Internal Passport Renewal

[Vaughn]

  As we understand, Russian internal passports are to be renewed when their holders attain the age
of 20 and 45....is that true? We also understand that there is an imposed penalty fee for renewing
those passports late, perhaps on a per month basis.

  My wife turned 45 last February, and my stepdaughter turned 20 last December. Both will travel to
Russia in April, and plan to renew while there.

1) Will the issuing agency still penalize them, considering they've been overseas and have not been able to renew on time?

2) If so, which documents are recommended they carry to offer as proof?

3) Do late fees vary regionally?

Any current information on internal passport renewal will be appreciated.      Thanks, Vaughn

[ConnerVT]

One more to consider:

4) How much is the late fee?

After all of the fees that we have dished out to USCIS (plus countless other costs), it becomes a non-issue if you are looking at something like 100-300 rubles (even a month).

[Vaughn]

One more to consider:
4) How much is the late fee?

THAT's exactly the reason I pose my concerns. You know how rumors fly about - well,
Elvira understands, hopefully incorrectly, that there are three established "levels" of
income in Russia - nationally. The rumor says she will be charged the minimum level,
which is about 3,000 rubles - per month of tardiness. Hence, I am concerned. She will
have been (approximately) 14 months late this coming April.

I'm digging for a government website concerning the facts... so far to no avail.

[Tamara]

Vaughn,

When one turns 20 and 45 years old, they must renew their passport.  That's correct.  I am from Saint Petersburg and couple years ago I was very late to renew my passport.  As a proof of being overseas, I showed stamps put by the Russian customs in the travel passport when one leaves and comes back to Russia.  This was enough proof and I did not have to pay any penalty.  Situation might have changed since then. However I ran into a different problem.  I was staying in Russia for 10 days only and I was told they could not process it that fast.  There was no way to expedite the process legally. As I fly to Russia 3-4 times a year, I said I would pick up my passport next time I am in Russia.  You should have seen the lady's face, who screamed that they destroy the passport in case it is not picked up within 14 days. So I had to bribe...right in the police station and got my passport done in 5 days.

[Faux Pas]

Vaughn,

When one turns 20 and 45 years old, they must renew their passport.  That's correct.  I am from Saint Petersburg and couple years ago I was very late to renew my passport.  As a proof of being overseas, I showed stamps put by the Russian customs in the travel passport when one leaves and comes back to Russia.  This was enough proof and I did not have to pay any penalty.  Situation might have changed since then. However I ran into a different problem.  I was staying in Russia for 10 days only and I was told they could not process it that fast.  There was no way to expedite the process legally. As I fly to Russia 3-4 times a year, I said I would pick up my passport next time I am in Russia.  You should have seen the lady's face, who screamed that they destroy the passport in case it is not picked up within 14 days. So I had to bribe...right in the police station and got my passport done in 5 days.

Hi Tamara! How much was the bribe?

[Vaughn]

So I had to bribe...right in the police station and got my passport done in 5 days.

I have to smile, Tamara. About an hour ago Elvira called me to come upstairs, wanting to show me
gifts she had bought for various relatives. Over to the side was a small Victoria's Secret set of
fragrances, and I asked who it was for. She answered, "Oh, that is for the passport renewal people,
just in case." Buying favors, as you know, is almost unthinkable here, but in Yoshkar Ola, it seems to
be a way of life.

Your answer is much appreciated. Elvira just renewed her International Passport last year through the
Russian Embassy in Washington D.C. It is free of all stamps, no history at all - but, thankfully, they
returned the old one which shows her last reentry into the USA, so maybe she'll be forgiven of extra fees.
She will be there about 28 days, so no additional "incentives" should be necessary, LOL.

Thanks again for the information.

Vaughn

[Misha]

4) How much is the late fee?

After all of the fees that we have dished out to USCIS (plus countless other costs), it becomes a non-issue if you are looking at something like 100-300 rubles (even a month).

Invariably, any passport renewed at a Russian Consulate in North America will be more expensive than in Russia. It cost over $600 for my wife to renew her international passport in Canada and it would have cost a few hundred rubles in Russia 

[UTRO]

I don't know if any of you have renewed your International Russian Passports recently?
The days of getting one (bribing ) in a day are going going gone.... The International Passport has been revamped to include Biometric technology to bring it up to date with the rest of the world. These Passports are encoded with a microchip and therefore can't be issued quickly like the old style. The chip is empty because the Russian government is unsure of what information to place in it 

[Vaughn]

My wife applied for a new International Passport via post to the Russian Embassy in D.C. last January.
Cost was $150 US and there were no biometrics involved.

They called her in May and said "Come get it, it's ready." She replied she had submitted a prepaid
Priority Mail envelope, to which they countered, "US Postal rates just went up, so you're 20 cents
short." We had to mail them a stamp.   

[UTRO]

My wife applied for a new International Passport via post to the Russian Embassy in D.C. last January.
Cost was $150 US and there were no biometrics involved.

Vaghn, I believe that at that point the Biometric was only a pilot program of some 135,000 issues.
Last week Sveta did some research because she is pondering whether to take my Surname right after we get married in April, or wait until she PRs into Canada. She specifically wanted to know if taking my Surname would require her to change all her Russian Legal Documents and Papers. In turn, would not taking my Surname cause Canadian Immigration Services to consider our marriage and Visa request to be suspicious...? This led her to investigate what official Russian documents she'd have to revise if she were to take my Surname and then how long it would take certain documents to be completed. All which, of course, could slow down our Visa Application....
So the one thing she found out was that the usual 2 day wait for her Passport to be modified and reissued in her city of Kirov was no longer an option because everything now has to be done in Moscow because the Biometric Passport is now the only Passport available. She was told this could take two weeks.

[Vaughn]

Utrobina,

  I am clueless about Canadian Immigration Services' propensity toward suspicion, but I doubt yours
would be a unique case should she decide to retain her surname. It happens in the States often. I
even know one woman who has her Ukrainian surname on her Green Card.

  My wife took my last name, but she carries a validated Marriage Certificate whenever traveling; so far,
no problems on either side of the ocean. All her original documents remain unchanged - in fact, Delta
Airlines suggest folks like her buy their tickets in the name which appears in their International Passports.
IMHO, changing her original documents is likely to cause undue grief in her future, especially when renewing
documents and/or presenting them as proof of identity for various reasons. One isolated example: my MIL
occupies Elvira's flat, but is not the listed owner. Utility charges are based on number of occupants, and to
avoid paying for two-three occupants, my MIL has to dance through another local process bearing a copy
of Elvira's International Passport (with last USA entry noted) and a translated notarized letter declaring her
present USA residence status. If the documents don't match local records, denial is almost certain. It's a
non-issue to us, but to my wife's Mama it's paramount she doesn't pay for something she's not getting.

I imagine that renewal of the Internal Passport with a new surname would be a fiasco. I see fewer troubles
on the Canadian side of the issue.

Vaughn

[Misha]

Last week Sveta did some research because she is pondering whether to take my Surname right after we get married in April, or wait until she PRs into Canada.

Keep in mind that her Russian documents will take your name and transliterate it into Russian. This transliteration will then be transliterated for her international passport and this final version will be used by the Canadian state with issuing a Permanent Resident card.

Let's say, hypothetically, that your last name is Smith. It will go from Smith to Смит to Smit on the PR Card. It may take a lot of wrangling with bureacrats to get the name corrected.

[ConnerVT]

In our home, three people, three different last names.  My wife could of changed her surname to mine, but then, changing my stepsons would of proven much more difficult.  Then, factoring in nternal and external Russian passports, property owned, government workers in two countries, two languages with different alphabets...  can *ANYONE* blame us for sitting on the names we already had?   

[Misha]

Once you are in Canada (Quebec being an exception), it is easy. You just need a marriage certificate for a woman to use her husband's last name.

[UTRO]

Good points guys and appreciated Now I won't have to create a new Thread to get this very question answered!
Over the last few days we have pretty much decided that Sveta will keep her last name until after she arrives, or even leave it alone or combine the two, when she does. Even a reply from CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) has confirmed that it's up to her.... and it will not make a difference for Immigrating. She had been doing a lot of searching over the Internet, Canada.ru and was getting a lot of different opinions to this question.
She was told by Russian contacts that if she changed her last name she'd be obliged by her government to firstly change her Internal Passport, then her International Passport, Utility contracts, Driver License, Flat Ownership, etc..... all of which could take many many weeks to complete. This in turn could prolong our start of the Family Class Sponsorship for her to Immigrate as a Permanent Resident (PR) to Canada. Canadians on this Site know exactly how painful and drawn out this process can be! We certainly don't want to add any more time to it
Yep, no such thing as a K1 in Canuckstan Vaghn!