Russia and China both require those of us on US passports, to get a travel visa ahead of time.
Russian Visa
To apply for a Russian visa you need to fill out a rather extensive application online - Im not exaggerating when I say they want info about your parents, past employment, countries visited in the last 10 years, your education, military history and more. They want to know when you are arriving, leaving and where you'll be staying. Most importantly they want to know who invited you to visit Russia!
Chinese Visa
The Chinese Embassy also requires a lengthy (albeit not as long as the Russian) visa application and an invitation to visit China from a legitimate source.
A Russian and Chinese Invitation to Visit (aka visa support document) can only be obtained from an authorized travel consultant after you have booked flights, hotels and/or tours with them, so that was our first step.
In short time, we found ourselves a Russian travel agent friend: Alla Menshikova at RealRussia.com. And a Chinese travel agent friend: Ruby Zhou at ChinaHighlights.com. Both have been nothing short of awesome.
Alla booked us a hotel in Moscow and took a deposit on rail tickets. You see, railway tickets are only sold in Russia 90 days before departure, and internationally, only up to 60 days ahead of time - and those would be our Mongolia and China legs. We were now "in line" to buy tickets.
Ruby, armed with dates of arrival and departure, booked us EVERYTHING... an English speaking guide to escort us through sites, into parks and exhibits, drive us to and from hotels, trains and airports and in between, to recommend local eateries etc.
Next we booked flights. Allowing up to $700 to get to Moscow from Denver, we were pleasantly surprised to one day be surfing Cheapoair.com and find stupidly cheap airfares! $458/person. Bonus! We chose a red-eye flight to NYC with a day to explore before our connecting flight to Moscow. Mark has never been to New York City and I was excited to give him a little taste before we left the continent.
Our flight from Beijing to Denver (via DFW) through Travelocity.com was also really inexpensive. $393/person including taxes and fees.
The requirements for specifically sized passport photos (2) to accompany each visa application meant we found ourselves at Mike's Camera. There, I was assured that they had the "Russian Visa Template" and the "Chinese Visa Template" and for $35 per country they could supply us with the pictures that would be of acceptable sizes to the Russian and Chinese consulates.
With our filled out applications, visa support documents and weird sized passport pictures (no smiles included!) we began looking for mailing and application fee paying details. No luck. Where the heck do I send the applications? The Russian Consulate in Washington appeared to have no mailing address and when I stumbled upon a page requiring an appointment, I began to become suspicious about a need to walk the applications into the consulate. Absurd right? Not so much!
With no joy in getting information from the Russian Consulate via phone either, I resorted to calling a Visa Service in Lakewood CO. Apologizing for my questions, I explained the situation and asked if they knew where/how to send in visa applications.
BEST decision ever was calling MileHighVisas.com!
Mike was super nice and informed me that as of 9/11, the Russians don't like opening parcels from people they don't know, so you are required to walk the applications in... to Washington DC or one of the other consulates around the USA.
Mile High Visas for a per visa fee, take care of it all without a trip to DC. We paid them $79 each for a Russian service fee and $69 for the China Visa service fee and felt good about it. Yep, a darn site cheaper and quicker than doing it ourselves.
Here's the other thing; Mile High Visas found multiple ways to improve our applications. Based on their 20 years experience with this sort of thing, they knew what info was really required, what was TMI and would start round two of info gathering (possibly including in-person interviews and/or requests for bank statements) and also informed us that the passport pics that Mike's Camera had taken of us, were sure to be rejected. My pictures were cut the right size but my head was too small! Story of my life, LOL.
As of this date and $960 later, our visa's are in process. Apparently within about 3 weeks, we'll hear some good news. To put it in perspective, one Russian visa would have taken a minimum of a month for us to do without help.
Next post, I'll give you and overview of the whole trip. :-)
Russian Visa
To apply for a Russian visa you need to fill out a rather extensive application online - Im not exaggerating when I say they want info about your parents, past employment, countries visited in the last 10 years, your education, military history and more. They want to know when you are arriving, leaving and where you'll be staying. Most importantly they want to know who invited you to visit Russia!
Chinese Visa
The Chinese Embassy also requires a lengthy (albeit not as long as the Russian) visa application and an invitation to visit China from a legitimate source.
A Russian and Chinese Invitation to Visit (aka visa support document) can only be obtained from an authorized travel consultant after you have booked flights, hotels and/or tours with them, so that was our first step.
In short time, we found ourselves a Russian travel agent friend: Alla Menshikova at RealRussia.com. And a Chinese travel agent friend: Ruby Zhou at ChinaHighlights.com. Both have been nothing short of awesome.
Alla booked us a hotel in Moscow and took a deposit on rail tickets. You see, railway tickets are only sold in Russia 90 days before departure, and internationally, only up to 60 days ahead of time - and those would be our Mongolia and China legs. We were now "in line" to buy tickets.
Ruby, armed with dates of arrival and departure, booked us EVERYTHING... an English speaking guide to escort us through sites, into parks and exhibits, drive us to and from hotels, trains and airports and in between, to recommend local eateries etc.
Next we booked flights. Allowing up to $700 to get to Moscow from Denver, we were pleasantly surprised to one day be surfing Cheapoair.com and find stupidly cheap airfares! $458/person. Bonus! We chose a red-eye flight to NYC with a day to explore before our connecting flight to Moscow. Mark has never been to New York City and I was excited to give him a little taste before we left the continent.
Our flight from Beijing to Denver (via DFW) through Travelocity.com was also really inexpensive. $393/person including taxes and fees.
The requirements for specifically sized passport photos (2) to accompany each visa application meant we found ourselves at Mike's Camera. There, I was assured that they had the "Russian Visa Template" and the "Chinese Visa Template" and for $35 per country they could supply us with the pictures that would be of acceptable sizes to the Russian and Chinese consulates.
With our filled out applications, visa support documents and weird sized passport pictures (no smiles included!) we began looking for mailing and application fee paying details. No luck. Where the heck do I send the applications? The Russian Consulate in Washington appeared to have no mailing address and when I stumbled upon a page requiring an appointment, I began to become suspicious about a need to walk the applications into the consulate. Absurd right? Not so much!
With no joy in getting information from the Russian Consulate via phone either, I resorted to calling a Visa Service in Lakewood CO. Apologizing for my questions, I explained the situation and asked if they knew where/how to send in visa applications.
BEST decision ever was calling MileHighVisas.com!
Mike was super nice and informed me that as of 9/11, the Russians don't like opening parcels from people they don't know, so you are required to walk the applications in... to Washington DC or one of the other consulates around the USA.
Mile High Visas for a per visa fee, take care of it all without a trip to DC. We paid them $79 each for a Russian service fee and $69 for the China Visa service fee and felt good about it. Yep, a darn site cheaper and quicker than doing it ourselves.
Here's the other thing; Mile High Visas found multiple ways to improve our applications. Based on their 20 years experience with this sort of thing, they knew what info was really required, what was TMI and would start round two of info gathering (possibly including in-person interviews and/or requests for bank statements) and also informed us that the passport pics that Mike's Camera had taken of us, were sure to be rejected. My pictures were cut the right size but my head was too small! Story of my life, LOL.
As of this date and $960 later, our visa's are in process. Apparently within about 3 weeks, we'll hear some good news. To put it in perspective, one Russian visa would have taken a minimum of a month for us to do without help.
Next post, I'll give you and overview of the whole trip. :-)
