Tourist visas for Russians

[SMR 368]

My wife's daughter recently (in December) got a visitor visa and came to spend the holidays with us. She is an attractive, 23 year old, unmarried woman, and they didn't even ask her one question at the "interview". She does have a good job and owns property. The only thing I provided was a letter of invitation (not required). Now, she does have a good track record, as she has been to the U.S. three times previously with no problems. I would guess her good record may have been a big factor in how easy it was to obtain this most recent visa, although her previous interview (a year earlier) experience was about the same. BTW, she asked for (and paid for) and received a two year visa.

Track record, as you indicated, is huge. If the applicant has never left the RF, the interview is much more difficult and the interviewer may deny because he feels like it. But once they have a past visa to an EU country or, better yet, to the US, they usually won't deny without a reason or a past visa violation.

This is just my experience from memory. I have known several Russians that have been denied and several that go visas and travel history is probably the single largest dividing factor.