SP-B*: Receipt? -Nyet

*Note: "SP-B" prefix denotes blog post related to "St. Petersburg Bound" series


End of week 1 of preparation, 3 to go. No major snags.

Flight/hotel/transportation reservations were confirmed, and mental reservations continue to be minimized.

A moment of pause, however, after I handed over my application, documentation, photos, passport and payment to a Russian embassy official, who seemed genuinely confused by my request for a receipt. I explained that this is standard, per instructions posted on the Embassy Web site (step 6), for "tracking purposes":

Russian Official: This is not FedEx. We don't track documents like this.
Me: I was specifically told to get a "pick-up slip" as part of this process.
RO: Not here.
Me: Not here...?


END.

I love it. Step 6 specifically states:

If you apply personally, you should get a pick-up slip from the visa officer. You should present this slip to pick up your visa, when it is ready, or refer to its number to check out the status of the application.

I can feel my only official document allowing passage abroad slipping away...never to be retrieved.



But, why not trust Russian bureaucracy and record keeping? I have no reason to doubt its official processes.

Yet.

But how could they possibly be any worse than our government's own, with its history of losing millions of official emails and destroying government hard-drives?

Somehow I'm not making myself feel any better. For now, I'll simply hope that the similarities between the Russian and U.S. Presidential Administrations end with mere encroachment of civil liberties and anti-democratic tendencies...

Anyway, he said it would be ready next Friday.