wrcimpreza
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 Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:52 am Post subject: My experiences in obtaining a Russian Visa from Australia |
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I received today from the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canberra, AUSTRALIA, entry visas for our travelling party of four. The visa application process for us was quite a stressful affair given that we decided to source accomodation directly in Russia, rather than pay the exorbitant travel shop tour/accommodation prices. But we got the visas! BTW - We are only visiting St Petersburg and Moscow.
The reason we sourced lodgings directly in Russia, was that we looking more for an apartment style accommodation (that could sleep 2 couples) complete with kitchen/laundry facilities, and that it was less than half the price of the cheapest 3 star hotel around - yet better located.
The whole visa process got very stressful for a number of reasons:
1) We did not engage an Australia tour operator
2) Visa support documentation requirements for Australia
3) Lack of time - this was our own fault!
4) Time-zone, language, fax/communication difficulties - nobody's fault here... it's just what you have to expect
If you do not engage an Australia tour operator to book hotel lodgings etc through associated tour agency in Russia, you need to source both accommodation and visa support documentation directly. The visa support documentation includes the Tourist Confirmation ("Podtverzdeniye"), Tour Voucher, and Cover Letter.
See the full requirements at:
Embassy of Russian Federation Australia
http://www.australia.mid.ru/11_e.html
General Consulate of the Russian Federation Australia
http://www.sydneyrussianconsulate.com/visat.html
Essentially, a travel agency in Russia will make "reservations" on your behalf at hotels in the various cities you plan to travel to (even though you more than likely will not be staying at those actual hotels - for example staying in an apartment!). These guys can essentially provide the Tourist Confirmation and Tour Voucher complete with your hotel reservation details  . Every Russian embassy throughout the world requires these 2 articles. The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Australia (in Canberra), as well as the Russian Consular office (in Sydney) specify though that a Cover Letter must also be presented. This is where the stress began .... (basically due to lack of time - and not knowing whether the effort will actually result in us obtaining visas)
Having booked an apartment from a very good online Russian apartment accommodation agency, we asked the gentleman (BOB) for Visa Documentation. I mentioned to BOB the cover letter requirement, but he had never heard of this before (as it is Australian requirement only). Being clued up based on postings on the waytorussia website that this Cover Letter was definately a requirement, I proposed to BOB that I should utilize the WayToRussia visa support services (for just 1 party of our group of 4) to see what information they returned. Based on the returned information, I would provide this to BOB whom could then replicate this and issue visa support documentation for our full party of 4.
Time at this stage was starting to become an issue. We were due to depart Australia in 5 weeks (and had no Visas!). I utilized the WayToRussia visa support services and applied for documentation using my wife's details. The documentation took just over 2 days to be *faxed* back. The reason this is, is that they must first validate your credit card etc, and once this is done, they will fax back the visa support documentation in 24 hours. When I submitted the request, I also made it clear that I was in Australia and would require the cover letter. However, the fax I received back (at my workplace), contained just the Tourist Confirmation and Tour Voucher - but no Cover Letter. I immediately contacted them back and they promptly (within a day or so) responded back that the Cover Letter was not required :-
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Dear Sir,
A cover letter is only needed if you obtain your visa support documents
from a local travel agency. Your documents come from Russia directly and your itinerary is properly listed in your voucher. We assure you that no additional cover letter is needed in your case.
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My wife was not overly convinced on this response, but I assured her it should be ok, and that we could generate our own cover letter with itenary details and what-not. I decided at this stage to email the Consulate General for clarification.
I next proceeded to get back in contact with BOB to request him to go ahead with visas, but found out that he would not be in the office for 5 days (on holiday). BOB, unlike his female colleague (TAT), spoke excellent english. TAT on the other hand whom I was now dealing with had basic English skills, and communicating with her was now quite difficult. I tried to explain to her the time crunch we were in and that we needed visa support documentation ASAP. I also forwared her previous communication I had with BOB detailing my visa strategy with utilizing WayToRussia to get travel letter etc.
Unfortunately given the timezone +3 in St.P versus +10 in Brisbane, email response would take a full day - and emails were being answered in St P around 2pm!. TAT from reading the email trail incorrectly assumed that we had now sourced our own visa documentation - and sent me an email back asking what I wanted to do. I responded with increasing urgency/nervousness that the visa documentation had been for my wife only as a sample just to obtain the cover letter. She responded (the next day) that she would fax us visa documentation for the remaining 3 in our party. I emailed her back stating that we want full visa support documentation for our party of 4 (including wife). This process took days as you can imagine. Finally, with some 3 1/2 weeks now remaining until departure, I received faxed visa support documentation back from Russia. To my disbelief the visa documentation faxed back was incomplete. We had received only 4 of 8 pages. There was no documentation for my wife, and a page missing for two members of the party. Only 1 member of our party had received the full documentation. Also, the documentation faxed back had date stamps that were obviously incorrect, and utilized two slightly different spellings for the company name. I also did not have a voucher number for my wife.
My wife at this stage, was frantic, and urging me to bite the bullet and utilize the local travel agency (ruining a holiday for the sake of $1000 per couple does not seem worth it). Stubborn, stupid, or both, I decided to proceed with our visa application based on the existing documentation we had received.
Given the language difficulties and delay with TAT (and that BOB was still not back), I decided it was best that I doctor up the missing visa support documentation using Photoshop. Five to six hours were then spent painfully copying/pasting/correcting/rearranging information in photoshop to produce the missing 4 pages. I sent a scanned copy of the material back to TAT alerting her to the fax communication problems, and the new voucher number that I had utilized for my wife.
I also received an email response back from Consulate General in Sydney regarding the cover letter :-
----- Original Message -----
Hello,
This question is in regards to the following requirement:
6. A cover letter from your travel agency in Australia containing:
applicant's name or alphabetical list of a group;
dates and points of arrival and departure in and from Russia, means of transport;
itinerary in Russia;
the name of the hosting Russian company and its reference number.
We are planning on travelling to Russia in late may and have organized through Russian travel agencies directly our accommodation in St Petersburg and Moscow. The agencies have provides us with tourist confirmation ("Podtverzdeniye") along with the tour/travel voucher.
What should we do with regards to requirement 6 above.
Should we create our own cover letter detailing the flights that we are entering/exiting Russia on, along with all details of our stay within Russian?
----- Response -----
Dear Sir,
In your case you could create your own cover letter, or you could just skip point 6. Anyway, such a letter would not be really necessary.
Sincerely,
Visa Section.
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Armed now with the consular general response, my doctored visa support document, I proceeded to create my own cover leter anyway to attach with my application. The cover letter contained:
Passenger details (name, date-of-birth,passport #s)
Contact details (address, home,mobile,work phone details)
Arrival/Departure information (date, location, transport mode, flight #s etc)
Itenary (dates, hotels - check-in/check-out address etc, tours planned etc)
Hosting Company details (agency name, license #, reference #, address, telephone, contact person).
I printed everything out, and assembled my application kit including:
- the four valid passports
- the email from Consular General regarding cover letter
- the completed visa application form for each member (with photo on white background signed/dated)
http://www.australia.mid.ru/0img/Visa_Application_Form.pdf
- the visa support documentation (doctored)
- the cover letter I generated above
- a bank cheque for $440 AUD (it was now 110$ per person instead of $85 as we needed 7 day processing given the time crunch) - made out to "Embassy of the Russian Federation"
- copies of airplane/bus tickets confirming travel itenary
- documentation supporting that we have travel insurance (not required - but I provided it anyway)
- two australia post express post platinum envelopes (Guaranteed overnight delivery by courier by midday) :-
The first being to: Embassy of the Russian Federation
Consular Sections - Visas
78 Canberra Avenue
Griffith, ACT, 2603
The second being to my home so they can return our passports.
Things you need to be aware of, and lessons learned:
I decided to submit my application to the Embassy in Canberra, instead of the Consular General in Sydney. According to posts on this site, the Sydney office is notoriously difficult to work with.
The visa application form linked above, and addresses for Cheques, express envelope etc are for the Embassy in Canberra.
I received my visa documentation back in around 9 business days.
Each passport has a russian federation visa page stuck in (similar to visas you would get for UK-working holiday, china, india etc), along with an Arrival and Departure card page on white paper.
I should have started the visa application process months beforehand, rather than 5 weeks before departure. This would have sufficiently factored in language/timezone difficulties etc. The issues I ran in to, were nobody's fault. I got the visas in the end!!!
If staying in Moscow for more than 3 days, you need to register.
If you are staying in a nice hotel in Moscow, this is not a difficult process - and can be typically done at the hotel very quickly.
If you are staying in Apartment style (non-hotel) accommodation, this registration process can take a full day to sort out. If you are only in Moscow for 4 days, a whole day is lost! Fortunately in St Petersburg, the registration process is not nearly as difficult (when staying in Apartment accommodation). We plan to book our hotel accommodation in Moscow through lastminute.co.uk and hopefully get a decent rate. |
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ellie1985
Just Starting
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 3
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:41 am Post subject: Sydney consulate no worries |
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| Hi I just received my visa from SYdney COnsulate no worries. I was worried until I got it though, Im Australian, female, 20 travelling alone. I forgot to write my name and DOB on the back of the passport photo, I stated destinations and not hostel/hotel names, I had a letter of invitation which clearly stated I had paid for one night only at HI St Petersburg hostel, I didnt state my entry and exit boarder points, just said I would cross by land from Estonia/exit by land to Belarus...sent the whole thing in by post from Adelaide, with a money order...and just over two weeks later I rocked up, fingers crossed, not expecting it to be approved and hey presto the receptionist even smiled at me! I wrote my own cover letter as well by the way. Maybe it was all the kissing arse about how much I'd read about Russia and how much I wanted to visit...???? |
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