Way to Russia Talk Lounge

jarman_ah

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!

danbrew · Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:56 am Post subject:

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.

Very Happy

Acedog01 · Just Starting Joined: 30 Jul 2009 Posts: 2

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

Joann · Just Starting Joined: 30 Jul 2009 Posts: 8

Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1071

Oh yeah, you will get back in three weeks to a month without paying for special services.

jarman_ah · Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:00 am Post subject:

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.