Visa Watch ! - Part 3 (Russia)

Country: Russia
Location: Odessa, Ukraine

03 July: Go to consulate address I have from guide book, it's not there. Luckily security in that building seem to know roughly where it is and not far, so I head in the direction suggested and eventually find a Russian flag. Get in and there's a bit of a scrum of people. After a couple of hours of watching everyone else pushing, shoving, arguing, bitching I get in and ask if I can get a visa application. Reply is that it's too late, come back tomorrow.

04 July: Arrive at 9am this time, usual pushing and shoving from the crowd, mainly middle aged, older ladies who are constantly niggling each other and arguing over the jostling for position. Get in around 10:45. By about 11:00 I get asked into the back room where the consul who is a very nice guy and happily speaks good English asks about my plans etc and says it should be no problem. Back out fill out application form as my one is different again. That done and money paid I get another form, asking for contact details of previous 3 employers ! which of course i don't have at hand, so guess at addresses. Another questions asks for a list of countries visited in the last 10 years !!! I get back to about 3 months ago and run out of space on that one.

Visa should be ready Friday 07 July at a bargain $175 ... fingers crossed, wood touched etc..

11 July: Visa collected succesfully. Again a large bunch of people outside, though today I notice everyone coming in asks who was last in the queue and most people tend to wait their turn. Of course there are exceptions who just puch their way to the door with an excuse of some kind. When the lady inside opens the door and everyone shouts their justification for going next, I hear one lady saying something or other about ' ya paluchit' which means "I collect", so I try this, shouting that I also want to collect and wave my receipt, the lady notices, checks out my receipt and passport copy and tells me to come in, I fight my way through and inside. 10 minutes later I have my visa. Queuing time today was another hour and a half I suppose.

Total time spent : About 7 or 8 hours.
Total duration: 8 days
Summary: Got there in the end, though spent a lot of time waiting. Expensive as ever.