Kremlin’s representative: Russians not happy with delays while trying to obtain visas in American Embassy
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, in an interview with Dozhd (Rain TV), said that Russians were beginning to face difficulties in obtaining U.S. visas long before the decision was made to reduce the number of staff in the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia.
According to her, as early as May 2017, citizens began to address the Russian Foreign Ministry with questions about why the U.S. Embassy began requesting visa applications 40-50 days ahead of travel instead of ten days, as it had been before.
"The application period was extended from ten days to 50 days about four to five months ago. ... We started to receive questions from our citizens – political scientists, journalists, and ordinary residents – who began writing letters to us asking why the American embassy and consulate extended the typical ten day wait time for an interview to a 40-50 day wait for an interview," she said.
Zakharova explained that after learning about this, the Russian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Americans, who assured that the decision to increase the time for applications for American visas was not made "in regards to the Russian Federation," and that it is an "internal problem."
When a journalist from the TV channel asked whether any countersanctions would follow such visa restrictions, Zakharova said that "there is not going to be any kind of response since it is already some kind of genocide of ordinary people."
On August 23rd, the U.S. Embassy in Russia suspended the issuance of visas throughout the country. The US Embassy promised to resume issuing visas as of September 1st, but it will be possible to get a visa and come for an interview only at the embassy in Moscow. The issuance of visas at American consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok will be suspended for an indefinite period. The U.S. Diplomats explained this was the result of the reduction in the diplomatic mission’s staff as required by Moscow’s.
The Russian Foreign Ministry initially stated that the United States intended to "provoke discontent" among Russians by stating that the issues had arisen "allegedly because of the reduction" of the staff of the American diplomatic mission, and urged everyone "not to confuse the issue." The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also explained the problem with the issuance of visas stating that the staff remaining at the US embassies "is not efficient enough."
The spokeswoman for the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia, Maria Olson, in a statement made to the RBC news agency, noted that Russian citizens can obtain American visas in any country in the world. The Deputy Head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Moscow, Anthony Godfrey, stated that in the future, the embassy will return to the practice of issuing visas in the other regions of Russia. According to him, this will happen when Russia "eliminates the consequences" of the decision to reduce the number of diplomats.