millefleur

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

Yes. You need to decide first which embassy/consulate, pay the fee and then you can see the calendar for that specific location. All the info is on the ustraveldocs site. https://www.ustraveldocs.com/kz/ru/nonimmigrant-visa

With either Italy or Kazakhstan, she'll be at the whims of whatever appointments are available. Almaty has more because they have Russian speaking staff who are now handling these nonimmigrant visas. So, she could do either, but with Italy she might have to wait longer or login randomly each day to see what appointment comes up. With Almaty, I can tell you we saw the calendar not too long ago and there were appointments in August and November. (Could be even more now since that was a couple weeks ago.) They take the passport for a few days and in Kazakhstan, you can select a pick up service to go get it yourself. I have no idea what Italy is offering but I would assume something similar.

Further example: My MIL has an expired B that she got in Russia. She cannot go to Moscow because it's closed and renewals inside of Russia are no longer offered. Her only choice now is to apply essentially from scratch for a new B visa at a consulate/embassy outside of Russia. She lives in Russia and does not have residency in any other countries so this is her only choice.

You can 100% go to Kazakhstan. My MIL has an appointment in Almaty in August. Does she speak Italian or English fluently? Language barrier with be an issue. In Kazakhstan they have Russian speaking staff so that is why we went with that one. A nitpick but you don't pay for "renewal" you pay for the processing fee. There is no guarantee that the visa will be reissued unfortunately. Just have to go to the interview and hope she won't get rejected. They do not waive the interview. The only way she can get the interview waived is if she is a resident in a third country and renews as a resident there. She basically has to start from scratch now since the Moscow embassy is down. The only option of interview-free renewal for Russias is if they have residence abroad and apply in that country where they have residence. Example: My SIL has a student visa in Austria. She applied for a B renewal in Vienna because she was able to prove she has residence in Austria. Her B was renewed via mail and she did not have to attend an interview. This option is not open to your MIL unless she has residency in a country outside of Russia.

According to this: Nonimmigrant visa appointments are offered in Milan, Florence, Rome, and Naples. Appointments for non-residents of Italy are added weekly but are usually quickly booked. We encourage non-resident applicants to frequently check the appointment system at https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-it/niv to see if appointments are available. I'm not exactly sure how you're supposed to check prior to paying the fee? For any B visa you, have to pay the fee first to that specific embassy/consulate, and only then you can see the appointments. So I guess they want you to pay and then just roll the dice hoping you'll find an appointment.

I'm in the same boat. There's no renewal without an interview unless the person has residency in the country where they apply (so residency in a third country outside of Russia.) If she can't get residency in another country, then she'll have to apply for a B2 the same as applying for the first time and get an interview. I know these facts to be true because my SIL renewed hers abroad (where she has residency) but my MIL has to go through Almaty and must do an interview. I haven't heard about Italy offering B interviews to nonresidents. I know that Kazakhstan does.

Jumping in here as mod: do you guys think we need to start a new thread about Almaty transfers? This thread is quite big and has moved on from just Warsaw discussion. Let me know if you'd like to just keep posting here or start a new thread to keep better track of specific embassy transfers.

I agree with the others that the search feature is quite bad. Remember back when I needed to look something up and it's frustrating you can't sort by oldest vs newest or other options. The option to select a specific forum (or exclude ones) would be extremely helpful.

The "confused" reaction does feel kind of unnecessary. I remember the days back when we did not have it and it was fine. It doesn't really add anything and we've actually had some members abuse it in the past (basically spam-react people's posts with it.) Back in those days, people used to reply with popcorn to "controversial" posts (or specifically this one ) but we mods have actually cracked down on that! It's an ever evolving process around here and we appreciate your input.

One thing for sure is the sanctions have been really hard to enforce. I know for a fact that when a bunch of German and other northern Euro companies left Russia in 2022, some months later Spanish and other competitors came in and totally took over the void they left behind in the market. Many of these companies are really obscure and would never make headlines (hyper niche industry and chemical products) so you'd never hear about it in the news. Each sanctioning country would probably have to set up a kind of "sanction enforcement task force" and comb over the books of every company in the country. I guess in theory this is possible, but would be expensive, slow and obviously would hurt their local economy.

Exactly. Biopic drama versus lighthearted comedy. I think Barbie will make more money just because comedies do better than dramas usually. Although Oppenheimer seems to be pretty popular too. Frankly I'm just glad to see Hollywood sink money into something that isn't the billionth Star Wars or Marvel sequel. Nice to have a change of pace and some new ideas actually given attention.

There's been a lot of hubbub about these two films. Let's see which one VJ'ers perfer.

It does feel a little bit one sided when just a bunch of "big players" get to call all the shots at the UN. (aka the "nuclear club" as I've heard people call it.) I understand why Ukraine feels it is unfair that Russia has a seat on the council. I was mistakenly under the illusion that the "security council" was more of a niche thing for specific matters, didn't realize they had as much say as they did.

Right, do they have a say in where peacekeepers are sent? I just assumed the UN could send them anywhere since they had them in the Yugoslav wars and also currently in Syria. But speaking of the Yugoslav wars, it seems the Peacekeepers did not really help there too much so probably not any kind of guarantee of stable peace.

Which "certain players"? I'm out of the loop with UN politics.

How long were the visas issued for?

**Moved from K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports to RUB regional forum; country specific issue** **Threads on the same topic combined for context** VJ Moderation

It saddens me these classy icons are dying out. Feel like I was born in the wrong era. Burt Bacharach also died this year. Long lives but still RIP, will be sorely missed.

Haha, as I was going through the recs here and they kept failing, my first thought was that they read VJ!

I assume there must be a way to make an Infopass appointment with some specific keyword, because you can't make them online anymore. Only option is to call that same number.