamped a new one, pocketed the 100 roubles and we parted with mutual satisfaction. That's the way to get things done in this neck of the woods.

Oops, sorry Robert, not your "cheap" HIV test, I meant the bargain 600 rouble cert that mememe got. As a matter of interest, if anyone reading this forum has recently also had all the med tests for residency, I'd be interested to know how much it all cost (mine came to 950 roubles, including the 100 roubles for a new HIV spravka.

Yes, larry - but us 'big city slickers' always expect to pay through the nose (and are rarely disappointed)

No relevant costs on residency application - but the medical bits for my work visa cost 2700p....

Perhaps we could start up a "Best Buys" thread???l

But would it really be worth it? Everything could change at the push of a button tomorrow...

I do plan to have a 'mini-directory' of resources.

We have Kent's Master Index (donated from Dave's ) but as ever, I was planning something a tad more on the slick and technical, user-friendly side.

Probably combined with Google maps Well, I do think it's fun to see where things actually are

On that note, I'm off to start another rant. Ciao!