Way to Russia Talk Lounge

bryanboy · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Aug 2004 Posts: 90

Woohoo.

I got my plane tickets ready, my hotel confirmations, etc etc etc, so I decided to go to the Russian Embassy in Manila earlier this morning.

To give you a background, the Visa section is only open from 9AM to 11AM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They're closed all other times and days of the week.

Apparently there's a sort of daily quota... and there's a small queue. ONLY ONE PERSON CAN ENTER AT A TIME. Let's say if one person took 30 minutes, another person took 1 hour, and another person took 30 minutes, anyone on the queue after them will have to go home empty handed.. or go back the next opening day.

I got there like 9:30AM and I was #4 on the queue. I was able to get in at around 10:45AM. Imagine my luck.

So off I submitted my paperwork - application form, passport, hotel voucher/tourist invitation. BTW, they accept faxed photocopies.

The lady (babushka!!!) reviewed the documents, highlighted certain items on the papers like dates, etc.

She asked me when do I want to pick my visa up. I said, I wanted 3 day processing so I'd go for Wednesday next week, September 22.

Then the lady said ok. All I needed to do now is to go to the bank to pay the visa processing fee - about $150 for 3 day processing. She got a small post-it note, wrote the visa pick up date (September 22) and the amount I have to pay. She attached this on a sheet of paper that I need to get stamped by the bank.

Once I got this stamped, I have to go back to the embassy either on Friday this week or Monday next week to give the paper back to them. After that, I have to come back on Wednesday to pick up my visa.

What I don't understand is, why can't I just pay the embassy directly? This will save an enormous amount of time for all parties involved. Most embassies accept payments, in cash, for visa fees.

But yeah.. all this time and effort... but hey... if it's their policy, there's not much I can do.

I'm excited, regardless!!!!!!!!