Hey, Let's Save $5 !!
My wife and I are leaving for a 2 week trip to Russia/Ukraine in one week. Our plans were to fly to Moscow, then fly to Kyiv for 1 week, then train up to Saratov, then back to Moscow. Both my wife's kids and their significant other, and 2 of her cousins were going to meet us in Kyiv and spend at least a weekend with us.
My wife's international Russian passport expired a couple of months ago and she needed to get a new one through the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. We sent in the necessary payment, documents, etc. and we received the new passport in about 6 weeks.
Just after receiving it, my wife decided she needed to get her name changed (a stamp in her domestic Russian passport) to match her green card (I may be mixing this up- but it is not important). When she called the embassy, they told her she needed to send both her international and domestic passports to the embassy. For some reason, they needed both side-by-side. Once again, we sent the necessary documentation, fees, and return envelope. We were told it must be Priority Mail, Express Mail, or UPS/FedEx.
About a month later, we get our return envelope from the embassy with nothing in it. It was slit perfectly at the bottom- undetectable unless you looked closely. We, of course, immediately called the embassy in hopes that they forgot to enclose the passports (wishful thinking). They said no, we are careful about that, blah, blah,blah. After a couple of minutes, and a transfer to a new "agent", we were told that this has become a frequent problem, i.e., weekly, and that it generally occurs with return envelopes prepared by the applicant- as opposed to the a USPS priority envelopes of FedEx envelope (cardboard). I am assuming that cutting these envelopes would be quite obvious.
Any way, when dealing with passports, spend the extra $5 - it would be prudent to use UPS or Fed Ex for return. We used priority mail because we just needed to buy a $4.95 stamp.
The end result is that we had too many nonrefundable domestic flights (for us and her children), apartment reservations, train tickets, etc. to cancel the trip.
The Russian embassy sent my wife a documents that will allow her to enter Russia, but not leave. She must spend 60 plus days in Russia and get a new international and domestic passport, before she can leave Russia, and, she cannot go to Kyiv. She will stay in Russia for the necessary time, and I will fly home alone.
Sometimes you just forget, and let your guard down- obviously Russian corruption extends to its embassy in the USA. SPEND THE EXTRA $5 !!!
