VLADIVOSTOK, October 2. /TASS/. The US embassy and consulates plan to issue up to 200,000 visas across Russia in 2019, the embassy’s Minister Counsellor Michael Yoder told reporters in Vladivostok on Tuesday.
"We did 250,000 in 2016. I don’t have yet figures for 2018, but I’m convinced that next year we will do about 150,000 to 200,000 visas across the country," he said.
According to the embassy official, the US visa denial rate in Russia is about 10%. "Almost always it’s because there was some previous difficulty with travelling to the United States or because someone has not yet been able to demonstrate that they have strong ties to their home country. It’s the same as it is anywhere in the world," he explained.
On August 23, 2017, the US embassy suspended nonimmigrant visa operations across Russia as Moscow demanded that the US diplomatic staff in Russia should be reduced to 455 following the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from the United States. Visa operations resumed on September 1, 2017, in Moscow and on December 11 in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. In March 2018, the US consulate in St. Petersburg was closed as a tit-for-tat response to the closing of the Russian consulate general in Seattle.