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Tourist visa and travel w/ children

 
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linguist
Frequent Guest


Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 21
Location: Minnesota

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:56 am    Post subject: Tourist visa and travel w/ children Reply with quote

I and my children are US citizens and will be travelling to Moscow where we plan to stay for no more than 30 days at my in-laws' apartment. We will be applying for our visas through the Seattle Consulate. I understand the invitation process for both homestay and tourist visas as it applies to individuals, but there is not much info about travel w/ children. I have decided that this trip I will use a tourist visa, but if I apply for a tourist visa, will my 3 children(ages 3,5, &9) need their own separate tourist visas and invitations or can they be included in my visa and invitations. With three small children and limited income, separate visas and invitations+registration fees could be more of a financial burden than I am able to carry. They have always travelled on my visa in the past, but those times we used homestay invitations instead.
Thanks, I hope to be applying for visa support through your site very soon.
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reina
Frequent Guest


Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 44
Location: irkutsk, russia

PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 4:53 pm    Post subject: Re: Tourist visa and travel w/ children Reply with quote

No problem if your kids are in your passport. It's exactly the same with a tourist or a private visa - 1 invitation, 1 visa in 1 passport and 1 registration fee.
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linguist
Frequent Guest


Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 21
Location: Minnesota

PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very Happy Thanks for the response. This would be true if they were included in my passport, but US citizens are required to have their own passport regardless of age. I did contact the genconsul in Seattle and he informed me after consulting w/ the consulate in Washington DC, that I would need to have 4 separate tourist visas. Crying or Very sad
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reina
Frequent Guest


Joined: 07 Nov 2004
Posts: 44
Location: irkutsk, russia

PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 1:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Reply with quote

But have you asked the consul if you were supposed to pay visa fee for your kids too? It can be free of charge or half price or maybe less. I've called today to the department of MID (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to clarify your situation. They are not sure about USA but in Germany for example kids also have their own passports and visas but it's free of charge for kids in age of 10 and younger.
And I didn't quite understand how you travelled with kids before without getting visas for them. If they had their own passports how could you travel? Where did you get visa before? Maybe you'd better to apply the same consulate as the rules can be different in different consulates. You can try to apply in German one and they decide if they can (want to) help you or not. The visa fee is also different in different countries. But I think there must be no difference between getting private or tourist visas - at least not in this point.
As for registration I think it's not a big problem if you register your visa and just "forget" to register another 3 visas Smile Or register all the visas once even if you're going to stay in other cities. I doubt you have to pay a fine if you have at least once been registered somewhere. I know hundreds of people who crossed the border without registration at all and haven't been asked even to show the tickets.
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linguist
Frequent Guest


Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 21
Location: Minnesota

PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2005 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks again Reina for all your info. Since I already have our visas I'm all set. I hope the info can help other families. I've used the Seattle Consulate the past few trips, because the Consulates in the US process visas dependent upon where you reside in the US. In the past the visa was a separate piece of paper. It is now stamped into the passport so each passport has to have one. Yes, I did clarify that the children didn't get any discount on the visa. Quite ridiculous, but no way around it. I think the courrier costs to Germany would have overridden any savings, but I'll keep it in mind for the next trip. Hopefully by then they'll have gotten rid of the visa requirement anyway. I'm not as worried about registration. I'll get that figured out. I think the only time I actually registered was the year I worked there and I didn't have to do it myself. All the other trips I just forgot to do it. On one of my trips I even extended my unregistered visa.
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