The U.S. Embassy in Moscow and our constituent Consulates General in Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok continue to work to meet the demand for visa appointments in the Russian Federation, and to take steps to ease appointment scheduling and offer more options for Russian citizens wishing to travel as tourists to the United States.
As part of this effort, we are pleased to announce the opening of new appointments for business and tourist visas through mid-January 2020. The goal is to ease appointment scheduling by offering more options.
Applicants may schedule interviews in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, or Vladivostok. Applicants who reside in Russia, as well as those who reside outside the Russian Federation, may also apply at any U.S. Embassy or Consulate around the world. All applicants must pay the visa application fee (MRV fee) in the country where the interview takes place.
Visa applicants are required to pay a non-refundable, non-transferable visa application fee before applying for a nonimmigrant visa. The visa application fee must be paid whether a visa is issued or not.
Despite the constraints placed on our visa operations by the Russian government, the United States has made this concerted effort to increase services for applicants within the Russian Federation due to the importance of our bilateral relationship and the people-to-people ties between our countries.
As is well known, visa operations across Russia were reduced following drastic cuts to our personnel by the Russian government in 2017, and the closure of our Consulate in St. Petersburg by the Russian government in 2018. We regret that our visa operations are also hindered by the unwillingness of the Russian Embassy in Washington to issue visas to incoming American consular personnel. We remain hopeful that the Russian government will understand the importance of these consular staff members to the services the U.S. Embassy and Consulates offer to Russians who wish to travel to the United States.
For more information, please visit: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ru/ru-niv-appointmentschedule.asp
