Getting Here is Half the Battle

If you've never traveled to Russia then you don't have any idea how much it takes just to get into the country. Seriously, it's not like traveling to the rest of Europe where you can grab your passport, hop on a plane and show up. No, traveling to Russia is more like trying to get a backstage pass for THE concert of the year...except that there's no band.

Imagine then what it must take for me to live here!

When I first moved over, I came in on a student visa, which was a pretty easy visa to obtain at the time. Granted, I still had to get a blood test and an official invitation from a recognized university, but that was a realtively painless process. Russia welcomed me with open arms, and then didn't want to let me go. My student visa, as it turned out, was entrance only. When I wanted to visit my family the next year, I had to apply for permission to leave.

I moved to Moscow the year following my studies and, as I was no longer a student, I couldn't live there on a student visa. I upgraded to a one-year, multi-entry business category, and I thought I'd continue in that fashion, but the laws keep changing on me. I've since entered the country on a humanitarian visa, a cultural exchange visa, and (my personal favorite) a "habitual worker" visa.

The visa application process itself seems a little more complicated each year I apply. Six years ago, I seem to remember submitting my passport number, my social security number, and the names of my parents. Now, in addition to a blood test, I'm sending in information about my last two places of work, the names of all institutions of higher education where have I studied, all civil or cultural societies of which I was ever a member, a list of every country in which I've set foot in the last decade, and the shoe size of that foot. (I'm kidding on that last one, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was on the application next year.)

I know what you're thinking..."Why bother going back if it's so challenging to get there?" What else can I tell you except that I fell in love with this place? There are many things that I struggle with here (the weather being only one part of it) but I love Russia. I appreciate the history, the sights, the culture, and I love the langauge and the people.

So if you've never traveled to Russia, you may have been spared the trials of visas and registrations (a topic for another time) but you're missing out on a remarkable part of the world.