ewg047

Need some help. I live in New York City and my parents who live in Russia want to visit. Can they travel direct from Russia to NY...or even can they stop off in Cuba (or any other country) and get to NYC??

PrairieHikerI

Sure, they can fly from Moscow to NYC direct. I don't think there are any commercial flights from Cuba. Of course they have to have a visa and that is difficult: "The U.S. Embassy in Moscow no longer offers non-diplomatic visa services due to the Russian government prohibiting the Embassy from employing foreign nationals in any capacity. Russian nationals may continue applying for nonimmigrant visas at any U.S. embassy or consulate where they can obtain an appointment." So, they may have to get an appointment at the Helsinki US embassy and get their visas there.

janisj

They are allowed to travel to the States. However per the official website (which PrairieHiker quoted above but did not link) they can only apply for the visas in Warsaw, Tashkent or Almaty.

https://ru.usembassy.gov/visas/

Jean

The Helsinki embassy/consulate seems to be rather burdened with visa applications. The current wait time for an appointment for a B2 visitor visa at the Helsinki U.S. Embassy is 72 days. Other options: Tallinn wait time is 28 days. Vilnius, 21 days. Riga, just 10 days. But I don't know which, if any, of those countries are currently issuing visitor visas to Russians, so it may be a Catch-22. You can apply for a visa, but you might not be able to get to the visa interview appointment. (If your parents are over 80 years of age, the appointment might not be required.)

And there doesn't seem to be any way to search the processing time and/or the time to get the passports/visas back to the applicants. One google search indicated processing can take up to 3 months. Obviously, your parents shouldn't be buying any flight tickets until they have their passports and visas in hand.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...html#-Overview

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...ait-times.html

Lastly, holding a visa is not a guarantee of entry. Visitors are questioned/evaluated on arrival and can be denied entry.

Jean

janisj's posted link seems to apply to those seeking immigrant visas and not simply B2 tourist visas.

J62

Uh.... are you sure? It's 2023,and last I heard flights to/from Russia were suspended....

As for Cuba, uh... are you sure? It's 2023. Last I heard Southwest has flights to FLL and Tampa, JetBlue to JFK, AA to Miami. But not likely that there are flights from Russia to Cuba given air space restrictions or other limits placed on Aeroflot, so Cuba is a moot point.

My info might be wrong however.

janisj

Sorry, it does include information about visas in general - but you are correct the information re Warsaw etc applies to immigrant visas. scratch those options . . .

Jean

To me, this whole idea sounds like it should wait until... heck, who knows. When the war with Ukraine is over? When Putin's gone?

Just common sense leads me to think that Russians coming to the U.S. anytime in the near term, especially those who have family here, would be intensely scrutinized (and their luggage more than thoroughly examined) for any indication at all that they intend to overstay their visa. And that's assuming they could get a B2 visa at all.

JMO.

PrairieHikerI

Well, the Aeroflot website sure looks like they are flying to the US. If not, they can certainly fly to Toronto and then fly to NYC. https://www.aeroflot.ru/us-en/inform...%20ten%20hours.

J62

I guess I was wrong…and flights from Russia to the US, Canada, and most of Europe werent suspended over a year ago….