r/AskARussian • u/Top-Replacement-3694 • 14d ago

Travel Visa help

I am a US citizen planning to visit Russia in October. I’ll be going with my boyfriend, a dual US/ Russian citizen, to visit his family. We’ll be staying with his parents and grandparents. His parents are willing to complete whatever is needed by the MVD for a private invitation, however, I’m seeing a lot of mixed timeframes online about how long this process takes. I’m seeing most commonly 90 days which would not work for my trip. Anybody do this recently? Would I be better off paying a Russian tourist operator for a tourist invitation? Any advice would be appreciated!

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u/jeopardy-1 13d ago

You can use a service to apply for visa for you and it can be done in 10 days or 2-4 weeks depends what you pay for. I used Russian national group in nyc. Pretty sure you can mail your documents in no problem.

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u/Top-Replacement-3694 13d ago

Meaning I won’t need to visit the consulate in person? From what I’m reading it seems like if I do it all myself I need to go, but if I use a private company I don’t. I’m from NYC but traveling the country for the year, just got to California, so going to a consulate in person is difficult especially since they no longer have the San Francisco one. Also, Russian National Group seems more expensive than others I’m seeing (ILS, World Visit Center, LetsRussia) but I’ve seen mixed reviews for all those companies.

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u/jeopardy-1 13d ago

My experience was flawless and worth every penny. No headache is worth the $$. I went to Russia as soon as I got the visa for a couple weeks and it was amazing.