Russian applicant with a Warsaw interview and no Schengen (yet). What to do?

[BenNomad 89]

Starting a new thread for those who have been assigned to Warsaw and haven't been able to transfer their cases elsewhere.

*** If your case is IR-5, you can transfer to Almaty (if it hasn't been transferred there automatically) ***

 

I'm sure most people are very familiar with the current situation, but here's a quick summary:

 

- Poland does not issues visas to Russians, and Russians cannot enter Poland directly through an external border. In other words, you can get to Poland only by entering another Schengen country first, and then travelling to Poland from there.

- Generally speaking, Schengen visas are being issued for the exact dates of your intended travel (how strict this is varies by Schengen country and the applicants visa history)

- You can apply for a Schengen visa only in your home country or a country where you have residence (your residence in that country should be valid for at least three months after your planned return from the Schengen zone). Keep in mind that if you have residence in a country where there's a working US Embassy, you should be able to transfer your case there.

- The stated purpose for your travel is most likely going to be Tourism, and therefore it is NOT recommended to mention in your Schengen application that you are planning to go to Warsaw for a visa interview.

 

 

An excellent source of info about getting a Schengen visa is "Forum Vinskogo" (in Russian language).

The country most often recommended to try for is France, because apparently France is less strict than other Schengen countries. However, it's very hard to get an appointment to apply for a French visa. In fact, some Russians are running a business booking appointments automatically using a bot. Seems like the price is around $70-80 to use a bot. Because of those bots I wasn't even able to create an account on the French visa center website.

 

Another one to try for is Italy, with a lot of success stories of people going there.

 

My wife and I have decided to try for Greece. From what I've read, Greece makes their visa decisions relatively quickly (around 2-3 weeks I think). It's also closer geographically to us. We don't know yet when our Warsaw interview date is, and we don't want to guess at travel dates, so we decided it's best to wait for the interview letter before applying for the visa. That means she's in Russia with our kids (and without me) until we get the interview letter. I don't like that our family has had to separate just for the sake of getting a visa to travel to the Warsaw interview, but I'm not going to preach to the choir here  

 

Another reason why we decided on Greece is the possiblity for me to get a residence permit through the Digital Nomad program. If I can get a residence quickly, then my wife could apply for a long-term national visa through "Family Reunification" (ie, not a Schengen visa). And that would allow us to travel freely in the Schengen zone. I don't know how long it takes, but I'm flying to Greece next week to start the process. I figure it's better to be working on an alternate plan as long as we're just waiting. 

 

A related question here is how to send money to Russia to support a family member. My wife was able to withdraw $2000 from an airport bank machine on her way back to Russia, but that's not much money to live on if we still have a month or so to wait for the interview letter. We left very little money in her Rusisan account when we flew out last year, not thinking that we'd be back any time soon. I heard that UniCredit bank is the last remaining bank that can take transfers in USD or Euros (without enormous fees). Has anyone made USD transfers to Russia recently?

[millefleur 5,047]

Austria is supposedly issuing Schengen visas to Russias. My in laws would like to visit Europe and they will try for an Austrian visa soon. I will let you know if they have success.

 

3 hours ago, BenNomad said:

Has anyone made USD transfers to Russia recently?

@mendeleev has done research about transferring money to Russia. I will let him chime in.

[BenNomad 89]

I've been informed that another option for sending money to Russia is to open a bank account in Kazakhstan. I'm told it can be done without visiting Kazakstan, costs 25,000 RUB and includes delivery of the bank card to an address in Russia. 

 

Regarding scheduling travel dates for the Schengen visa, I know this has been discussed thoroughly elsewhere, but it sounds like two weeks is the absolute minumum if you're going to do the medical exam in Warsaw. That's based on doing the medical one week before the interview, 3-5+ days for passport return after the interview (embassy information), plus travel days. Of course, that doesn't take into consideration unexpected delays like administrative review. I'd feel safer if my wife had a one-month Schengen, but I'm not sure she's going to get a visa approved for that length since it will be her first Schengen.

 

What happens if your Schengen visa expires and you're still waiting for Warsaw to give the passport back? I wonder if the US embassy takes the applicant's visa validity into consideration?

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by BenNomad

[BenNomad 89]

I collected statistics from Forum Vinskogo on recent experiences of Russians applying for Italian Schengen visas. The 10 most recent posts. Thought this may be useful since a lot of people try for Italy. Income figures are in roubles. One rejected out of ten. The processing time seems to be around a month.

[BenNomad 89]

And for Greece. Fast turnaround on Greek visas, but they are only for the exact dates of travel. Half the posts don't specify how many days they requested.

[ah-no 27]

@BenNomad 

This is absolutely a great tactic, and one I think would be good to do closer to the interview time. Can you share any about your mythology? I can read and speak Russian but don't feel like digging through that huge forum for the goods.

Now, I personally think that a 2 week visa would be enough, but my wife says asking for more than 2 weeks lends itself to a higher rejection. 2 weeks is optimal for that. If the spouse can do the medical interview in Moscow (which seems totally possible), that would mean just the need to travel and wait for the visa. 2 weeks is probably doable if the interview is held within the first 3 days of that period. But, of course, more time is better. The Italy numbers are promising. 

This absolutely depends on how fast the turnaround for the medical results is.
 

[BenNomad 89]

Here's a sample of the "statistics" thread for Spain:

 

 

Every country has its own statistics thread. Messages follow a set format so it's easy to pull the info out. It was easier to see the data all at once in an Excel sheet, but I'm not going to do that for every country!

 

I think your 2-week plan sounds good. Italy or Spain may actually give you more time than you ask for. But their one-month processing time would be cutting it too close for us if we wait for the IL, since my wife will be doing the med exam in Warsaw.

 

Be sure to check appointment availibility for Italy or Spain, since those are the more sought-after ones, like France.

[BenNomad 89]

On 7/27/2023 at 5:52 PM, millefleur said:

transferring money to Russia.

I just discovered on the Bank of America website that Russia has disappeared from the list of countries that it's possible to send wire transfers to. I guess that's no surprise at all because of sanctions. But somehow I thought it was still possible, since not all the banks are sanctioned. A friend in the RF gave me his account details at Raiffeisen for wiring euros, and I assumed I'd be able to send euros from BofA. I was wrong!

 

Anyone know if European banks can wire money to the RF these days? I have a friend in Germany who might be able to help me do that if it's still possible.

 

Got to find a way to send my wife some money.

Edited August 16, 2023 by BenNomad

[ninjakid 13]

On 8/16/2023 at 11:49 AM, BenNomad said:

I just discovered on the Bank of America website that Russia has disappeared from the list of countries that it's possible to send wire transfers to. I guess that's no surprise at all because of sanctions. But somehow I thought it was still possible, since not all the banks are sanctioned. A friend in the RF gave me his account details at Raiffeisen for wiring euros, and I assumed I'd be able to send euros from BofA. I was wrong!

 

Anyone know if European banks can wire money to the RF these days? I have a friend in Germany who might be able to help me do that if it's still possible.

 

Got to find a way to send my wife some money.

Hi, I've been using cryptocurrency to send money to my wife in Russian for over a year now.  Basically, you deposit USD to your crypto account and convert it to one of the cryptocurrencies. Then, send it to her crypto account and she can withdraw money in Rubles.   If you are not sure how to do that, I can help you. If you do not want to deal with cryptocurrency by yourself, people from Let's Russia (https://buy.letsrussia.com/) can help you with transferring money to your wife for you by basically doing the same things I just explained. But you don't have to have an account or anything. 

 

[BenNomad 89]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:07 AM, ninjakid said:

Hi, I've been using cryptocurrency to send money to my wife in Russian for over a year now.  Basically, you deposit USD to your crypto account and convert it to one of the cryptocurrencies. Then, send it to her crypto account and she can withdraw money in Rubles.   If you are not sure how to do that, I can help you. If you do not want to deal with cryptocurrency by yourself, people from Let's Russia (https://buy.letsrussia.com/) can help you with transferring money to your wife for you by basically doing the same things I just explained. But you don't have to have an account or anything. 

 

Turns out I was able to get money to my wife through a friend who works for a Russian guy. He asked his boss to pay his salary this month to my wife's RF account, and I am paying my friend.

[BenNomad 89]

For anyone applying for a Schengen visa and designating a sponsor as the one paying travel expenses, I found out there are a few extra things that need tp be provided: 

 

1. A short letter (in Russian language) signed and dated by the sponsor, guaranteeing that he/she will pay all the expenses of the trip.

2. Photocopy of marriage certificate (if the sponsor is a spouse obviously)

3. Photocopy of sponsor's passport

4. They asked for a copy of my (the sponsor's) birth certificate but didn't require it.

 

I was able to email these to my wife while she was still at the visa center today, and she got the application submitted. Keeping our fingers crossed now!

 

The other documents we had prepared in advance (we applied for a visa to Greece):

1. My recent U.S. bank statements

2. Plane tickets from the RF to Athens, and a return ticket only to Istanbul (tickets for my wife only).

3. Hotel reservations for 17 nights (the proposed travel plan inlcuded 14 days in Greece, 3 in Italy). 

4. Med insurance

5. The application form, which was supposed to be filled only in English, no Russian.

6. Copies and original of my wife's internal and regular passports.

 

We did not submit any financial evidence for my wife since I am the sponsor and we basically have no money in the RF anyway. 

 

[ah-no 27]

5 hours ago, BenNomad said:

For anyone applying for a Schengen visa and designating a sponsor as the one paying travel expenses, I found out there are a few extra things that need tp be provided: 

 

1. A short letter (in Russian language) signed and dated by the sponsor, guaranteeing that he/she will pay all the expenses of the trip.

2. Photocopy of marriage certificate (if the sponsor is a spouse obviously)

3. Photocopy of sponsor's passport

4. They asked for a copy of my (the sponsor's) birth certificate but didn't require it.

 

I was able to email these to my wife while she was still at the visa center today, and she got the application submitted. Keeping our fingers crossed now!

 

The other documents we had prepared in advance (we applied for a visa to Greece):

1. My recent U.S. bank statements

2. Plane tickets from the RF to Athens, and a return ticket only to Istanbul (tickets for my wife only).

3. Hotel reservations for 17 nights (the proposed travel plan inlcuded 14 days in Greece, 3 in Italy). 

4. Med insurance

5. The application form, which was supposed to be filled only in English, no Russian.

6. Copies and original of my wife's internal and regular passports.

 

We did not submit any financial evidence for my wife since I am the sponsor and we basically have no money in the RF anyway. 

 

This might be a personal question, so apologies, but I'm curious because I may soon be in the same boat: just to clarify, so, did you add these sponsor items because you felt it might help your case, or because your wife would not have qualified otherwise? I read your last comment about the RF thing.

P.S. did you include every page of your passport? and you said tickets from R.F. to Athens -- with a stopover in Istanbul or something? Also, no tickets for yourself included, yeah? Are you going to cancel the hotel reservations? 

[BenNomad 89]

2 hours ago, ah-no said:

This might be a personal question, so apologies, but I'm curious because I may soon be in the same boat: just to clarify, so, did you add these sponsor items because you felt it might help your case, or because your wife would not have qualified otherwise? I read your last comment about the RF thing.

P.S. did you include every page of your passport? and you said tickets from R.F. to Athens -- with a stopover in Istanbul or something? Also, no tickets for yourself included, yeah? Are you going to cancel the hotel reservations? 

My wife wouldn't have qualified without a sponsor because we had intentionally left very little money in her Russian account. The lady at the visa center said that 180,000 RUB (or around $2000) is the minimum amount to qualify for a visa. That must depend on the length of the trip though, because that amount wouldn't even cover the hotels I booked. Without a sponsor, they also like to see a statement from work showing a good income, and that the money in the bank wasn't deposited a day before the appointment. I had planned this a few months in advance, to have a good average monthly bank balance.

 

We bought non-refundable plane tickets Sochi-Istanbul-Athens for my wife and kids because I'm afraid if we waited until we got the visa, the prices would be much higher, or there'd be no seats left. The return ticket to Istanbul for my wife is 99% refundable and I will cancel that. I will cancel all the hotel bookings except the first night. I made sure that my wife's name is on all the bookings (learned that lesson applying for a visa to Cyprus last year). 

 

It looks strange that my wife has a ticket to Greece with kids and an outward ticket without them (or me), but apparently this is not a problem. 

 

On Forum Vinskogo, people spend a lot of time discussing proposed travel itineraries, since rejections can be based on a poorly planned trip (like 10 days in one city). So I looked up the best sights to see in Greece, planned a road trip that would take us through the country for 8-9 days, and then a ferry to Crete for 3 days. That gave me about 6-7 days after our Warsaw interview, knowing that Greece tends to give visas only for the specified days of travel. To feel safer I decided to tack on three more days to the trip and booked three nights in Rome, with the flight back to Istanbul from Rome. On the Russian forum they advise against doing this (showing multiple countries) but I think that's what I really would want to do if we were doing the trip. It's all so crazy, this planning and booking and guessing...

 

My wife paid for courier delivery of the passport and hopefully we'll hear back in a week or two. In total it cost almost $150 (visa and service fees plus delivery).

[BenNomad 89]

3 hours ago, ah-no said:

P.S. did you include every page of your passport?

The visa center provided instructions that all the filled-out pages need to be copied but my wife went ahead and copied all the pages from both passports.

[ah-no 27]

6 hours ago, BenNomad said:

The visa center provided instructions that all the filled-out pages need to be copied but my wife went ahead and copied all the pages from both passports.

• So, it has to be a Russian bank account? It can't be like, a foreign bank account of my wife's? 
• And so, it's OK to buy one way tickets like that? I'd like to do that to cancel.
• We planned to do 14 days, and to do the medical exam in Moscow to save time as much as possible. I've heard some people request up to 22 days. Have you found any data about how long it takes the embassy to return the passport?
• Oh, do you know if she actually have to enter from a route that originates in Russia? Or could you hypothetically buy those tickets for the visa, then get ticket from Georgia to Athens for entry. (I'm in Georgia)

Never heard the multiple country thing. Let me know how your case proceeds, I'm very curious!

Edited September 2, 2023 by ah-no