How filing works
The application and the payment are online: the fee of around $300 goes through the consulate’s payment system with any non-Russian card. After that the road forks — some applications are decided on the documents, others get an invitation to an in-person interview in Manila, which is why you need to be in the Philippines while yours is processed.
A decision takes about two weeks.
What to plan for
The chance of an interview is built into the plan from the start: rescheduling or failing to appear voids the application. Who gets called in more often and who less follows a pattern visible in the applicant profile, and it’s one of the things we track in our own base.
What we track here
The share of interview call-ups, decision times and how the consulate behaves in non-standard situations — including re-filing after a refusal, where Manila has its own quirks that we work through against the specific profile.
The state of every consulate is on the live board.