US visa for Russians in 2025

Hi, friends!
In this article we want to share with you the current state of affairs on getting US visas for Russians. The information is up to date for 2025, as of the time of writing.

Whenever there are significant changes in US visa policy, we will be sure to let you know, and in this article we'll leave links to the new information. So this text won't lose its relevance — feel free to save the link. 😉

The main question
How to get a US visa in 2025?
Can you currently get a US visa in Moscow?
Can you get a US visa in Russia?
Where can Russian citizens get a US visa in 2025?
How to book an appointment

The main question

Let's start, perhaps, with one of the most common questions: can you currently get a US visa? Yes, a US visa for Russians is still available in 2025, and getting one is more than realistic. Just not in Russia… ☹️ But we'll get to that a bit further down.
If that was exactly the question you had, and your next goal is to get this visa, you can get a US visa through us.

How to get a US visa in 2025?

Here you can relax a little: the process of getting a US visa for Russians has, for the most part, barely changed. Same document package, same requirements, same forms, and so on.

But the word "mostly" is in the text above for a reason. Something has changed after all, and it's made a noticeable difference to the overall picture. We've run into a new reality — problems with the ability to get a US visa in Russia.

On top of that, there's been the added difficulty of booking a visa interview.

Can you currently get a US visa in Moscow?

At the moment, you can start the visa application process while in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or any other city in Russia. However, attending an interview and getting the visa stamped in your passport in Moscow is not currently possible — the US consulate in Moscow continues to operate, but visa issuance services are temporarily suspended.

Most likely, however much we'd like otherwise, getting a US visa in Moscow won't be possible any time soon.
When the US consulate in Moscow starts booking interviews again, everyone will be talking about it, so it'll be hard to miss such an event. 🙂

update:
On 19 February 2025, Russia and the US reached an agreement on restoring the staffing levels of their diplomatic missions, which could lead to the visa department in Moscow resuming operations.

Can you get a US visa in Russia?

Not long ago, it was popular to "travel" for a visa to other cities in Russia, which led to the belief that getting a US visa was only impossible in Moscow. However, this wasn't accurate: a US visa became unavailable to Russians across the entire country.
Even during the period when people had to travel to another city for a visa, the reason wasn't the closure of the Moscow consulate. At that time, getting into the US consulate in the capital was impossible simply because there were no free interview slots — there were too many people wanting one.

Since May 2021, the situation has changed dramatically: all US consulates in Russia stopped issuing most types of non-immigrant visas to Russians, with the exception of diplomatic ones. So right now, attending an interview and getting a visa isn't possible in any city in the country.
When US visas will start being issued in Russia again is unknown, just as with Moscow.

Despite this, US visa centres in Russia continue to operate and process US visa applications for Russians (through other countries), but literally only a handful of people are able to book an interview. We'll explain why below.

Where can Russian citizens get a US visa in 2025?

Put briefly, Russians can get a US visa in any country whose consulate accepts non-residents and, of course, one where they manage to book an interview. That covers the main points. The other thing to consider is a handful of other factors that can affect the outcome and approval of your visa.

Other significant factors include, for example, the following:

The language the interview will be conducted in.
The need to get a separate visa to visit the country where the interview will take place.
Whether there are direct flights to the interview country.
How long it takes to get your passport back after visa approval.
Whether you need to bring children along to the interview.

Let's break these aspects down a bit further.

Language

One of the key factors influencing the choice of country for submitting US visa documents is the language the interview will be conducted in. Being able to do the US visa interview in Russian significantly simplifies the process for some applicants. Although this requirement narrows the list of potential countries where you can apply for a visa quite a lot, there are still enough options available.

For instance, you can do the interview in Russian in Poland, Kazakhstan, or Armenia. Certain countries even allow you to bring an interpreter along. That said, English will one way or another remain the main language: with it, you can choose an interview country from among all the available options.

An additional visa

An equally important aspect to consider when planning a US visa interview is the visa policy of the country where the interview will take place. It may turn out that you'll need to get an additional visa, which could unexpectedly turn out to be even harder to obtain than the US visa itself. The financial cost, accordingly, will also rise.

Are there direct flights from Russia

There are countries you can reach relatively easily from Russia, such as Turkey, Armenia, or the UAE. But there are also others you now practically have to fight your way to. Yet not so long ago, you could reach them after a couple of hours on a dull direct flight. If you choose one of these hard-to-reach countries as the place to apply for your US visa, you might unexpectedly find yourself turned into a round-the-world traveller. 🌏

When choosing where to get your visa, you absolutely need to think this through, both in terms of how complicated the route is and how much it will cost to get there. The fact that you decided to fly to the ends of the earth for a US visa may come as a surprise not only to you, but also to the visa officer, who at that very moment will start seriously doubting the purpose of your trip to the US.

When will the passport be ready

Although this factor may seem less significant than the previous ones, it also affects your final choice, so let's touch on this topic too.

The question of how long you'll have to wait for your passport to be ready after visa approval matters, since it determines how long you'll need to stay in the country where the interview took place.

If you're denied the visa, the situation is clear: you leave the consulate with your passport in hand. But if it's approved, your passport stays at the consulate to be processed and have the visa sticker affixed. How long it stays there, though, is a more interesting question. Unfortunately, there's no clear-cut answer to how long a US visa takes to process.

In some countries, the passport with the visa will be ready as soon as the next day, while in others you'll only be able to pick it up a week later. Because of how long the visa takes to be ready, there are additional costs on top of travel to the interview country. In our case — accommodation.

Should you bring children

Few people know this, but there's no strict rule about "whether to bring children to the interview." In certain countries or consulates, you'll need to bring your children along, while in others it's not necessary at all.
Given that Russians now have to fly somewhere one way or another to get a US visa, children can significantly increase the overall cost of the whole undertaking.

To sum up the question of where you can currently get a US visa, there's no single clear-cut answer. Every case is unique, there are many factors, and all of them need to be considered, since what works for one person may not work for another.

Serbia, for example, is currently very popular among Russians thanks to its proximity to Russia, the availability of direct flights, and the option to do the interview in Russian. Given these facts, getting a US visa there has become easier for many. As a counterexample, take Poland, which was quite popular not so long ago. Now Poland is barely in demand, for the same reasons — the need for a valid Schengen visa and the lack of a direct route to the country.

To understand which countries you can get a US visa in, probably the best advice is to turn to those who deal with this issue constantly and have up-to-date data.
Right now isn't the best time to gamble with your money and your visa history: with travel options around the world as limited as they currently are, rebuilding a visa history would be very difficult and expensive. We have clear official US visa refusal statistics that let you assess the whole situation without unnecessary words.

US visa refusal statistics

Official data on the visa refusal rate over the past 10 years

How to book an appointment

Now we've reached what is arguably the most interesting stage of getting a US visa — booking the interview.

There used to be no problem with this at all. Now, though, the problem of booking a US visa appointment is so acute that we had to develop a bot for booking interview appointments.
This is the result of a combination of factors that, in fact, affect not just Russians. The appointment booking problem is global, and it affects everyone who needs to get a visa.

That said, it's worth noting that free slots aren't absent everywhere. In certain countries, free slots are available almost all the time, but the interview itself will only happen a year or even two years later.
And if a more attractive interview date does appear, it disappears within minutes, since far more people are now applying to other countries' consulates than once applied to the Russian one. You don't see it, but dozens or even hundreds of people could be checking for free slots at the same moment as you.

The only way to book a convenient date is to monitor free slots around the clock. But however much you might want to, the account's security system won't let you — your account will get blocked for suspicious behaviour.

Those who had the means started developing complex automation systems to monitor for the appearance of free visa appointment slots. Colloquially, these monitoring systems are called a "bot." Strictly speaking, though, this technology has little in common with bots in the sense we're all used to, especially in the context of messaging apps like Telegram. The term "bot" is used here more because of the automated nature of how these systems work, rather than any resemblance to actual bots used for chatting or carrying out specific commands in chats.

Fortunately, we have that capability too, as well as our own bot.
Even though you can find plenty of offers online to book an appointment using a bot, these are often just resale services for access to already-existing solutions.

Bot for booking a US interview appointment

It'll solve your booking problem in no time! 😉

So that's how things currently stand…
It's difficult, but it can be done.

Given that Russians are issued a US visa for 3 years, it would be worth getting one — just in case.