Travel to Russia

[JayFromTexas 69]

1 hour ago, Mike20090622 said:

Just booked flights from July 20 to August 10, total is 2100$, layover 9 hours in Dubai, not bad, return flights is only 14 hours 

Where are you flying out of in the U.S.? I fly out on 7/20, too. Out of DFW.

[Mike20090622 45]

31 minutes ago, JayFromTexas said:

Where are you flying out of in the U.S.? I fly out on 7/20, too. Out of DFW.

Washington DC 

[mendeleev 68]

My wife will go in early August for an annual trip to visit her son and grandchildren.  The route is Chicago to Dubai (Emirates), overnight stay, then Dubai to Novosibirsk (flydubai).  We broke the ticket at Dubai and saved about $2500 with the "penalty" of having to collect bags in Dubai.  One she's there, I'll update here on how this went.  This is the first time either of us is going there not through Moscow.  She'll open up accounts at Reifhaissen and Rosbank and I'll wire funds.  At Schwab, the international wire transfer fee is only $15 -- much better than my other bank. She'll also travel with emergency cash.  Her trips are usually rather long and this is no exception:  return scheduled early November..

[Mike20090622 45]

27 minutes ago, mendeleev said:

My wife will go in early August for an annual trip to visit her son and grandchildren.  The route is Chicago to Dubai (Emirates), overnight stay, then Dubai to Novosibirsk (flydubai).  We broke the ticket at Dubai and saved about $2500 with the "penalty" of having to collect bags in Dubai.  One she's there, I'll update here on how this went.  This is the first time either of us is going there not through Moscow.  She'll open up accounts at Reifhaissen and Rosbank and I'll wire funds.  At Schwab, the international wire transfer fee is only $15 -- much better than my other bank. She'll also travel with emergency cash.  Her trips are usually rather long and this is no exception:  return scheduled early November..

I will fly to Moscow on July 20 through Dubai also, layover time is 9 hours, I will carry cash no more than 10000$, if you can wire money to Russia please update, as far as I tried, nothing works, I will return on August 11, St. Petersburg to Istanbul to Washington DC

[mendeleev 68]

1 hour ago, Mike20090622 said:

I will fly to Moscow on July 20 through Dubai also, layover time is 9 hours, I will carry cash no more than 10000$, if you can wire money to Russia please update, as far as I tried, nothing works, I will return on August 11, St. Petersburg to Istanbul to Washington DC

Mike, this spring and summer we have repeatedly successfully wired funds to an account at Rosbank set up by my stepson.  It is a dollar account.  We will do the same for my wife at both Rosbank and Raiffhausen bank.   She will set up these accounts after she arrives.  I want to plan for the longer term and strive to avoid single point failures.  Rosbank was a subsidiary of a big French bank who has sold to Russian investors recently.  Raiffhausen is a subsidiary of an Austrian bank.  Both remain within SWIFT.  There is business risk that Raiffhausen might shut down operations in Russia at some point, although repeatedly they have said they do not current plan to do so.  The wire transfers from Schwab were easy and relatively cheap.  

[Mike20090622 45]

4 minutes ago, mendeleev said:

Mike, this spring and summer we have repeatedly successfully wired funds to an account at Rosbank set up by my stepson.  It is a dollar account.  We will do the same for my wife at both Rosbank and Raiffhausen bank.   She will set up these accounts after she arrives.  I want to plan for the longer term and strive to avoid single point failures.  Rosbank was a subsidiary of a big French bank who has sold to Russian investors recently.  Raiffhausen is a subsidiary of an Austrian bank.  Both remain within SWIFT.  There is business risk that Raiffhausen might shut down operations in Russia at some point, although repeatedly they have said they do not current plan to do so.  The wire transfers from Schwab were easy and relatively cheap.  

Thank you very much, we will try

[Dashinka 24,653]

On 5/13/2022 at 11:43 PM, millefleur said:

Air Serbia. They fly to NYC from Belgrade.

 

My MIL is coming soon hopefully and we just decided to go with Turkish Airlines. You can even buy in RUB on their website so that is great.

My wife heard that at least bus service was resumed between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.  Not sure about train service.

[Mike20090622 45]

2 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

My wife heard that at least bus service was resumed between Helsinki and St. Petersburg.  Not sure about train service.

I am not sure if I should tell the Russia customs officer that I will visit my fiancé or just say tourist, I wonder if I tell K visa thing and it will bring more questions, but it’s really not a good time to visit Russia at this time for a pure tourist visit 

[Simplytex 387]

3 hours ago, Mike20090622 said:

I am not sure if I should tell the Russia customs officer that I will visit my fiancé or just say tourist, I wonder if I tell K visa thing and it will bring more questions, but it’s really not a good time to visit Russia at this time for a pure tourist visit 

I wouldn't create suspicion by exclusion. In fact, it could be more helpful to say that you are visiting a Russian friend, and also you are visiting Russia as a tourist and she will be helping to show you around. If anything, they might even try to call to confirm, so have phone numbers, addresses, etc on hand. 

 

I wouldn't mention anything about US govt, immigration, etc, since it doesn't relate to your entry to Russia. Just keep it to the point of your trip, factual, and very simple.

[Dashinka 24,653]

On 7/19/2022 at 7:21 AM, mendeleev said:

My wife will go in early August for an annual trip to visit her son and grandchildren.  The route is Chicago to Dubai (Emirates), overnight stay, then Dubai to Novosibirsk (flydubai).  We broke the ticket at Dubai and saved about $2500 with the "penalty" of having to collect bags in Dubai.  One she's there, I'll update here on how this went.  This is the first time either of us is going there not through Moscow.  She'll open up accounts at Reifhaissen and Rosbank and I'll wire funds.  At Schwab, the international wire transfer fee is only $15 -- much better than my other bank. She'll also travel with emergency cash.  Her trips are usually rather long and this is no exception:  return scheduled early November..

Thanks for mentioning the route.  My wife is from Krasnoyarsk and she is also thinking about going back in the late August timeframe and Novosibirsk would be a better option than Moscow.  I have not decided if I will go as well, but I do miss my Russian family and have not seen them since 2019.

[Simplytex 387]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:21 PM, Dashinka said:

Thanks for mentioning the route.  My wife is from Krasnoyarsk and she is also thinking about going back in the late August timeframe and Novosibirsk would be a better option than Moscow.  I have not decided if I will go as well, but I do miss my Russian family and have not seen them since 2019.

Novosibirsk is definitely closer, but one other intl airport along the train line you could look at would be Kazan or Yekatarinaburg. Just to provide options!

Edited July 25, 2022 by Simplytex

[Mike20090622 45]

1 minute ago, Simplytex said:

Novosibirsk is definitely closer, but one other intl airport along the train line you could look at would be Kazan. Just to provide options!

I am in Moscow, passing the customs took only 3 minutes, she didn’t know English and just let me go. Got scammed by taxi drivers losing 100$. Not much differences in Moscow from Christmas time before sanctions 

Edited July 25, 2022 by Mike20090622

[Simplytex 387]

1 minute ago, Mike20090622 said:

I am in Moscow, passing the customs took only 3 minutes, she doesn’t know English and just let me go.

Thats what happened to me the last time 😅

 

Well, mine was a little wierder. It was last December, and when I arrived, I had flown US->Turkey->Russia. The rules after COVID were very unclear, and even certain airlines had no idea what was going on (looking at you, Lufthansa...) Basically, it wasn't clear if I could connect through an 'approved' country in-transit and never leaving the airport, or if I had to fly direct (which I had done two times after they opened borders again after summer.)

 

Anyways, Turkish Airlines let me get on all the flights, so seems like they didn't care/thought it was fine at the time. I arrive at the little booth, and the lady see my passport cover and immediate I get a hairy eyeball. I was prepared for that, so I just slide over all my documents anyway. She opens the passport, sees that I've got the visa, etc., but still seems shifty that I'm an American coming from Turkey.

 

So before even scanning or doing anything on the computer, she looks at the a sticky note by the phone and dials someone. I was pretty nervous at this point, as she spent about another 2 minutes talking to someone. She then starts to try to ask me something (I'm not even done with Russian duolingo now, so good luck trying to say anything to me back then...) All I could assume was that she was trying to maybe ask 1) where I came from, or 2) did I exit the airport in Turkey. No idea, but I just kept saying "Houston, Istanbul, Moscow... Istanbul transit, no exit." Stalemate. 

 

Then, I kid you not, after the phone call she busts out a eyeglass/magnifier and starts inspecting the visa, my stamps, all that, manually! Finally, she puts that away, puts my passport on the scanner, reads the chip (I guess), stamps it, gives me my entry form, and off I go. 

[Dashinka 24,653]

1 hour ago, Simplytex said:

Thats what happened to me the last time 😅

 

Well, mine was a little wierder. It was last December, and when I arrived, I had flown US->Turkey->Russia. The rules after COVID were very unclear, and even certain airlines had no idea what was going on (looking at you, Lufthansa...) Basically, it wasn't clear if I could connect through an 'approved' country in-transit and never leaving the airport, or if I had to fly direct (which I had done two times after they opened borders again after summer.)

 

Anyways, Turkish Airlines let me get on all the flights, so seems like they didn't care/thought it was fine at the time. I arrive at the little booth, and the lady see my passport cover and immediate I get a hairy eyeball. I was prepared for that, so I just slide over all my documents anyway. She opens the passport, sees that I've got the visa, etc., but still seems shifty that I'm an American coming from Turkey.

 

So before even scanning or doing anything on the computer, she looks at the a sticky note by the phone and dials someone. I was pretty nervous at this point, as she spent about another 2 minutes talking to someone. She then starts to try to ask me something (I'm not even done with Russian duolingo now, so good luck trying to say anything to me back then...) All I could assume was that she was trying to maybe ask 1) where I came from, or 2) did I exit the airport in Turkey. No idea, but I just kept saying "Houston, Istanbul, Moscow... Istanbul transit, no exit." Stalemate. 

 

Then, I kid you not, after the phone call she busts out a eyeglass/magnifier and starts inspecting the visa, my stamps, all that, manually! Finally, she puts that away, puts my passport on the scanner, reads the chip (I guess), stamps it, gives me my entry form, and off I go. 

That sounds a lot like my first entrance at Krasnoyarsk back when we used to fly Detroit to Beijing to Krasnoyarsk.  I think the border guard was taken aback by an American arriving from Beijing at 6am (at the time probably the only American on the flight as my wife hadn't naturalized at that point).  Anyway, the border officer picked up her phone (I assumed to call Moscow  ), scrutinized my visa, went out to her supervisor, and then 5-10 minutes later, stamped my passport and allowed me to enter.

[Dashinka 24,653]

1 hour ago, Mike20090622 said:

I am in Moscow, passing the customs took only 3 minutes, she didn’t know English and just let me go. Got scammed by taxi drivers losing 100$. Not much differences in Moscow from Christmas time before sanctions 

I think the taxi scam is fairly rampant at almost all airports.  Heck, we would get solicited by taxi drivers at Krasnoyarsk.