Moscow decries U.S. move to call Russians 'homeless' for visa purposes

[millefleur 5,046]

Quote

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Russia on Sunday condemned a decision by the United States to add Russians seeking U.S. visas to a list of "homeless nationals" who can apply for visas in third countries.

The move allowed Russians to apply for U.S. visas in Warsaw instead of their home country after the American Embassy stopped processing most visa applications in May due to Moscow's ban on employing embassy staff in Russia.

The U.S. State Department lists as "homeless" applicants from countries in which the United States has no consular representation, or where consular staff cannot issue visas due to the political or security situation.

Read more here: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/moscow-decries-us-move-call-russians-homeless-visa-purposes-2021-10-24/

 

Also a good video on the same topic. Sorry guys, only in Russian. But I thought this video at least shed some more insight on what is actually going on with the new "homeless" nationality designation.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2021 by millefleur
Added English article

[Simplytex 387]

I ran out of Reuters 'free articles' so here's another link to the same story: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-us-visas-homeless/31527181.html

 

I do wonder, since the Russian applications are now officially recognized as FUBAR by the US Dept of State, does that mean people submitting new applications should just by default be putting Warsaw? Also, I wonder what sort of arrangement they have to get people to Poland (probably none, is my guess), since that requires 1) a Schengen visa, and 2) Poland (well, really EU) allowing Sputnik vaccinated travellers.

 

The only other workaround seems to be the Greek Schengen visa, and then internal Schengen travel, which even still would appear to require a negative Covid test... (see bullet point #4)

[millefleur 5,046]

29 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

I do wonder, since the Russian applications are now officially recognized as FUBAR by the US Dept of State, does that mean people submitting new applications should just by default be putting Warsaw?

It seems like that is what will happen? At the NVC stage, Warsaw will be designated as the location for Russian applicants.

 

30 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

Also, I wonder what sort of arrangement they have to get people to Poland (probably none, is my guess), since that requires 1) a Schengen visa, and 2) Poland (well, really EU) allowing Sputnik vaccinated travellers.

Supposedly the WHO is in the process of approving Sputnik. Perhaps this situation will raise the stakes to approve it faster.

 

31 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

The only other workaround seems to be the Greek Schengen visa, and then internal Schengen travel, which even still would appear to require a negative Covid test...

I agree, this situation is very sub-optimal. Not to mention I don't exactly think Poland is stoked about the idea of a bunch of Russians pouring into the country when Russia-Poland relations aren't great either. I'm not sure there's an ideal "backup" but you'd think something like Kazakhstan would make more sense.

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,092]

11 hours ago, millefleur said:

I agree, this situation is very sub-optimal. Not to mention I don't exactly think Poland is stoked about the idea of a bunch of Russians pouring into the country when Russia-Poland relations aren't great either. I'm not sure there's an ideal "backup" but you'd think something like Kazakhstan would make more sense.

Eh; Kazakhstan isn't very convenient for the overwhelming majority of Russians, I doubt the Baltics have the capacity (or Finland), Belarus doesn't have an IV unit, and Ukraine is an obvious no-go. I think Warsaw's probably the closest embassy/consulate with a larger IV unit to European Russia and because they handle Belarus already they already deal with Russian-language documents.

[millefleur 5,046]

5 minutes ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

Eh; Kazakhstan isn't very convenient for the overwhelming majority of Russians,

I was just trying to think of a location that doesn't require Schengen visas.

Edited October 26, 2021 by millefleur

[Caboose29 173]

11 hours ago, millefleur said:

It seems like that is what will happen? At the NVC stage, Warsaw will be designated as the location for Russian applicants.

 

Supposedly the WHO is in the process of approving Sputnik. Perhaps this situation will raise the stakes to approve it faster.

 

I agree, this situation is very sub-optimal. Not to mention I don't exactly think Poland is stoked about the idea of a bunch of Russians pouring into the country when Russia-Poland relations aren't great either. I'm not sure there's an ideal "backup" but you'd think something like Kazakhstan would make more sense.

Or Georgia or Armenia. I just got my NOA2 last week. Looks like I and my fiancé have quite the adventure ahead of us. I’m pushing my IL to try Armenia and Georgia, but since now Russia is “officially” homeless that looks much less likely. 
 

i mean my fiance can literally drive to Tbilisi, and fly direct to Yerevan, but we have to jump through these hoops to Warsaw…..  Could I have picked a worse time to get a K1 visa?!🤦🤦

[millefleur 5,046]

1 minute ago, Caboose29 said:

Or Georgia or Armenia. I just got my NOA2 last week. Looks like I and my fiancé have quite the adventure ahead of us. I’m pushing my IL to try Armenia and Georgia, but since now Russia is “officially” homeless that looks much less likely. 
 

i mean my fiance can literally drive to Tbilisi, and fly direct to Yerevan, but we have to jump through these hoops to Warsaw…..  Could I have picked a worse time to get a K1 visa?!🤦🤦

Let us know what Armenia and Georgia say if you contact them.

 

What I'm wondering is: what if someone just can't get a Schengen visa? What if their Schengen visa gets rejected, for whatever reason? What is that person supposed to do?

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,092]

45 minutes ago, millefleur said:

What I'm wondering is: what if someone just can't get a Schengen visa? What if their Schengen visa gets rejected, for whatever reason? What is that person supposed to do?

Dunno. I'm sure this comes up occasionally for other countries where the designated IV unit is in another country (other Scandinavians in Stockholm, Cubans in Guyana, Belarusians in Warsaw and there are a few others) and there's got to be an answer.

[millefleur 5,046]

3 minutes ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

(other Scandinavians in Stockholm, Cubans in Guyana,

I don't think Scandinavians need visas to travel between each others countries. Cubans also don't require visas to enter Guyana.

 

I assume in the case of people who can't get a Schengen visa that other embassies would have to consider taking those cases, for Russians or Belarussians. I don't see Warsaw as a long term solution because Russia has a way bigger population than Belarus and pre-pandemic Moscow was issuing tens of thousands of visas to Russians. For K-1 visas in September 2019, Belarus had 5 and Russia had 77. For Poland K-1's that same month, only 14 were issued.

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyNIVIssuances/SEPTEMBER 2019 - NIV Issuances by Nationality and Visa Class.pdf

 

Russia's capacity is just so ginormous and has such a bigger population and visa issuing output that unless Moscow opens up again at some point, the DoS is going to have to grapple with the reality of the numbers that smaller embassies like Warsaw just won't be able to sustain this over the long term. Warsaw doing Belarus, makes sense, Belarus is small and has a very low visa output.

 

 

 

[Caboose29 173]

2 hours ago, millefleur said:

Let us know what Armenia and Georgia say if you contact them.

 

What I'm wondering is: what if someone just can't get a Schengen visa? What if their Schengen visa gets rejected, for whatever reason? What is that person supposed to do?

I’m going to soon. You bring up a really good point about denied Schengen visa. Also, it is concerning about the volumes of capacity per embassy. I’ll ask my IL tomorrow. I’d like to think the dilemma with Moscow isn’t the fault of the US govt. But I’m concerned their solution is more of a band-aid than a real solution.  I’m afraid what it will do to the wait times. Although I do feel better than the Filipino beneficiaries, I imagine. 

[slavaskii 886]

On 10/26/2021 at 12:33 AM, millefleur said:

It seems like that is what will happen? At the NVC stage, Warsaw will be designated as the location for Russian applicants.

 

Supposedly the WHO is in the process of approving Sputnik. Perhaps this situation will raise the stakes to approve it faster.

 

I agree, this situation is very sub-optimal. Not to mention I don't exactly think Poland is stoked about the idea of a bunch of Russians pouring into the country when Russia-Poland relations aren't great either. I'm not sure there's an ideal "backup" but you'd think something like Kazakhstan would make more sense.

When you say Warsaw will be designated as the location for Russian applicants at the NVC stage, do you mean this is already happening? I'm particularly concerned because this is going to create a tremendous backlog that there's no way Warsaw can handle; as you pointed out, Belarusians were already being directed there for want of their own IV unit. Warsaw has historically been one of the faster embassies to churn out applicants after resuming post-COVID, and I greatly fear times are going to grow exponentially.  

[millefleur 5,046]

14 minutes ago, slavaskii said:

When you say Warsaw will be designated as the location for Russian applicants at the NVC stage, do you mean this is already happening?

It seems like that's what the new protocol is based on what the DoS published. I quoted it in the other post:

In a nutshell, it says the NVC will "screen and assign" homeless beneficiaries for "appropriate processing."

 

I agree that this is going to create a huge backlog. Russia's capacity outweighs Poland and Belarus' combined.

[slavaskii 886]

25 minutes ago, millefleur said:

It seems like that's what the new protocol is based on what the DoS published. I quoted it in the other post:

In a nutshell, it says the NVC will "screen and assign" homeless beneficiaries for "appropriate processing."

 

I agree that this is going to create a huge backlog. Russia's capacity outweighs Poland and Belarus' combined.

Very interesting - thank you so much for linking that! Of course I wish everyone a very speedy process, but the prospect of the people stuck in Moscow right now being able to transfer all their applications over in bulk and set everyone else back is really frustrating. It's even more frustrating when you consider that the Russian applicants don't necessarily even want to go to Warsaw for visa/covid reasons, and would be much better served anywhere else (Kazakhstan, for example). I just don't understand what the US government is doing with that whole region... Minsk has no people to ever reopen, Moscow is shuttered, and all the surrounding countries are refusing outside applicants (though you'd think this would be a decision made by the State Department?). 

 

I guess we'll see how this plays out. Russians have had this process the hardest out of everyone, it seems to me. You'd think after Milligan v Pompeo something would've changed, instead, things just got a whole lot worse... 

[marpolsdofer 7]

Well today after I filled the police report they request my sons case was transferred to Warsaw. This is going to be a pain and cost more money then it should.  Visas for 2 people, plane and train tickets for two people, place to stay for two people, ticket to get to US for one send the other back home. Would be cheaper to hire a lawyer in the county to take him around.

Want to lose a lot of money and time on because of BS politics this is the way to do it.

 

On a side not I read someplace the State Department said they don't plan on even looking back in to the issue until next year.

Edited October 29, 2021 by marpolsdofer

[Kosichka 0]

Immigrant Visas - U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Poland (usembassy.gov)

Official Poland embassy guidance that it is a default processing center for Russia. So as I read it, when you are filing new I-130 you would indicate Poland-Warsaw.