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Post by fruitloop on Feb 16, 2015 1:37:10 GMT
Hi
We are going on a coach tour in a few months that includes six nights in Russia. From what we have read online it seems they want quite a lot of information including every country you have visited in the last ten years and when you visited. Also you have to send in your passport and we wanted to do some traveling in the meantime. Has anyone had any experience with this. Thanks. |
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Post by chech on Feb 16, 2015 2:25:40 GMT
Yup. I did a tour in Russia and they want everything short of your first born for the visa. By far, the most detailed one I've had to apply for. You have to ensure the dates are precise. Trafalgar sent me a link to a service that helped with the invitation letter and answered any questions I had. It only takes about a week or so to get it. Less if you pay for the urgent request. I had to get both as my tour dates were changed and had to apply for a second one as urgent. Got it in like five days (a little longer for me since I'm so far from the embassy). I sent the passport to the embassy in a tracked Canada Post Expresspost envelope (tracked overnight delivery) and put another one in with the application for the embassy to use to send back to me (prepaid). I put all the address information on the return envelope and kept note of the tracking number so that I could see when they sent it back to me. You can apply like up to 3 months in advance and all you need is a couple of weeks when you know you're not using the passport to send it into the embassy.  |
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Post by fruitloop on Feb 16, 2015 15:10:23 GMT
Thanks for your reply Chech.
When you had to put in details of countries you had visited in the last ten years, how accurate did you have to be with dates (eg. Could you just say 'France 2010' or did you have to give a more precise date)? |
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Post by chech on Feb 16, 2015 17:10:54 GMT
I can't remember precisely but from what I just read on tripadvisor, they say just be as precise as you can remember. They doubt the dates are verified. One individual noted that they are most interested in the last 3 years (but to include all that you can remember). I'm guessing they'll only be really interested if you list multiple trips to former Soviet republics or China etc. So, if I were doing it, I'd start with the most recent and note precise dates if I knew them or just month/year if I didn't....like this Vietnam 14-27 January 2015 Panama 5-19 Nov 2014 Japan 14-26 May 2014 Argentina February 2014 etc You can use your passport to verify dates as well. One person noted they do this for certain countries only because those countries require the same of Russian visa applicants....like the UK which requires ten years for Russians applying to go there. The one thing that needs to be absolutely precise is the dates you plan to visit. When I went, our visas were verified by the guide on the first night (so that they could get it changed if one had the date wrong). Some Americans on the tour actually got more time then they needed (a couple weeks on either side of the dates they were visiting) but the Canadians were precise dating. If you're allowed to apply 3 months prior, do it as soon as you are allowed. That leaves time if there's a problem to redo it.  |
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Post by fruitloop on Feb 16, 2015 23:21:51 GMT
Thanks, that's very helpful. We have EU passports which makes it a bit tricky to track travel in in EU countries as it doesn't get stamped but we have a fair idea so we'll muddle through it. As you said if we apply early enough we will have time to get it right.
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