Embassy report: Russian visa in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan

[Adrien1]

Hey there,

We are currently on the road in Iraqi Kurdistan and tried to get our Russian Transit visa there for Georgia > Kazakhstan.

- 2 French passports
- French Registered car

1 - I got in touch by email with them to make sure that was possible and they answered positively. I asked then if we need to book an appointment and they just gave me the link of their website where "I can find all information there", but of course there is no information at all about the appointment. Here are required documents :
- printed application form
- passport and copy
- one photo
- one medical insurance certificate
- car documents
- itinerary threw Russia
- proof of visa free regime of Kazakhstan (screen shot of Kazakhstan Gov website is fine)
- payment cash US dollar Only, no banknote printed before 2009!

2 - On their website and FB page, the opening hours are Sunday and Webnesday from 11am to 1pm. So we came on Sunday at 11am. A very nice and welcoming guy at the entrance told us the real opening hours are now Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. He gave us an appointment on Wednesday as it was not possible on this Monday for some reasons.

3 - We came Wednesday with documents mentioned in 1- and got welcomed by a very nice guy who speaks perfectly English.
He took all documents (except car papers, didn't care) and told us the new prices:
80 USD for 10 working day
185 USD for 3 working day
As we didn't want to get stuck in Erbil for two weeks, we went for 3 working day.

4 - The next morning, we got an email telling us that it was not possible for them to issue urgent delay, only 10 working day and asked us if we wanted to start the process or not.
No way for us to stay 2 weeks in Erbil (you can't leave the city to travel arround without passport because of all military check points) so we immediately got back to the embassy and got our documents and money back.

We'll apply in Armenia or Georgia.

To sumup :
- very nice staff
- open Mon/Wed/Thu 10am to 1pm
- classic documents
- 80 USD cash, 10 working day only

Hope it can help!