Houston Consulate

Cal

I have an appointment to go there at the end of this month. I read in one of the articles here that the Houston Consulate is closed?

??? Is this information still correct? How would they be able to generate an appointment if they were closed? I email and call, but emails don't get returned and calls don't get answered. Hopefully someone can confirm for me that they are open.

antoniob

Cal I have an appointment to go there ...How would they be able to generate an appointment if they were closed?

then it works, obviously.
Article may be outdated. Many closures of consulates as counter measures of USA actions were taken here and there since 2022, some just unilaterally by host country cancelling authorizations for staff so making is impossible to keep some consulates going.
I think in the attempt to bait Russia inside a trap as well as to avoid too much damage to own's american interests, the Trump team after first visits of Witkoff to Russia, offered to relax some mutual practicalities. This consulate may have been closed under the former Biden mafia team, then reopened recently.

Appointments are done on a website of Russian foreign affairs ministry. All are under a subdomain name for the given consulate, under main domain name kdmid.ru.
There is a houston.kdmid.ru : https://houston.kdmid.ru/queue-en/
On main kdmid website list of consulate in USA: https://www.kdmid.ru/docs/usa/russian-consular-offices/

Cal

Can anyone please confirm BASED UPON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that the consulate in Houston is open?
Thanks, Cal

NorseVictory

You might want to try contacting Let's Russia through their website. They process visas through the Houston office

Cal

Can anyone please confirm BASED UPON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE if the consulate in Houston is open?

Cal

Houston Consulate is most definitely open.
They won't respond to any questions related to a visa.

If you are Russian citizen and in need of a Russian passport, and you can write to them in Russian you may get a response. However - No appointment is necessary if you need a Russian passport. However you will need to go the security desk, they will phone the consulate and send someone down to take you up. This happened when I was there.

If you have any other business there, you will need an appointment. Also, you will need to show proof of the appointment at the security desk before you will be allowed to take the elevator up. They are on floor 13. The elevator that you have to use only goes to floor 13 (elevator C).

I was able to give them a pre-paid envelope to mail me back my passport with Russian visa. So I didn't have to go back again. It worked out fine.