Way to Russia Community and Forum

al1982 · Just Starting Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

Hi

I am a UK passport holder currently living in Japan and want to apply for a russian dual entry russian visa.

I have spoken to the recommended visa agents in Japan but they are only able to provide the full travel service and not just visa support.

It is looking really troublesome to apply for a russian visa in japan so i am considering sending my passport back to the UK to apply for a visa at the russian consulate in london.

Does anybody know if it is possible/legal to do this?
my passport is still stamped with japan entry stamps meaning that if i sent it abroad it would show that i have not left japan.
would the russian consulate look at this or could this be a problem in any way?

thanks

camarks · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:29 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't recommend sending ones passport anywhere. My recollection/guess is that this would be a violation of law in several of the countries involved.

It does not appear to be difficult to get a Russian visa in Japan at all. The process given at http://www.rusconsul.jp/hp/en/visa/visa.html is straightforward, and you can get the necessary invitation and voucher from WTR. You can do everything yourself and don't need any agent.

Good Luck,

al1982 · Just Starting Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

hi
thanks for the info and the web site.
helped a lot.
it says that for a business visa the original visa invitation is required.
could you give me an estimate on how much it would cost to courier the original invitation to an address in japan and how long it might take?
thanks.

Groobs · Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:59 am Post subject:

I have encountered a version of this problem - I'm a UK national living in Asia, and because I travel a lot on obscure and difficult to get visas, I applied to the UK consul for a second passport – just needed a letter from my company confirming that I need the duplicate passport to allow me to travel while my other passport is with consuls etc for visa applications. All very easy to get, rather to my surprise. As for Russia, since they introduced the “apply in your country of citizenship” rule, I have sent my second passport back from Asia by courier to UK so it can be sent from within the UK to my usual visa application agent there. The Agent tells me they can’t accept an application from outside UK – nor will they send the Passport back outside the UK, only to an address within UK! It’s all absolutely ridiculous – expensive, slow, risky in transit, but not, as far as I know, illegal. The absurdity of visa rules and regulations knows no limits, it seems,,,,,,

Sumarokov-Elston · Just Starting Joined: 29 May 2007 Posts: 5

By coincidence, I have just done this. There is an excellent company called Any Visa, who will do everything for you and send back the passport by express personal delivery through TNT.

Elena Veret will explain everything to you (elena@anyvisa.co.uk). Say you were recommended her company by someone who has just worked with them this week!

Groobs · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:08 am Post subject:

Interesting that an agency will agree to handle the "in and out of UK" side of it - the guys I use seemed to want to adopt a "don't ask, don't tell" approach, and said that their accreditation at the Russian Consul was at risk if they knowingly submitted applications from outside UK. An over-abundance of caution I suspect on their part.... maybe the guys you used have an eye on making their fees regardless of this tiresome rule..... good for them!

BTW - I would be interested to know what they charge for the courier side of it? I had a brief look at their website and cannot see reference to it, do you remember what they charged for that?

tmac100 · Frequent Guest Joined: 13 Jul 2007 Posts: 14

I have sent my passport "back home" on two separate years and had a visa to Russia and one for China "installed" by the appropriate embassy.

In both cases the passport went by registered mail to "a recipient of my choice". That recipient did ALL the legwork regarding going to the embassies and fetching the passport after the respective visa was installed.

Then the"recipient" sent the passport back to me by registered mail. No problem with the resident visa for the country I live in - similarly there should be no issue with your Japan visa - neither Russia nor China do anything with visas other than their own.....

Just my personal experiences - on two separate occasions....

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