Renewing wife and childs Russian Passport

[Goombah]

Hi all - been awhile since I've been here.  As a refresher:

Wife came over in December of 2005, we married in February 2006 - we recently celebrated our 4th anniversary.  She had a 10 yo daughter which we are starting the process to adopt now (will be 15 next month!).  We have also had two children of our own, Gabby, our 3 yo daughter and Frank, our almost 2 yo son.

Anyhow, my wife and daughters Russian Passports are about to expire.  We are told we need to go to Houston to get them renewed, and they will be 5 year passports since the Houston embassy doesn't have the new biometric gathering equipment yet.

Apparently all of the mid-west Russians must go through Houston for renewal.  They require an in-person appointment, their phones are always busy, and they don't answer e-mails.  Apparently they also require a return visit to pick up the passports.

We live in St. Louis, and I'm between jobs (lost mine after 25 years at Monsanto last August).  This really isn't a good time to have to travel, nor easy, since its a 14 hour drive (most economical way for 5 of us to get down there).

Are we being told correctly?  Are there any alternatives?

Cheers!

Goombah aka Kevin

ps.  Our marriage is great!

[BC]

Apparently all of the mid-west Russians must go through Houston for renewal.  They require an in-person appointment, their phones are always busy, and they don't answer e-mails.  Apparently they also require a return visit to pick up the passports.

Pretty much the same experience here, a third of the way around the planet..

anyhoo.. DAMNED GOOD TO SEE YA STILL KICK'N!!!

[Goombah]

Thanks BC, nice to be back.  Actually, I have been reading threads occasionally, but VERY occasionally...

Can you tell me more about your experience.  How did you get an appointment?  Did you have to go back a 2nd time?

Evia did find one place in Chicago that could "handle it for us" for $700 each.  Found out they were issuing forged Russian passports...

[Vaughn]

Kevin, there're several agencies who can handle this for you, negating the need for two
round-trips to Houston. Check out the Chicago/Midwest section on the following page.
Would you and Evia be willing to post the name of the agency allegedly forging such documents?

http://usa.russianvisa.net/

I checked the Houston Consulate home page - pretty useless as far as information goes.

Also, from the State Dep't page:

American Citizens Also Holding Russian Passports: Dual U.S./Russian nationals who enter Russia on Russian passports face several possible difficulties. Russian authorities will not permit departure from Russia if the person’s Russian passport has expired or has been lost, whether or not the traveler also has a valid U.S. passport. In these cases the traveler will be required to obtain a new Russian passport, a process that can take several months. In order to apply for a Russian visa in a U.S. passport, however, Russian consular officials normally require a person to renounce his or her Russian citizenship.

Russian external passports extended by Russian consulates or embassies overseas are not considered valid for departure from Russia no matter how long the extension. Bearers of such passports will have to apply for a new passport inside the country. Males of conscript age (18 - 27 years old) who are deemed to be Russian citizens may experience problems if they have not satisfied their military service requirement.

Good luck,  Vaughn

[Goombah]

Thanks.  We will comb the site.

The Russian Passport Service is perfect - with one minor glitch - they service the Washington DC Embassy and we need to use Houston.  Still... I wrote them to ask if they had a recommendation for our state.

I did a quick scan and most of the sites listed here are for Americans needing passports and visas, but I will continue to look.

Kevin

[I/O]

Apparently all of the mid-west Australian Russians must go through Houston Sydney for renewal.  They require an in-person appointment, their phones are always busy, and they don't answer e-mails.  Apparently Actually they also require a return visit to pick up the passports.

The Ex Pat Russian community here in my state threw on such a tantrum, choked their phone lines and email server to the point the consulate decided to send (of course it was their magnanimous idea) a roving delegation to accept applications on one day at the local "Russian Club" and return a few weeks later to issue the passports. Worked ridiculously well for us. But...........................here's a stroke of Russian efficiency, for a few more weeks, beloved and number one now have two valid passports each. The originals were never invalidated.

Hopefully Vaughn's suggestion resolves this for you.

[Markus]

My wife and I just went through this process.  I'll post the the main site that my wife used later as my wife is busy and doesn't have time to give me the site. That's a clue to say OK.

But, she accessed the Houston Russian Embassy site, called them for verification, downloaded some forms to fill out, we printed them, and she had to have I think 4-5 passport photos. Now, keep in mind, we were renewing her International passport, not her passport that is used in Russia. I guess the local passport is similar to a means of identification or like an SSN in the U.S. But, my wife didn't have her local passport with her. She only had her International passport. Her sister emailed PDF copies of her local passport and copies were accepted.

From Dallas, we drove to Houston, went to the Embassy, waited about 45 minutes, she submitted her documents, and we were done. We haven't received the results yet and our trip was about 2 weeks ago. On the same day, my wife drive on the Interstate for 2 hours to get used to that kind of driving. When she was finished driving, she said she her butt was numb. But, she got some Interstate experience and I had to pay attention during that time. The driving time was about 9 hours total with a couple of stops for siteseeing.

Mark

[Goombah]

Thought I'd post a followup:

We eventually decided to try the agency in Chicago.  They indicated they could help Evia, but not her daughter who is now 15 with her international passports.  At 15, apparently they must apply for their own.

In any case, yesterday we received her Passport.  Everything appears legit and although the fees were pretty steep, it was a lot less expensive than taking two trips to Texas.

Kevin

[tfcrew]

There are identical threads like this in the archives.
Just use the search function.

I still wonder...why the need for two passports?

[ML]

I still wonder...why the need for two passports?

Are you referring to the domestic and international passports?

If so, the domestic was (and is) used as a form of identification and was like (but much more important than) our driver's licenses, etc.  More important because in the Soviet Union persons were assigned living quarters in specified cities, and could not legally change housing, cities, etc., without proper paperwork and documentation.  Some cities (such as Sevastopol) were 'closed' cities and special permission needed for non-residents to enter, etc. The domestic passport played an important role in the 'control' of the people.

However, these domestic passports would not get you out of the country.  An international passport was and is needed for that.  In SU days, relatively few persons were given international passports.

[SANDRO43]

I still wonder...why the need for two passports?

IINM, the domestic passport is/was the equivalent of what in other countries goes by the name of identity card or similar. Calling it a passport, albeit appropriate in SU times, is confusing to those in countries where such a document is only used to go abroad - a 'domestic passport' sounds an oxymoron. 

[Kuna]

We've just returned from UA and had issues with a UA passport on exit.

Not easily fixed...very stressful and expensive (around the cost of an airfare - a real airfare, not one of those cheapies from the US to RU), but discovered it's "possible" to have a passport issued in 1 day... 6 hours actually.   

So... 3 attempts over 2 years with excuses like "our printer is broken", "we have no blanks" and "we are too busy" don't matter anymore. 1 x shiny new 10 yr passport should be the last time we need to deal with them.