Kazan — summer 2010

I hope to be in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia for the summer. To get to Russia you need both an invitation and a visa; the consulate won't process a visa until the invitation has been issued. I processed my paperwork through an expediter that I had been told was generally reliable. I filled out the forms so that they would expedite my processing, and I overnighted it to them on 8 April 2010. I had hoped to have my invitation by 18 Apr 2010. Alas, the Russian government has recently changed their policy about expediting paperwork: they no longer do it. The expediters sent me a note saying it would be issued May 11. The invitation was in fact issued 11 May, so theoretically I should receive back my passport by 25 May. I'm a bit nervous since my departure date is the 27th.

My Russian visa has arrived. I'm very pleased because I was worried it wouldn't get here before my flight, but it turns out the expediters knew what they were doing.

The first time I went to Russia, the visa was a separate piece of paper in three parts, all of which were taken back from you before you left Russia, so you were left with no record of where you were in your passport. This time the visa is pasted into my passport itself. Here is a picture of it. (I've blurred the vital parts to prevent identity theft and document forgery.)