Just been denied my visa to Russia

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
What a fvcking joke of a country. It's not like russia doesn't quite suck enough sausage on a regular basis that it doesn't need tourist money and then it denies a tourist who will give money to their sh*ty frozen wasteland of a hellhole? What a farce.

Maybe it is for the tourist safety, and also protection of their citizens from tourists that might exploit their people (sex trade, kidnapping, drug, child labor, etc?)

Vietnam denied my visa the first time apply from Canada, but granted me a tourist visa the second time I applied from Thailand 3 month later. Cambodia denied my visa application twice, because there was 4 tourist died from unexploded US ordinate at Angkor Wat several months after the country was open to tourist.

Many people don't travel becasue they have negative attitude about foreign culture, law & politic.

 

[cmdrmoocow]

Joy. Managed to get a 550$-ish credit for a new ticket later this year.

At least thats part of the damage.

 

[jammur21]

Didn't Zugzwang152 or someone else post about smuggling out a Soviet uniform? KGB must be on to ATOT

 

[cmdrmoocow]

sweetness. I also just got back my application, and they gave me my 200$ back. Less damage.

 

[MisfitsFiend]

Isn't Putin trying to become Stalin?

yep...not much good going on in that country! Only bad part - people who don't have ties to KGB/government suffer...

 

[freegeeks]

lack of planning

I got a visa this summer, cost me 70 euro

-get an invitation (easy, just look around, you can buy them)
-make sure that all the nights are booked in a hotel (again look around, you have agencies specializing in this kind of stuff, I had official papers that confirmed that I was staying in a hotel while in reality I was staying in a mountain lodge)
-make sure that you have insurance and that you have a copy from the insurance papers

apply for a visa when you have all of this and you have no problem at all

in the end it's just paperwork and they couldn't care less where you are staying as long as they have an "official" paper

 

[DeeKnow]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
What a fvcking joke of a country. It's not like russia doesn't quite suck enough sausage on a regular basis that it doesn't need tourist money and then it denies a tourist who will give money to their sh*ty frozen wasteland of a hellhole? What a farce.

why do you think it is a wasteland ?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
What a fvcking joke of a country. It's not like russia doesn't quite suck enough sausage on a regular basis that it doesn't need tourist money and then it denies a tourist who will give money to their sh*ty frozen wasteland of a hellhole? What a farce.

Didn't you used to live in a sh*ty frozen wasteland of a...oh wait, that was Canada. :laugh:

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: cmdrmoocow
sweetness. I also just got back my application, and they gave me my 200$ back. Less damage.

that's good news. US embassy do not return application fee back. if for some reason the interviewer don't like you, they can just deny you a visa with no apparent reason (yes, they're *that* powerful), and you're out $100. just like that.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: DeeKnow

Originally posted by: Skoorb
What a fvcking joke of a country. It's not like russia doesn't quite suck enough sausage on a regular basis that it doesn't need tourist money and then it denies a tourist who will give money to their sh*ty frozen wasteland of a hellhole? What a farce.

why do you think it is a wasteland ?

Chernobyl, Siberia. Take your pick.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: Skoorb
What a fvcking joke of a country. It's not like russia doesn't quite suck enough sausage on a regular basis that it doesn't need tourist money and then it denies a tourist who will give money to their sh*ty frozen wasteland of a hellhole? What a farce.

Maybe it is for the tourist safety, and also protection of their citizens from tourists that might exploit their people (sex trade, kidnapping, drug, child labor, etc?)

Vietnam denied my visa the first time apply from Canada, but granted me a tourist visa the second time I applied from Thailand 3 month later. Cambodia denied my visa application twice, because there was 4 tourist died from unexploded US ordinate at Angkor Wat several months after the country was open to tourist.

Many people don't travel becasue they have negative attitude about foreign culture, law & politic.

Nah, it's cause these countries suck, and their $.35/hour employees have nothing better to do than deny visas to people who spend more on a beer than they make in a month. In fact if you look around the world you see that the sh*tier a country is the harder it is to get in. Some countries in the middle east even require you to give up your passport, IIRC. Then you look at countries that are worth a damn, like most in the West, Japan, etc. and it's easy enough to show up at the border and get in. Reason? The countries don't suck, and the employees who work the borders don't hate everything about themselves, their lives, and their country, and Nissan.

why do you think it is a wasteland ?

Because it is! Cold as crap, no economy, nothing good except vodka and ugly, foul-toothed women.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: saxguy

Originally posted by: cmdrmoocow
sweetness. I also just got back my application, and they gave me my 200$ back. Less damage.

that's good news. US embassy do not return application fee back. if for some reason the interviewer don't like you, they can just deny you a visa with no apparent reason (yes, they're *that* powerful), and you're out $100. just like that.

😕

What good would the interviewer be if the're just a rubber stamp?

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: saxguy

Originally posted by: cmdrmoocow
sweetness. I also just got back my application, and they gave me my 200$ back. Less damage.

that's good news. US embassy do not return application fee back. if for some reason the interviewer don't like you, they can just deny you a visa with no apparent reason (yes, they're *that* powerful), and you're out $100. just like that.

😕

What good would the interviewer be if the're just a rubber stamp?

i'm not saying that they're not doing their job at all. but if for some reason they suspected you of something that warrants a denial, even if they could not prove it, they would not hesitate to just deny it without even bother to explain why.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: saxguy

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: saxguy

Originally posted by: cmdrmoocow
sweetness. I also just got back my application, and they gave me my 200$ back. Less damage.

that's good news. US embassy do not return application fee back. if for some reason the interviewer don't like you, they can just deny you a visa with no apparent reason (yes, they're *that* powerful), and you're out $100. just like that.

😕

What good would the interviewer be if the're just a rubber stamp?

i'm not saying that they're not doing their job at all. but if for some reason they suspected you of something that warrants a denial, even if they could not prove it, they would not hesitate to just deny it without even bother to explain why.

Hey, the US immigration can do the same thing. They don't need to proove anything, and if they're having a bad day, they can make yours worse.

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Hey, the US immigration can do the same thing. They don't need to proove anything, and if they're having a bad day, they can make yours worse.

i was, actually, talking about the US immigration/embassy.

i am still bitter because when we were having our baby almost three months back, my mother in law was denied her visa twice for no apparent reason. the lady is 60 years old, an active faculty member of a respectable university, and all she wanted to do was to go and accompany her daughter in her first pregnancy/labor. and even after she brought every single requirements that they asked for (the second time we even overdid it with pictures and all that stuff), she still got denied, twice.

so she didn't get to see her first grandchild being born (still hasn't, btw), and on top of that she's out $200 (2x$100 for applying twice). we're really pissed.