Planes, trains and visas

[bklalaw 0]

So our interview is next week the 28th.. I understand that we are close but still anything could go wrong.. with that said, what is a realistic time frame to PLAN, not to buy anything, but to plan to have the visa in hand back in Omsk. I understand that May 1-2 is national holiday so that would slow things down i guess... DHL tells us that it would be two-three business days back to her city.

Also, if we choose to skip DHL altogether, how does keeping the passport in the embassy work? Do they just hold it for you upon request?

I was thinking "if" we get an approval on the 28th, then she could come back to the embassy in a week and half in between her flights to USA since there is an 8 hour delay between flights from her home city to flight leaving moscow for LA.

Problem with this plan is that she told me that she thinks it might be hard to board the flight in omsk with international ticket without her passport and visa in hand.. Is this true? So, maybe we could plan on booking two separate one way flights- Omsk-MOW then MOW-LA.. that would that avoid the international boarding problem, or should i just send her by train? lol

[Neonred 3,562]

The wife and I did this several years back. She had her interview and the embassy kept her passport. It is a requirement to purchase and turn in a DHL mailer at the time of the interview, so we indicated (on the DHL mailer) that it should be held at the DHL facility in Moscow. The embassy does not hold the passports. We went to her home town for a week, then headed up to Moscow to pick up the passport with the visa. We used a separate airline ticket from her home town to Moscow and another e-ticket Moscow-US. No problems. Just in case, it might be a good idea to have a copy of the bio page of her passport. My wife had a copy of mine that she used to purchase tickets for me prior to my visits.

As you can probably tell I was one of those that took the gamble and purchased tickets prior to the interview. Be aware that it can be a gamble.

[baron555 934]

So our interview is next week the 28th.. I understand that we are close but still anything could go wrong.. with that said, what is a realistic time frame to PLAN, not to buy anything, but to plan to have the visa in hand back in Omsk. I understand that May 1-2 is national holiday so that would slow things down i guess... DHL tells us that it would be two-three business days back to her city.

Also, if we choose to skip DHL altogether, how does keeping the passport in the embassy work? Do they just hold it for you upon request?

I was thinking "if" we get an approval on the 28th, then she could come back to the embassy in a week and half in between her flights to USA since there is an 8 hour delay between flights from her home city to flight leaving moscow for LA.

Problem with this plan is that she told me that she thinks it might be hard to board the flight in omsk with international ticket without her passport and visa in hand.. Is this true? So, maybe we could plan on booking two separate one way flights- Omsk-MOW then MOW-LA.. that would that avoid the international boarding problem, or should i just send her by train? lol

As stated you MUST have the DHL prepaid mailer in hand when she goes to the interview, that's one of the requirements. Read the instructions from the Embassy webpage, link below.

You CAN have it held at the DHL office but.......both airports are on either side of Moscow and then the central DHL office is near the downtown. I WOULD NOT rely on enough time to leave the airport and then go to the DHL office and retrieve the visa. I would let DHL deliver it to her and then start her journey. Figure about 5 working days for them to type up the visa and get it out and then figure the # of days for them to deliver it.

Wait to book any flights until she has it IN HER HANDS.