Truly Western (all Ikea, all the time) apt. available, with Plasma TV, steps 
(12 actually steps) from TGIF on Novoslobodskaya Metro, 50.6 m2, 2 rooms, $2500 
a month, broker fee has been paid by me.  Decent landlord, I am moving to a 
bigger place.

And something completely different, the following is the warden message from 
the u.s. embassy on visas, it has not been edited for length (sorry):

Embassy of the United States of America
21 Novinsky Blvd.
123242 Moscow, Russia




Warden Message - From U.S. Consul General Kurt E. Amend

First, I wish to thank all of you who participated in the Live Webchat on 
October 30.  We will soon have a full transcript available on the Embassy's 
website, http://usembassy.ru.

Not surprisingly, during the webchat many of you expressed concern about the 
new Russian visa regulations.  We have been monitoring this issue closely, and 
have been in contact with Russian government officials in an attempt to clarify 
the new rules.  There are still many unanswered questions, and we are trying to 
get a complete picture of exactly how these new regulations will affect U.S. 
citizens in the Russian Federation.

As I said in the webchat, for now, there are three key changes for American 
citizens to bear in mind:  First, if your visa expires, you must seek a new one 
from the Federal Migration Service, unless the visa has expired within the last 
three days.  In that case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may issue a new 
visa.  Whatever your situation, please be aware that any foreigner with an 
expired visa in the Russian Federation, even a visa expired for just one day, 
can face a considerable delay in leaving the country. 

The second change has to do with where a person can apply for a visa.  There 
are some narrow exceptions, but essentially, any foreigner now has to apply for 
a Russian visa either in their home country, or in a country where they are 
permitted a stay of more than 90 days.  We have canvassed the entry regulations 
for U.S. citizens for nearby countries, and the only country where U.S. 
citizens are regularly admitted for more than 90 days is Great Britain.  I 
would nevertheless caution anyone considering applying for a new visa at the 
Russian Embassy in London to check first, and make sure that your application 
will be accepted.

The third change has to do with those on a "Regular" visa.  Except for the 
student and employment categories, visa holders in this group may now only 
spend 90 days in Russia in a 180-day period.  We do not know how current visa 
holders will be grandfathered, and there may be some uneven implementation of 
this new requirement.  Please be aware, however, that this is what the new 
regulations indicate, and potentially, the penalty for non-compliance is a 
five-year ban from the Russian Federation.

Until we have a better sense of how these rules will be implemented, I 
recommend that all U.S. citizens in the Russian Federation check with their 
visa sponsors regularly, and make sure that they are in compliance with Russian 
law.  When we have a more definitive picture of the new law, we will send out 
additional warden messages and post the information on our website.  In the 
meantime, you can also get information (in Russian) from the website of the 
Federal Migration Service, at: www.fms.gov.ru. 

Regards,

Kurt Amend
Consul General


_______________________________________________
Expat mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat
http://www.expat.ru/forum/

Reply via email to