Kazan — summer 2012

Just sent off my visa app for Russia. Previous feedback about the new online part of the visa application process had been negative, mostly involving slow server times. As far as I could tell, it worked pretty well. Alas, the hint sheet provided by the document expediter had problems; I may have to put a better one together for our students.

Despite applying online, you still have to print out the app and send it to a document expediter. What this means is that we are populating a database for the Russians about our travel there, but they still haven't actually updated the physical process of issuing visas. This means I just sent off another FedEx package. Hm. I wonder if FedEx is in cahoots with the Russian consulate? Is the consulate getting kickbacks? And if they aren't, will the rest of the Russian bureaucracy make fun of them?