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jarman_ah
Frequent Guest
Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 14
Location: Australia
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 Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:25 am Post subject: Ouch! Bought ticket first, and NOW I have to organise visa! |
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I saw the cheap fare on the net, jumped in and purchased, and now, of course, I have found this travel forum, and everyone's sage advice is, in short, "Never ever buy the air ticket before you have your visa safely in your hot little hand".
Well, it's too late now... and, like so many internet tickets, it's non-changeable and non-refundable. Should I just throw myself on the mercy of one of our local (Aussie) travel companies, who offer occasional highly-expensive tours which, of course, don't exactly coincide with the flight date (leaving me with days at either end to account for), or do I choose to let WTR "mock up" an itinerary for me and send me the letter of invitation based on that.... and just hope for the best?
Fortunately, I have lots of time at my disposal, so I will probably spend the next seven months studying other people's experiences and advice on this forum. However, a few encouraging stories right now would do wonders for my morale! |
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danbrew
Just Starting
Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:56 am Post subject: |
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You've got seven months remaining? Dude, plenty of time. Get a visa support letter from WTR and then plan YOUR trip around YOUR interests and then go enjoy.
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Acedog01
Just Starting
Joined: 30 Jul 2009
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:44 am Post subject: No need for concern |
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Hey Ocker!
You are fine. If it was a good fare, that's great.
AND WTR Visa Support is impressive.
Last year I went to St P then private driver to Novgorod The Great (Veliky Novgorod) then on to Moscow.
WTR provided the invitation/visa support then I decided where to stay and how long and enabled me to buy a train ticket while there (Novgorod to Moscow). Saved heaps on this.
This was my fifth time to this fascinating country
The easiest visa process ever. Just send all docs and passport to embassy registered/tracked and also same reply paid.
Hope that helps. Build your trip around your fare, not the other way round. You are in the box seat.
KIWI DC |
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Joann
Just Starting
Joined: 30 Jul 2009
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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| danbrew wrote: | You've got seven months remaining? Dude, plenty of time. Get a visa support letter from WTR and then plan YOUR trip around YOUR interests and then go enjoy.
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Dan, my flight to Russia is Oct. 2nd. I can fedex my application to Wash. DC on about Aug. 10. Is that enough time for me to get the visa back in time? (approx. 7 weeks)?? Thanks |
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Paul-Holmes
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 12 Apr 2005
Posts: 1073
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:18 am Post subject: |
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| Oh yeah, you will get back in three weeks to a month without paying for special services. |
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jarman_ah
Frequent Guest
Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 14
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:00 am Post subject: |
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All this is very comforting news, and I read every word gratefully.
On the other hand, I also read (on another post) that
"The consulates grant just about any visa if there is an invitation but Immigration is looking into the fake invitations which are sold by visa services. You will be fine if you got your invitation directly from your sponsor IN Russia, not a 3rd party visa service. Your hotel or tour operator will send a valid invitation so you do not need to tempt fate by getting one from a visa service that is not valid....Make sure your invitation names the hotel or tour operator that you are actually have host you, in the city you actually visit. The host is in Russian on one of the parts of the two part Visa support document. In the past immigration overlooked those discrepancies but they are enforcing the laws more now".
....which worried me a little, as surely the WTR visa support letter falls under the classification of "a 3rd party visa service". Everyone who writes in seems very happy with what WTR sent them, so I am presuming, therefore, that what you get for your money includes the information about the host ("on one of the parts of the two-part visa support document") and actually names hotels and tour operators. Is this the experience of past users? I just don't want to get it wrong first time in, and have it rejected, because surely that will make them look very carefully at any subsequent applications I put to them!
Sincere thanks to all the above posters.... I am, now, starting to feel a little less-concerned about my "fare-first-plan-afterwards" procedure... and it certainly also sounds like the WTR visa support may be superior to the slightly-cheaper one offered by ExpresstoRussia, which, one of the other posts claims, does NOT include names of hotels. |
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jarman_ah
Frequent Guest
Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 14
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:08 am Post subject: |
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And now, seven months later, I can say that it all worked out fine.
We didn't use the 3rd-party WaytoRussia visa support service, but we did use one of their partner tour companies, Parallel60 Tours, which we found by perusing the WaytoRussia site. Their rates for the St Petersburg-Moscow river cruise were so far below what the Sydney, Australia, travel companies were charging to organise the same voyage that we decided to have our "big splurge" with them, and from that point onwards we just left the vouchers and support documents in their hands. They knew all about the possible pitfalls and how to avoid them, and their sage advice to me, every time I wrote to them in a new panic after reading yet another "horror story" on this forum, was "Alan, just relax".
And they were right. Armed with all the stuff they sent me, I turned up, full of worry, at the Russian consulate in Sydney, and they just casually glanced over the application and accepted everything without hesitation. The visa came through exactly as promised, seven days later.
Thanks again to all the posters above who gave comforting advice! |
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