Hi all,

We have just flown over from Australia to the UK and are awaiting our 4x4 to arrive so we can get started on our trip.

At the moment we've been jumping through hoops trying to get our Russian Visa organised.

They are causing us grief because I'm a non UK resident and they've told us it will take 20 days to process (6 Russian public holidays). We cant fast track it because I'm not a resident and their site originally claimed 7-10 days processing.

The lady at the embassy has now got back to us claiming that we need to provide insurance details for our vehicle before they can process it any further.

From what I understand the third party insurance is available at service stations before the border. I have read that you can obtain them from the insurance companies themselves before setting off, which saves a little time and money but haven't had any luck tracking this down on the net. Ingosstrakh and Rosno are the two companies I've checked.

I'm also a little confused if the green card system actually works in Russia after reading conflicting reports from various travellers.

I told the lady who's handling our application that I don't think its a necessary component to the visa application. Can anyone clarify this for me.

Thanks

London - Cape Town via Central Asia

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