Thread: Visa's, citizenship, I need to know

You wouldn't need an info, but that's just a matter of principles.

BTW, I've heard, and I'm only saying it from somebody else's words, that a person has to abandon his original citizenship in order to obtain Russian one. I dunno if it's true though.

AN info????? We lost something in the translation. I meant I won't pay off someone at OVIR if they give me incorrect information.
No, it is not needed to give up home citizenship when obtaining Russian citizenship.

Apparently we did. I thought you needed papers or service not info.

This other person was wrong then.

Originally Posted by JB

AN info????? We lost something in the translation. I meant I won't pay off someone at OVIR if they give me incorrect information.
No, it is not needed to give up home citizenship when obtaining Russian citizenship.

In my U.S. government class we were told you had to give up your U.S. citizenship. Is my teacher stupid or are there just complications to this

This is american business, it has nothing to do with russian regulations

I don't know old rules, but now there is no need to give up that blue passport. Just use the blue when entering the US and the red (Russian) when entering Russia.

Another typical OVIR experience, JB. My experince:

muggins here reads up on the current legislation (a 20 minutes session alone with Rambler and a cup of Darjeeling), goes to OVIR the following day and after queuing for 40 minutes talks to the right clerk behind the right desk and asks the right questions. The clerk is pissed off but gives all the info because muggins here knows what he's after. 15 minutes later he has all the paperwork. Can your husband hang up a picture? For chrissake, people, act like grown-ups. The bureaucrats want you to behave exactly the way you behave. They derive pleasure out of seeing you suffer. Don't give the bastards that pleasure. You can break them, but you can only do it by acting like adults, adults, who have a clear understanding of their rights, adults, who have a well define objective, a goal, adults, who are used to achieving their goals. Educate yourself for every ounce of your ignorance adds up to their strength. And the last but not least - be somebody, be something. Have proxies.

P.S. I admit that the system is not the easiest one, but if you're reasonably fluent in Russian or are acompanied by a native speaker, you've nothing to fear in OVIRs.

As we've discussed in previous threads, Russia is still Soviet in the government offices. Only now those workers in those offices are mad as hell that the rest of the world is getting a better wage and a real pension. So people are getting mean and take every opportunity to make everyone else as unhappy as they are. Being adult, forceful, knowledgable, or shoving a copy of the law in their faces doesn't work. My husband and others have done all of this to no avail. If you are 100% successful at every government office you go to you are either really lucky, have a position in life that those workers fear (political, criminal or friends in powerful places),pay a lot of bribes or don't go to government offices in Russia!

My most amusing OVIR experience:

In Ivanovo OVIR, provincial hick-city, handed over my passport to get it registered and was told to come back in three or four days to collect it.

Me: Can I please have something to prove that my passport is at OVIR? Everywhere else I've been OVIR have given me a stamped ticket to prove that I'm in the process of registering, if they can't do it while I wait.

Her: I don't know anything about that, we don't do that here.

Me: Fair enough, so what should I do if I'm stopped by the police?

Her: Tell them your passport is at OVIR being registered.

Me: Ummm.... "tell them"? You mean I should rely on the assumption that they will trust me without any evidence?

Her: Why not?

Me: Err... I think that's a little risky, especially since I have to visit Yaroslavl by bus tomorrow. You'll forgive me if I don't share your confidence in the local police.

Her: Why would the police stop you anyway, it's not like you look like a Georgian.... NEXT!

Good answer love, good answer...

(incedentally, I didn't get stopped until the day after I'd got my registered passport back. It didn't stop the nice OMON officers who busted the nightclub I'd only just walked into from locking me up along with every other male in the building, but it did mean I was released with a slightly muted apology before the rest of them (my brother-in-law included) were carted off to be arbitrarily found guilty of hooliganism in court without even having been told they were being charged with anything!)

Originally Posted by JB

Only now those workers in those offices are mad as hell that the rest of the world is getting a better wage and a real pension. So people are getting mean and take every opportunity to make everyone else as unhappy as they are.

No need to demonize them though. They do the same thing you do: work with clients with cash. It's not like I approve it, there is a reason why I no longer live there, but it's always a two-way street.

Originally Posted by scotcher

Her: Why would the police stop you anyway, it's not like you look like a Georgian.... NEXT!

That IS hilarious, man, I know it's supposed to be wrong and sad, but it's still very funny.

Scotcher,

adoc, I will NOT pay a bribe for LACK of service. A $100 bill doesn't make these folks come up with the right answer or the correct paperwork (or make them any smarter). Money is only good for greasing the wheels if they had a clue to what is the best way to get the job done. Maybe you'd like to share your experience at OVIR where money got you a quick and correct result?

Oh they know what they do alright. You got it all backwards. I am surprized you have not figured it out yet.

On the other hand if you ask my personal advice, I am not your father or anything, but I would say that bribing is wrong too.

So what is YOUR experience with OVIR?

Specifically with OVIR? Never a single setback, I am sorry to disappoint you. I had problems with an American consulate in Canada once, who gave me wrong information that I did pay for, and acted like real asses about it punishing me for their own screwup. Otherwise they were OK most of the time. Canadian Immigration caused me trouble a couple of instances by having sent me wrong papers. The first time I only discovered it reentering the country, so we had a nice little chat with the immigration officer who thought I was trying to invade Canada or something of the kind, but it's all over now. I guess, bureaucracy has no nationality, and you just have to deal with the russian version of it, big deal...

In another case australians issued me a visa, sent me my passport with the stamp in it, and two weeks later started bombarding me with letters demanding to send them all sorts of proofs of my employment and financial situation in order for me to get the visa that I already had. I had a good laugh.

I'm not disappointed, I just question your knowledge of OVIR since it appears you have never personally been there. Russia is NOT like every other country and dealings in Russia are very differant than your dealings with Canada and Australia. When were you in Russia? Where did you stay and for how long?

I stayed there for 27 years thank you very much for questioning my experience in dealing with russian authorities. Your story does not sound too different from what I had to go through with american immigration. On average they were nicer and more professional, but just as screwy on one occasion, the consequences of which dragged on forever. So instead of pointing fingers, just accept it as a part of life.

Oh for the love of God.

This is a frikkin' Russian language forum. It stands to reason that most of the people posting here will be foreigners with an interest in the Russian language in particular, and Russia in general, and as such there are bound to be comments made about things which irritated them when in Russia, just as there are bound to be comments about things which pleased them, or amused them. This is not an attack on your bloomin' motherland.

Let me stress that again in big red letters so it sinks in:

This is not an attack on your bloomin' motherland.

Yes, of course there are things in every single country on the planet that are just there to annoy a visitor, but here's the rub: They are not bloomin' relevant here, 'cos it's a flippin' Russian forum!. Look at the name of the bloomin' site for Chrissakes!

Just because no-one has mentioned immigration officers in Canada, or the ease of recieving a visitor's visa in the UK, or the state of public flippin' transport in Outer Mongolia, doesn't mean we aren't all aware of the chance of problems occurring there too. It simply means that none of that is germain to the subject at hand, the big on-topic , the site's entire [i]raison d

Originally Posted by scotcher

So how's about it?

I think the best of all would be to leave offtopic/ontopic question to moderator.

And drink a frikkin' cold cola to get cool.

Originally Posted by scotcher

Oh for the love of God.

Precisely

You had to make those red letters bigger cuz otherwise I can't possibly realize how insignificant and inconsequential this conversation is. You crack me up kids.