Got My Visa

W00t!

Waiting on my visa application...

I finally got my visa application submitted Monday afternoon. In order to get a Russian visa you need an official Letter of Invitation (LOI) from a company or organization registered with the Russian government. Previously, I'd obtained LOIs from a travel agency (for a hefty fee). This time around, I was able to get a LOI from a missions agency in Russia for a much better price. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than I'd anticipated for the LOI to be ready. I got a scanned image of the LOI in my email Monday morning, so I filled out the application and took it down to the Russian consulate downtown. Fortunately, they accepted the printout of the LOI and didn't require the original LOI (which would have to be mailed from Russia). I was starting to get nervous about the LOI, if it had arrived a day later I might have had to reschedule my flights back to Russia. Tomorrow at 2 pm I return to the consulate and find out whether I have a visa or whether the application was rejected.

Passport and visa have arrived!

Yay! I finally got my passport and 90 day visa back from the Russian consulate. I was getting a little nervous, I was expecting it last week. I was just about to email the travel agency about getting in touch with the consulate when it arrived this morning. Thank you, Lord! I still have many things to do, but it's nice knowing that the Russians will let me into their country.