getting our russian student visas for the study abroad program was one of the most frustrating things about our study abroad experience. but that was only due to the fact that not a one of us knew what to do. we went into the whole process blind. so for those of you who are thinking about going to russia let me give you a quick list so your experience is easier and smoother than ours.
1) first you need to make the decision to go to russia and commit to going.
2) get your passport. this process can take up to a month or two. you need the passport before applying for anything else.
3) if your school tells you the deadline to submit your application is for example may 7th, make sure you get your application submitted earlier. this way your office of international affairs at your university can submit it earlier to russia which will result in you getting your invitation letter that much sooner. which is your first step to getting your visa.
4) once you have your invintation letter you need to make sure that the russian university sends the ORIGINAL letter to you or your unviersity. if it is sent to your university you need to make sure you have a way of getting it.
5) next you need to do the russian visa application. go to http://russianembassy.org you will find the application there. also, as of july 1, 2011 the embassy no longer accepts applications through the mail. you would need to go to a consulate office in person or go through an agency. the outside agency we used was called travisa. we had some problems with them due to small mistakes on our applications. however, the small problems turned into large problems because once they found one problem they stopped and contacted us, then once that was resolved they continued on and would find one or two more problems that they approached the same way. it is very important to keep in constant contact with these agencies. it is vital to keep up to date with what they are doing with your application. it seems like they way until the end of the work day to contact you regarding a problem with your application.
5.a) you want to send these agencies as much information as possible. if you think that they might need some sheet of paper with information on it, then send it. it doesn't hurt to send more (unless you go over the weight limit). as a side note, if you happen to be a person whose family has immigrated to america from russia or any place that was part of the ussr then you will want to dig out your passport from said country or your mother's/father's passport. i ran into that issue personally and that delayed my application process a good day or two.
6) once you have your visa you get to do the most exciting part of the process. buying your plane tickets. in my research i found a very nice website called http://studentuniverse.com they have very great prices for students. all you need to do to use the site is verify that you are an actively enrolled student.
***i did not personally use this site because i missed a minor detail in the application process and did not know how to verify my academic status. use this site with caution just like any other site.***
try to buy your tickets as soon as you possibly can. we were able to find tickets in the low $1,000's range. but the average cost of plane tickets we were finding online were up in the $5,000's one way.
7) this should cover the process pretty well. if i missed something please let me know in a comment or i'll just check back later when i feel like proofreading c:
1) first you need to make the decision to go to russia and commit to going.
2) get your passport. this process can take up to a month or two. you need the passport before applying for anything else.
3) if your school tells you the deadline to submit your application is for example may 7th, make sure you get your application submitted earlier. this way your office of international affairs at your university can submit it earlier to russia which will result in you getting your invitation letter that much sooner. which is your first step to getting your visa.
4) once you have your invintation letter you need to make sure that the russian university sends the ORIGINAL letter to you or your unviersity. if it is sent to your university you need to make sure you have a way of getting it.
5) next you need to do the russian visa application. go to http://russianembassy.org you will find the application there. also, as of july 1, 2011 the embassy no longer accepts applications through the mail. you would need to go to a consulate office in person or go through an agency. the outside agency we used was called travisa. we had some problems with them due to small mistakes on our applications. however, the small problems turned into large problems because once they found one problem they stopped and contacted us, then once that was resolved they continued on and would find one or two more problems that they approached the same way. it is very important to keep in constant contact with these agencies. it is vital to keep up to date with what they are doing with your application. it seems like they way until the end of the work day to contact you regarding a problem with your application.
5.a) you want to send these agencies as much information as possible. if you think that they might need some sheet of paper with information on it, then send it. it doesn't hurt to send more (unless you go over the weight limit). as a side note, if you happen to be a person whose family has immigrated to america from russia or any place that was part of the ussr then you will want to dig out your passport from said country or your mother's/father's passport. i ran into that issue personally and that delayed my application process a good day or two.
6) once you have your visa you get to do the most exciting part of the process. buying your plane tickets. in my research i found a very nice website called http://studentuniverse.com they have very great prices for students. all you need to do to use the site is verify that you are an actively enrolled student.
***i did not personally use this site because i missed a minor detail in the application process and did not know how to verify my academic status. use this site with caution just like any other site.***
try to buy your tickets as soon as you possibly can. we were able to find tickets in the low $1,000's range. but the average cost of plane tickets we were finding online were up in the $5,000's one way.
7) this should cover the process pretty well. if i missed something please let me know in a comment or i'll just check back later when i feel like proofreading c:
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