Consular issues

No matter what issue you would like to bring to a foreign consulate (obtaining a visa, applying for a passport renewal, obtaining dual citizenship for your child, legalizing your documents, obtaining documents on demand, etc.), and how urgent your needs are, most consulates require visitors to schedule an appointment upfront, gather necessary documents and fill proper applications. Since more often than not consulates have very limited time for each visitor, they expect visitors to submit accurately completed applications and exact number and types of collected upfront documents in order to start process. If a visitor fails to do so, he/she is often sent away and asked to reschedule an appointment and resubmit the documents or applications he did not during the first visit.

Scheduling an appointment in a consulate is the first step to initiate an action. In fact, it is not task if you are familiar with appointment scheduling procedure in consulate of particular foreign country, but if you are not, it is recommended you pass the task to a specialist who understands and has experience with the procedure. This way you can avoid delays in case processing due to improperly applications, trip cancellations due to failure to obtain a visa promptly or necessity to come back to consulate because some important documents were missing.

The Apoling Solutions’ specialists are experts in handling any consular – related issues. We know specific requirements of any foreign country consulate and keep an eye on any changes in internationaljurisdiction.

Visas

If you intend to take a trip overseas, and there is a visa regime between a country you are a citizen of and a country you want to visit, you must obtain a visa, and it is highly recommended you to take care of it at least few months before travelling. If you’ll leave the visa issue to the last minute, you simply might fail to get it done, because visa appointment availability is very limited (especially before holidays).  In addition, scheduling an appointment does not guarantee your entrance, because some of consulates (such as the Consulate of Italy, for example) require confirmation of appointment within strictly specified time frames. If you fail to confirm an appointment it will be automatically cancelled.  Last but not least, incorrectly complete visa applications and failure to submit key documents may result in visa denial.

By using Apoling Solutions’ assistance in visa obtaining issues, you can be 100% sure that your arrangements will go in accordance with your plan. We’ll make a visa appointment for you and confirm it on time, provide you with detailed instructions regarding documents you should submit at the day of visa appointment, and offer you a properly sized visa photo for GRATIS.

Applying for dual citizenship

If your child was born in the USA and the country of your primary citizenship (such as Russia, for example) allows holding dual citizenship, you may want to apply for a citizenship for your child in the consulate of this country. If you plan to visit a consulate in person, you should electronically schedule your visit beforehand and prepare upfront all necessary documents (such as apostilled Birth Certificate of your child, your Marriage Certificate and properly filled citizenship application) for submission. Usually, the foreign consulates email or call with appointment confirmation within few days after you sent them a request. If you did not receive the confirmation, then something went wrong and the appointment was not scheduled correctly.

If you have doubts on how to schedule an appointment electronically or why you did not receive any communication form a consulate in spite you’ve sent an appointment request some time ago, please, contact us – we are here to assist.

Applying for Passport renewal

If your passport is about to be expired, and you are a permanent resident of the USA, there is no necessity to take a trip to a country you are a citizen of, in order to renew it. You may renew your passport in a consulate here if jurisdiction of your country allows its citizens to do so. The passport renewal procedure is usually done in few steps and the most important task is to fill passport renewal application accurately. Otherwise, the online system will refuse to accept it. When it comes to the Russian passport renewal, for example, it is crucial to make sure the dates in Employment History section match, because you’ll stuck if they do not. In addition, you be notified by the consulate on when you have an appointment. If, for some reason, you did not receive an email notification, the appointment for a passport renewal is not scheduled properly.

Obtaining documents on demand

If you need to obtain such documents as non-conviction certificate or certified copies (often called “duplicates”) of your Vital Records, you’ll have to submit to the Consular Division proper sets of documents at the time of your visit, previously requested. If you bring improper documents, you’ll be asked to come back and present the right ones.

If you have questions regarding any matter that you consider to take to a foreign consulate, please, feel free to contact us. We are here to save your time and money and do all our best to resolve any issue you might have when dealing with foreign authorities.