Thread: NRSA to Moscow

We got our visa through an agency in Washington. The agnecy covered the ridiculous Soviet-hangover requirement for a letter from a hotel certifying you are staying there. We were not staying in hotels, but rather through Couch Surfing and hostels, so the agency's pitch for us worked fine. At the time -- three years ago now -- I was a US Airways employee. My wife and I flew US Air from PHL to CDG, hung for a day or so in Gay Paree, then ZED on Air France to St. Petersburg. The Russian immigration peoiple gave us no trouble at all on our arrival at St. Pete airport. We might as well have been in a Western European country. It was smoother, indeed, that arrival at US international airports. We took a public bus into St. Petersburg from the airport and met our Couch Surfing hostess at a central Metro station.

We stayed with her for a week -- thank you Yulia and Couch Surfing. She gave us a good tour around this amazing city. Then we took an overnight train to Moscow for a couple of days. Stayed in a hostel -- even so, frightfully expensive -- near Red Square and the fabled Lubyanka. Then we flew back to CDG on Air France.

Bottom line: Our experience was easy-peasy. But as the stockbrokers say, previous experience is no guarantee of furture experience.

Best of luck.