Reader comments
LDS reassign Russia-bound missionaries

I recently entered Russia on a business trip and found the visa process more difficult (but not impossible) by comparison to many other countries including China. You also need to be accompanied by a Russian citizen on the streets and have documentation from your hotel.

The Russian people are still eager to do business but the government is creating a strong environment of protecting their own interests (putting it mildly).

sounds like the late 1930s. Military actions if needed against US for defense shield and documentation issues.

well don`t you need a visa to go to the USA?
Unless you don`t have a green card you are supposed
to leave the US within 90 days too.
Please correct me if I`m wrong.
So what`s wrong with the Russian policy anyway?

Susy... Everything is wrong with the Russian policy. First, the US policy is other than you've stated. Student and group visas to the USA are relatively easy to get for extended stays. Having been there 50+ times the Soviets do everything to assert their Red mentality today. They watch the US policy and try to make their several steps harder and more expensive. When I've met with their chief bureaucrats I've tried to explain to them that FEW people want to come to Russia so charging MORE than the US further discourages tourism. The key to make it EASIER for people to go there. They can't see it. The damaging effects of communism still rule the minds there.

Susy, the missionaries used to receive an extended visa that allowed them to stay for a longer period of time before renewing. It's a similar process for missionaries all over the world. The issue is the 90 days is drastically shorter, and therefore much more expensive, time consuming, etc. I believe many countries offer extended visas for various causes.

I don't think anyone is arguing against a nation's right to require visas. I think the complaint about the new Russian policy is that those on humanitarian/missionary visas now incur the extra expense of time/money to renew them every 90 days. I don't believe that the US requires, for example, the 100+ Temple Square sister missionaries from numerous foreign countries to leave the US during their tenure as missionaries.

Why do missionaries even make it into the newspaper anymore? They shouldn't be worrying about getting visas for these guys. Besides instead of a mission these guys and gals should go off and serve their country instead. Trust me you feel much more noble for doing that. Serve your country with dignity instead of serving a mission for a lost cause faith.

It was a MIRACLE that we were ever there to begin with!

Woudn't it be great if there were other, nearby, Russian speaking areas where Russian speaking missionaries could be sent for the remainder of their mission, after 90 days in Russia; and from which, missionaries could be sent to Russia, for 90 days, and then return to their original assignment?
However, there must not be such areas, or we would probably be doing just that.

The US has a religious worker visa called a Type R, which allows ministers of religion, including LDS missionaries, to stay in the US for up to 5 years without leaving every 3 months. I posted this earlier, but made the mistake of including the URL for the page on the state department's website that has this information. You'll have to look it up yourself.

Yes, these visa laws are much more restrictive than any country I've ever visited. I recently was able to obtain a year-long multiple entry visa for study in China. Russia seems to be going back to darker times.

We had to do a similar thing in France (leave the country every 90 days) without a long term visa. Leaving the country was cheaper than the visa at the time. However, the requirement in this scenario has the foreigners returning to their home country after 90 days whereas we just needed to leave French soil (to a neighboring country) and return for another 90 days.

You make me laugh!

Where ever they go they will do a great job. As a convert to the church I love them all and wish them GOD speed.

I served 8 years in the military and converted to Mormonism later in life. Serving a mission is no less noble than serving in the military. Trust me, serving a mission for the LDS Church an important work.

I would assume by your comment that you do not understand that the Deseret News is owned by the LDS church. One of the purposes of the paper is to provide stories such as this one---about the church. Members of the LDS faith look to this paper to provide information about news within the church or things that effect the church---as well as general national and local stories.

No, I know it's owned by the church. I just love how we all jump to the aid of missionaries. Trust me their work isn't that important to society. A story about visas and there are soldiers getting blown up in Iraq everyday. I'm just saying there is more important news in the world. After all, aren't mormons too busy excommunicating people who make calendars? Yet they don't seem to care about missionaries defacing a Catholic alter. There are more important current events right now.

The phrase "parents send their children" is all you need to know about the extreme bias of this writer.

With the brazen way we've been waving our guns about with regard to the missile sheild, it's no wonder they don't care to help us out with visas.

To Jeremy
Are you suggesting they're running out of soldiers to blow up in Iraq and we should send more? How can you say that anything is a useless, especially in comparison to the war in Iraq? I don't know if you've noticed but everyone hates the president over it