Oh those Russians

Ah, remember the days when to get your Russian visa all you had to do was go to that dodgy unmarked office* near Green Park with your invites from every Russian hotel you were planning on staying in with dates and hundreds in cash and an IOU for your first born? Well those happy days are OVAH I can tell you. Mezza and I never knew that we had it so "easy" last time.

Now the embassy has "outsourced" its visa distribution to an agency in the oh-so-very-accessible-from-Putney Barbican area. So, you fill in your application online and print it out, stick your passport photo on, grab your pre-arranged hotel invites (hoping the Russian means what it's supposed to) your cheque book and a flask of tea for the journey and make the hour or so trek into the agency.

Only problem is if you have a non-UK passport (say Irish, for example) you have to prove residency in the UK for the last 90 days. More difficult than you'd think when they don't accept credit card statements or mobile phone bills... and you're trying to be environmentally conscious and don't do paper statements... and your bank is an online one and you can't print out anything with your address on it (even if you ring them from their designated real bank HSBC and they say they will fax you something but they don't)... and your place of work is closed for the summer so you can't get the reference you've received from your boss altered to say the same name as on your passport and not your married name...and you've already shipped home a lot of your other documents and statements and marriage certs etc that prove who you are...and...

sorry. I'm ranting. I'm just so frustrated. And to top it all off it is by far the most expensive visa ever- £135. I've been in there 4 times already in the last 2 days and still don't have the visa... The security man doesn't even check my bag anymore, he recognises me and gives a friendly wave & a fun comment like "back to pick up the visa?" I wish. It does make you wonder why you'd bother to go to this country!

* not unlike Murray's office from Flight of the Conchords but with much less technology and far more paper stacks