by Patrick
(Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
Yes. I met a Russian woman. I know, how cliché`.
My question is; "where can she travel to that will not be a hassle for her to get a tourist visa, etc.?"
I would like to go meet her but I've never traveled before and as much as I love Russia, I'm not ready for that much stress getting a visa and traveling to Russia. I would be much more comfortable meeting her somewhere neutral like Spain for instance.
Are there any European countries that would be somewhat neutral territory for both us? (easy for her to get to and easy for me to get to?)
I greatly appreciate your help.
Thanks.
Bob's Answer:
Nothing is easier and safer than just going to her country! By making your first meeting at some other international location is basically a $5000-$7000 BLIND DATE!
But, Russian women can go to Turkey, Egypt, Dominican Republic, and I think Thailand using only a passport (no visa required). You better double-check that Thailand option. There are surely other places, but these tend to be their vacation spots.
Apparently Schengen Visas are fairly easy for Russians to get and allows them to travel freely among many European countries, but if they don't already have such a visa you probably can't count on it. And Russians cannot travel to most European countries without a visa, the only variable is how hard the visas are to obtain.
But dude, the "hassle" you speak of regarding traveling to Russia is NOTHING compared hassle, stress, risk, and COST of trying to arrange and PAY FOR a neutral location meeting.
your reluctance to just suck it up and make a trip to Russia is going to cost you much bigger than just going to Russia. For $200 you can get a visa to Russia in less than a month, and the amount of work on your part is all of 15 minutes filling out a form at http://www.visahq.com.
I've gone to Russia twice using their services. You spend 15 minutes filling out a form online, pay their fee online, mail them your passport, and a few weeks later the passport arrives back with a visa glued into one of the pages.
Ukraine doesn't even require a visa for U.S. citizens.