London, UK

Luckily we're still in the EU and the Schengen agreement still applies so the only country we need to obtain a visa for is Russia.

After many days of researching, reading forums, and trying to call the Visa people we've both decieded to use a agency in our respective countries to aid the application process. £25 in addition to the consular fees seems like a fair price for by-passing the myriad of conflicting and confusing information out there on getthing the visa.

As a tourist you can get a 30 day single double entry visa for £175 if you are a UK resident and for around EUR 35 if you are German!!

I decided to use the attractively named "Stress-Free Visas" agency in London where they arranged my invitation voucher and met me on the day to go and do the biometric data collection in London. After some interesting exchanges with the guy behind the counter and a need to nip outside to my "fixer" (!) I left my passport with them and hoped that I would get it back within the promised 6 day window!Read more