Belarus/Warsaw Interview Warning

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Citizens of Belarus a little tip for you. If you have a VISA interview scheduled at the Polish Embassy in Warsaw you will need an "original" Invitation for the VISA interview in Poland at the Warsaw Embassy in Poland. My husband went to get his VISA using the letter from the NVC which was emailed to both of us and no hardcopy of invitation was ever sent to him from Warsaw.

After 3 days of standing in line he had no success with the folks who work the VISA window and even though he went back and printed out the document in color thinking perhaps they just wanted to see the logo of NVC in color they then asked him for the envelope. Also they want the invitation translated into Russian. I know its the Polish Embassy but that is what they asked for.

So you will have to contact the Warsaw Embassy and ask them to mail a hardcopy of invitation to your spouse/fiance in Belarus if they plan on making the trip solely for the interview. They state on the website it takes 8 days to hear back from them, although it took them four to answer my email inquiry. I have found it impossible to contact them on the phone.

In our case my husband was taking the overnight train and returning the same day after the interview. It takes 10 days from the day you submit VISA request to day VISA is delivered at the Polish Embassy. Since we did not know the Embassy would not accept the electronic documents we are going to have to request a new appointment date.. God only knows how that is going to work.

ALTERNATE PLAN: If you don't want to have this hassle plan a "vacation" and request a tourist VISA instead. In the past we have had no problem getting tourist VISA to Poland which requires application and return tickets plus copies of hotel reservations information and itinerary.

Oh and if things are not confusing enough they will be changing the entire VISA system and require applications online effective next week so good luck with that if you have interviews next month.

Edited May 25, 2010 by brokenfamily

[belarus1 0]

Citizens of Belarus a little tip for you. If you have a VISA interview scheduled at the Polish Embassy in Warsaw you will need an "original" Invitation for the VISA interview in Poland at the Warsaw Embassy in Poland. My husband went to get his VISA using the letter from the NVC which was emailed to both of us and no hardcopy of invitation was ever sent to him from Warsaw.

After 3 days of standing in line he had no success with the folks who work the VISA window and even though he went back and printed out the document in color thinking perhaps they just wanted to see the logo of NVC in color they then asked him for the envelope. Also they want the invitation translated into Russian. I know its the Polish Embassy but that is what they asked for.

So you will have to contact the Warsaw Embassy and ask them to mail a hardcopy of invitation to your spouse/fiance in Belarus if they plan on making the trip solely for the interview. They state on the website it takes 8 days to hear back from them, although it took them four to answer my email inquiry. I have found it impossible to contact them on the phone.

In our case my husband was taking the overnight train and returning the same day after the interview. It takes 10 days from the day you submit VISA request to day VISA is delivered at the Polish Embassy. Since we did not know the Embassy would not accept the electronic documents we are going to have to request a new appointment date.. God only knows how that is going to work.

ALTERNATE PLAN: If you don't want to have this hassle plan a "vacation" and request a tourist VISA instead. In the past we have had no problem getting tourist VISA to Poland which requires application and return tickets plus copies of hotel reservations information and itinerary.

Oh and if things are not confusing enough they will be changing the entire VISA system and require applications online effective next week so good luck with that if you have interviews next month.

be advised that he may want to plan on staying overnight because chances are he will have to come back the next day to get his visa if it is issued.

[1HappyGuy 45]

That sounds like a lot of the problems that Ukraine had before the U.S. embassy started issuing visas out of the embassy in Kiev in 2003. I think the Polish government officials just enjoy hassling some of their neighbors, especially if they are for K-1 visas.

Just another example of government bureaucracy not doing the complete job that they are assigned to do.

[Brad and Vika 129]

That sounds like a lot of the problems that Ukraine had before the U.S. embassy started issuing visas out of the embassy in Kiev in 2003. I think the Polish government officials just enjoy hassling some of their neighbors, especially if they are for K-1 visas.

Just another example of government bureaucracy not doing the complete job that they are assigned to do.

But those are US Dept. of State employees, not Polish government emplopyees. The OP and belarus1 are correct though, about being able to get into Poland pretty easily and allowing plenty of time. Five years ago, K visas could be picked up the same day at the embassy, but I understand that may have changed.

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RE: Staying overnight in Poland. In our case we are an I601 waiver situation so he did not expect a VISA to be issued so planned on doing interview and leaving the same day on return train to Belarus. Interestingly the VISA person at the window told him when he asked about just getting a tourist VISA that he would have to have a pre-paid hotel reservation in Poland.

That is why I suggested the alternate route for the VISA appointment for citizens of Belarus to simply get a tourist VISA and have in hand the train, plane or bus round trip tickets and hotel reservation copies in hand. As I mentioned in the past we have had no trouble with Polish VISA or other Schengen country VISA's for tourism before.

Sadly we believed that a one day VISA with a stated purpose of attending a VISA interview at another Embassy would be sufficient evidence for the Polish Embassy. I think they are used to seeing the "old school" type of invitation letter from the US Embassy in Warsaw and not the NVC notice. My husband said they even made comments about the size of the paper which I have noticed in Eastern Europe is slightly different from US 8 x 10.

I am not sure why they would interfere or care what type of VISA he was interviewing for at the US Embassy it seems they simply do things the way they always do them and cannot psychologically accept a new process. They did tell him the US Embassy knows what they are supposed to send so it kind of ticks me off if they know that they don't automatically generate a Invitation letter for Belarus citizens since they know they will need it for the VISA.

I will update the new process for VISA applications for Belarus citizens once we figure it out since it is supposed to go online application next week.

Edited May 25, 2010 by brokenfamily

[belarus1 0]

RE: Staying overnight in Poland. In our case we are an I601 waiver situation so he did not expect a VISA to be issued so planned on doing interview and leaving the same day on return train to Belarus. Interestingly the VISA person at the window told him when he asked about just getting a tourist VISA that he would have to have a pre-paid hotel reservation in Poland.

That is why I suggested the alternate route for the VISA appointment for citizens of Belarus to simply get a tourist VISA and have in hand the train, plane or bus round trip tickets and hotel reservation copies in hand. As I mentioned in the past we have had no trouble with Polish VISA or other Schengen country VISA's for tourism before.

Sadly we believed that a one day VISA with a stated purpose of attending a VISA interview at another Embassy would be sufficient evidence for the Polish Embassy. I think they are used to seeing the "old school" type of invitation letter from the US Embassy in Warsaw and not the NVC notice. My husband said they even made comments about the size of the paper which I have noticed in Eastern Europe is slightly different from US 8 x 10.

I am not sure why they would interfere or care what type of VISA he was interviewing for at the US Embassy it seems they simply do things the way they always do them and cannot psychologically accept a new process. They did tell him the US Embassy knows what they are supposed to send so it kind of ticks me off if they know that they don't automatically generate a Invitation letter for Belarus citizens since they know they will need it for the VISA.

I will update the new process for VISA applications for Belarus citizens once we figure it out since it is supposed to go online application next week.

the people at the polish embassy in minsk were definatley less than helpful and actually quite rude to my wife when she went to get a toursit visa for the interview in warsaw. i wanted to be there for 5 days so we could do a little sight seeing etc...but they refused her because we didnt have an official invitation from the hotel! we had a paid in full reciept and the documents from the us embassy stating she had an interview date. well, after lots of calls to the hotel concierge he was able to come up with documents that satisfied the embassy in minsk and we were able to get the visa finally.

things in warsaw were great and went smoothly. we had the interview one day and picked up the visa the next.

[Used to be broken 147]

GOOD TO KNOW.

We are trying to get a multiple entry VISA till the end of the year (using agent) so I will let the folks know how that works out. Now we have to reschedule VISA appointment and guessing it will not be until august, as I have seen some posters here say they have interviews in July already.

As I said they didn't give us much problem the last time we went to Poland in 2007, and I think he showed them the email reservations, itinerary and the train tickets. We stayed in 4 different hotels while we were there and didn't get any official "invitations" from the hotels only the email confirmations from the booking.com site.

The problem is when they jerk you around like that you loose your place in line and spend another day sitting out on the sidewalk waiting and in our case my husband lost 3 days of work.

We will see how the 'electronic" application system works, but I suspect it will leave us US Citizen spouses even more in the dark as the application, website, directions etc, will be in Russian/Polish.

But I agree they are jerk-offs as the "prepaid" hotel was mentioned to my husband when he asked about the tourist VISA instead, which is really bull hockey since you can cancel most reservations by credit card.

[Used to be broken 147]

GOOD TO KNOW.

We are trying to get a multiple entry VISA till the end of the year (using agent) so I will let the folks know how that works out. Now we have to reschedule VISA appointment and guessing it will not be until august, as I have seen some posters here say they have interviews in July already.

As I said they didn't give us much problem the last time we went to Poland in 2007, and I think he showed them the email reservations, itinerary and the train tickets. We stayed in 4 different hotels while we were there and didn't get any official "invitations" from the hotels only the email confirmations from the booking.com site.

The problem is when they jerk you around like that you loose your place in line and spend another day sitting out on the sidewalk waiting and in our case my husband lost 3 days of work.

We will see how the 'electronic" application system works, but I suspect it will leave us US Citizen spouses even more in the dark as the application, website, directions etc, will be in Russian/Polish.

But I agree they are jerk-offs as the "prepaid" hotel was mentioned to my husband when he asked about the tourist VISA instead, which is really bull hockey since you can cancel most reservations by credit card.

UPDATE.. rescheduled Warsaw Embassy in Poland said they mailed an invitation letter to my husband in Belarus on June 8th, as of June 30th it had not arrived. The interview is scheduled on July 15th. The Polish Embassy turned him down again when he went to the window on June 30th. At this point we are asking State Department to help change interview to Moscow so we don't have this issue again in round three or have the damn case cancelled because he cannot get to Poland. Would advise folks to use Moscow instead because other folks in line the day my husband went there have had the same issue.

[Used to be broken 147]

Contacted state department on the 30th, today was notified they will accept case in Moscow. Who knows how long it will take to get the case sent there and the new interview scheduled. Deep breath.. hope Germany lets us get a tourist VISA in August and the trip doesn't interfere with Interview.

[belamoosh 0]

I was curious if you had any updates on moving your case to Moscow?

We are in almost exactly the same situation as you. My wife got her invitation email on June 14 for an appt July 21. The consulate in Warsaw said they mailed a real invitation on June 15, but we've never received it. They wouldn't accept our email either, but they said they "might" accept a fax, so we got the consulate to send us a fax, which we had translated. We did the electronic application for the Polish visa, but the earliest date you could set an appointment through their system was July 14. Then they say it takes 7-10 days to get the visa issued, so our best case is to get the visa about 4 hours before her train is supposed to leave. They accepted the application, but we have no idea if they'll approve it (I suspect if it gets through all the application steps, they probably will, but who knows).

The visa section in Warsaw is going to start some kind of remodeling next week and they say they won't reschedule interviews until some time in Sept. so it might be time for a backup plan. We also have a young baby and didn't realize that they don't issue visas on the same day anymore, so the longer trip just may not work out.

I also agree that the best way to get the visa is to just book a tour. From what we could tell, you just need to go through a travel company and they will do all the paperwork for you. The only downside is that they have to keep your passport for 2 weeks and tack on about a $60 service charge. But I don't think you actually need to book the hotel or travel through them.

[Used to be broken 147]

I was curious if you had any updates on moving your case to Moscow?

We are in almost exactly the same situation as you. My wife got her invitation email on June 14 for an appt July 21. The consulate in Warsaw said they mailed a real invitation on June 15, but we've never received it. They wouldn't accept our email either, but they said they "might" accept a fax, so we got the consulate to send us a fax, which we had translated. We did the electronic application for the Polish visa, but the earliest date you could set an appointment through their system was July 14. Then they say it takes 7-10 days to get the visa issued, so our best case is to get the visa about 4 hours before her train is supposed to leave. They accepted the application, but we have no idea if they'll approve it (I suspect if it gets through all the application steps, they probably will, but who knows).

The visa section in Warsaw is going to start some kind of remodeling next week and they say they won't reschedule interviews until some time in Sept. so it might be time for a backup plan. We also have a young baby and didn't realize that they don't issue visas on the same day anymore, so the longer trip just may not work out.

I also agree that the best way to get the visa is to just book a tour. From what we could tell, you just need to go through a travel company and they will do all the paperwork for you. The only downside is that they have to keep your passport for 2 weeks and tack on about a $60 service charge. But I don't think you actually need to book the hotel or travel through them.

[Used to be broken 147]

oops, we have gotten only email confirmation from Moscow and Warsaw the case has been transferred but no new appointment date. The estimated 6-8 weeks for the transfer.

[SMR 368]

But those are US Dept. of State employees, not Polish government emplopyees.

Are they? I may be confused about the situation but I thought we were talking about getting a visa to Poland. Visas to Poland are issued by Polish government officials, not US officials.

[Brad and Vika 129]

Are they? I may be confused about the situation but I thought we were talking about getting a visa to Poland. Visas to Poland are issued by Polish government officials, not US officials.

I thought you were talking about the employees inside the US embassy in Warsaw.

[Used to be broken 147]

Things have changed dramatically at the Polish Consulate/Embassy in Minsk Belarus, even for tourist VISA to go to Poland round trip tickets and hotel reservations don't fly they want confirmation of hotel reservation as well.

NVC invitation documents are refused and Warsaw Embassy doesn't hard copy mail of invite letter in time to process VISA at Polish Consulate. Recommend immediately ask for hard copy of invite letter from Warsaw as soon as notified of interview date. You will still be cutting it extremely close based on mailing times of those letters > 30 days and you have to get an "online appointment letter" for Polish Consulate which will be a couple weeks and you must add in 10 working days for Polish Consulate to process and return VISA.

If I had known this I would have tried to bump the appointment by a month to wait for hard copy of appointment letter sent to beneficiary to allow sufficient processing time.