Way to Russia Talk Lounge

dawn7666 · Just Starting Joined: 03 Aug 2008 Posts: 3

We adopted a child from Russia. She was 13 at the time and she is now 21. She has always been perfectly wonderful, seemed well-adjusted, and had a good relationship. She has been happily married for almost two years. Over the summer, on college break, she went back to visit her hometown of Russia. She was supposed to come back this past Thursday but intead sent a text message to that she was not coming back and wanted a divorce. There has been no other communicaiton from her since that text message (the husband and her had spoken by phone during her visit.) This is so uncharacteristeic of her and so baffling, as well as heartbreaking, the three of us (mom, dad, husband) are going over there for hopefully reconciliation or at least closure. Our son-in-law does not have a passport so we have an appointment Tuesday with the passport agency in Miami to get his passport. Then we were going to use on of the on-line services to get emergency expeditied one-way service to get the Visa. There are many companies available. do you have recommendations or experience with which one is reliable? How about the one on this site, even? Thank you.

danbrew · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:26 pm Post subject:

You'll need a Visa Support Letter and, of course, an actual visa.

Way to Russia offers a visa invitation letter. You'll absolutely need a visa invitation/support letter, whether from Way to Russia or someone else.

Consider using Travel Docs (http://www.traveldocs.com) in Washington DC (assuming you are US). They will engage with the Russian Embassy/Consulate to facilitate obtaining a visa for you. You don't necessarily have to engage the services of a firm like this, but they obtain visas all day long, every day. You could do it yourself, but if it were me, in your shoes, in these circumstances, I would engage a pro. I've used Travel Docs many many times and have been very pleased with them. I do typically promote the visa support services here at Way To Russia, but in the interest of time & the situation at hand, know that Travel Docs can also issue you a Visa Support Letter. It would probably save you some time to obtain both the Visa Support Letter and and the actual visas via Travel Docs.

Of course you could do it all by yourself at the Russian Embassy/Consulate. While doable, you'll still need a Visa Support Letter. The only savings you'll see by doing it yourself is that you won't have to pay someone like Travel Docs for their services. But you might not get it right, either. How quickly do you want to get to Russia? http://www.russianembassy.org/CONSULAT/TOUR-VIS.HTM.

This is a painful situation, I know. Best of luck.

Smile

dawn7666 · Just Starting Joined: 03 Aug 2008 Posts: 3

Thank you danbrew. you gave me some very helpful information. We would love to have been in Russia yesterday. But realistically are planning to leave a week from today, to give us time to get all our documents in order.
Do you happen to have any insight on renting a car versus train travel in Russia? We have to get from Moscow to Vyasma which is about 130 miles west.
Thanks again.

danbrew · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject:

Sorry, no. While I'm sure that Vyasma is serviced by the Russian Rail system, I don't know any details. Perhaps another WTR user will chime in with his/her two rubles.

I've never rented a car in Moscow, but know cars are readily available - I just checked Avis.com and see that you can rent a car for a week for between $364-$567. Car models range from Chevy Aevo to Nissan Almera and can be picked up at the Moscow Airport . I'm sure there are lots of options from other car rental places as well.

danbrew

Paul Holmes · VIP Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 957

visaconnections.com can do everything for a visa in a couple of days