US to greatly slow Russian non-immigrant visas. Skater impact?

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barbk

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In the ongoing US-Russia feuding and downsizing of consular staff, this was just announced:
"With a Sept. 1 deadline to cut more than 750 staff positions looming, the embassy announced on Monday that it would halt all non-immigrant visa applications and interviews until Sept. 1, and that afterward it would suspend visa interviews at the United States consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok — effectively forcing Russians across the vast country’s 11 time zones to travel to Moscow for a U.S. visa."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...s-635am:homepage/story&utm_term=.5abd6b6d8cfa

I am wondering how this will affect athletes/coaches for Skate America, and whether the tit-for-tat will continue and affect US athletes/coaches for Cup of Russia?
 
Well, Skate America Russian participants are
Kovtun, Petrov, Voronov - Petrov will have to travel from St.Petersburg to issue the visa, Kovtun and Voronov are in Moscow anyway;
Sinitsina/Katsalapov, Zahorski/Gureiro - Sinitsina/Katsalapov are in Moscow, Zahorski/Gureiro can probably travel with the non Russian passports and dont' need a visa anyway;
Zabijako/Enbert -train in Moscow;
Leonova, Pogorilaya, Tsurskaya - Leonova is from St. Peterburg and will have to travel to Moscow to get her visa, the others are in Moscow anyway.
 
I hope that the concomitant slowdown due to reduced staff doesn't affect them. Do athletes have to go in for interviews the way other visa applicants do?
 
Is it possible that some of these athletes have long-term visas (say 3 years) that were issued previously and thus don't have to worry?
 
TAHbKA said:
Zahorski/Gureiro can probably travel with the non Russian passports and dont' need a visa anyway;
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I suggested this once before, but was told that you have to show the organizers that you're traveling with passports issued by the member for whom you're competing, if you're a citizen of that country.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
I suggested this once before, but was told that you have to show the organizers that you're traveling with passports issued by the member for whom you're competing, if you're a citizen of that country.
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Yes, it's true that they must show their Russian passports to the organizers, but I am pretty sure that the organizers will not be checking which passports they showed at the airport for US immigration!
 
But I thought they also had to show the visa in the Russian passport. When I did registration for Skate America in Everett, the photocopied credentials from countries where athletes needed visas were the visas, not the passport page.

That might have been specific to that year, but it was something I noticed: people from which countries needed visas and who didn't.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
But I thought they also had to show the visa in the Russian passport. When I did registration for Skate America in Everett, the photocopied credentials from countries where athletes needed visas were the visas, not the passport page.

That might have been specific to that year, but it was something I noticed: people from which countries needed visas and who didn't.
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Oh, then I don't know, you might be right!
 
Do figure skaters coming to the USA to compete require a P1 visa, or is a standard tourist/business visa (B1/B2) enough? The only time I had to apply for a B visa it was for ten years, so if that's enough then most skaters should be fine if they have competed in the US before (e.g. 2016 Worlds). But I'm not sure how a P visa would work for athletes who only compete infrequently in the USA.
 
I would have thought they'd have them sorted, or close to sorted, by now. They've known the assignment since the beginning of June at least.
 
The US cancelled all current visas and is making people reapply Sept 1. Long term visas might be different. This is political tit for tat.
 
Now I remember the context: I asked why Misha Ge spent half of his life getting visas when he had Russian and Chinese passports, and I was told he had to use his Uzbekistan passport, because he competed for Uzbekinstan. He might still have had to get visas using his other two passports, but they wouldn't have taken nearly as long and or his applications rejected so often.
 
rfisher said:
The US cancelled all current visas and is making people reapply Sept 1. Long term visas might be different. This is political tit for tat.
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I'm not sure that is correct. Reuters said all current applications in progress and appointments to apply for visas were cancelled and must be rescheduled for after Sept. 1 but it didn't say existing visas would be cancelled. Cancelling visas that have already been issued would wreak havoc.
 
Zemgirl said:
Do figure skaters coming to the USA to compete require a P1 visa, or is a standard tourist/business visa (B1/B2) enough? The only time I had to apply for a B visa it was for ten years, so if that's enough then most skaters should be fine if they have competed in the US before (e.g. 2016 Worlds). But I'm not sure how a P visa would work for athletes who only compete infrequently in the USA.
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Performances that are paid (prize money) or made in front of a paying audience are specifically disallowed under B1/2 visas.
 
rfisher said:
The US cancelled all current visas and is making people reapply Sept 1. Long term visas might be different. This is political tit for tat.
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How is this political tit for tat... Russia reduced the number of US embassy staff after Obama forced the expulsion of Russian staffs. Now the Russian embassy staff number in US is the same as the US embassy staff in Russia. This is tit for tat.

US has since put additional sanctions and now this. Any reaction to this would be tit for tat, like canceling all American visas etc.
 
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