q.midpass or kdmid: How to Book a Russian Consulate Slot in the USA 2026

Search q.midpass.ru and you land on a login page asking for a country and a consular post. For most people in the United States that page is a dead end, and the dead end costs weeks. In 2026 all three Russian posts in the country book through their own electronic queues on kdmid.ru, booking is free, and the Embassy publicly calls paid "guaranteed appointment" schemes fraudulent. This page is informational and is not legal advice.

Which site actually books a Russian consulate appointment in the USA?

The post's own queue. The Embassy consular section states that passport applicants are received exclusively and only by prior appointment through washington.kdmid.ru/queue, that booking is done by the applicant personally, and that the queue must carry the real full name from Russian documents, a phone number and an email. New York routes every consular action through its booking page to new-york.kdmid.ru/queue. Houston books through houston.kdmid.ru/queue and keeps a separate queue for visas. The MFA portal draws the line in its FAQ: when the "Book in the queue" button stays inactive, booking from q.midpass.ru is not provided for that post, and you are sent to the post's own site. Booking itself is free at all three.

Post	Consular district	Address and public hours	Queue	Payment
New York	NY, NJ, PA, CT, MA, RI, VT, NH, ME, OH, MI, IL, IN, WI, MN	9 East 91st Street, New York, NY 10128. Mon to Thu 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 16:00, Fri 9:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 15:30	new-york.kdmid.ru/queue	Cash only
Washington, Embassy consular section	DC, MD, VA, WV, DE, GA, FL, NC, SC, TN, KY, CA, NV, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, UT, ND, SD, AK, HI, PR, VI, GU, AS, MP	2641 Tunlaw Road NW, Washington, DC 20007. Mon to Fri 9:00 to 12:30 and 15:00 to 18:00 by appointment	washington.kdmid.ru/queue	Money order only
Houston	TX, LA, OK, NM, AZ, CO, KS, NE, MO, IA, AR, AL, MS	1333 West Loop South, Ste. 1300, Houston, TX 77027. Public hours 9:00 to 12:00	houston.kdmid.ru/queue	Per the post's tariff

The district is not a matter of taste: each post lists the states it serves, and New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania belong to New York, while Florida, Georgia and California belong to Washington. Consultation lines: New York +1 (646) 984-8686 on working days 9:00 to 13:00; Washington (202) 939-8914 on working days 9:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 18:00; Houston (713) 337-3300. One trap worth knowing: the Embassy's contacts page still describes booking in Houston by phone with an extension, while Houston's own contacts page sends applicants to the electronic queue and states that every consular action needs its own appointment. When two official pages disagree, the post's own page wins.

When do slots open and how does the waiting list actually move?

Slots are not sprinkled through the day. New York opens the schedule on the 20th of each month for the next calendar month; Washington describes the same event as the start of the third ten-day period of the preceding month. Both queue engines behave identically, and both post the same set of rules.

• If there is no free time, registration puts you in the waiting list, and offers are emailed to the applicants at the top of it, not to whoever refreshes the calendar fastest.
• An offer lives 24 hours. Without an active confirmation it passes to the next applicant.
• You may skip an unsuitable offer and stay in the list, but a third refusal deletes the request entirely.
• Declining a slot you already booked sends the request to the end of the list with its position recalculated.
• During a long wait the system emails a request to confirm that your application is still relevant. Unconfirmed requests are deleted.
• Your current position can be checked at any time through the link emailed at registration.
• Both posts warn against Gmail (New York adds aol.com): mail from the mid.ru and kdmid.ru domains can be blocked, the confirmation link never arrives, and there is no registration at all.
• Both posts also say that refusals of already booked slots are extremely rare, so the visible movement happens after the 20th and almost nowhere else.

Clock	Period	What happens if you miss it
Schedule opens	The 20th, for the next calendar month	You wait for the next opening
Waiting-list offer	24 hours	The slot goes to the next applicant
Refusals of offers	Two allowed	The third deletes the request
Relevance confirmation	By the email request	The system deletes the request
Passport processing	Up to 3 months at a post	Nothing to appeal: the clearance runs in Russia
Certificate of return	2 business days, up to 27 business days with an extra check	The trip moves
Certificate of return validity	15 days, entry to Russia only	A new application
Passport after a name change	6 months from the change of personal data	The passport becomes invalid and citizenship verification comes first

What has to happen in the first hour after you register?

Registration is not a booking. Most guides stop at "sign up and wait", and that is exactly where requests quietly die. The queue sends several different letters, each carrying a link that does one job only, and one of them expires.

Letter from the queue	The link inside it	What is lost if you ignore it
Registration confirmation	Opens the calendar, where you still have to press "Book an appointment"	Nothing is booked, and there is nothing in the waiting list either
The "Appointment" letter	Carries the application number and the security code, plus separate links to reschedule and to delete	Checking the status, moving the visit and cancelling all become impossible
Offer from the waiting list	Confirms one specific slot within 24 hours	The slot passes to the next applicant
Relevance check during a long wait	Confirms that the request is still needed	The system deletes the request

Two consequences follow. The security code is not decoration: without the application number and that code you cannot check the state of your request, move it or cancel it, and the post cannot restore them for you. And moving a visit is not free in queue terms. New York says plainly that giving up a time you already took sends the request to the end of the list with its position recalculated, while skipping an offer you never accepted leaves your place intact. The number of slots released in an opening month depends on the number of working days in it and on the staffing of the post, which is why two neighbours who registered on the same day can end up waiting different months.

Is it true that bots take the slots and you cannot book without a middleman?

This is the belief that costs the most money, and both halves of it are checkable against official pages.

The claim	What the posts actually say	Source
Slots vanish in seconds, so you must sit at the screen	Movement happens mainly when the schedule opens, and offers are emailed to the top of the waiting list. Refusals of booked slots are called extremely rare	New York booking FAQ, Washington queue rules
A paid agent gets you an out-of-turn slot	The consular section states it does not cooperate with such firms and that the advertised schemes are outright fraudulent, and asks that their contacts be reported	Embassy page on consular outreach sessions
An agent can file the passport application for you	Under art. 8 of Federal Law 114-FZ the passport is issued on a written application submitted personally; no other route exists	Same page, plus the MFA passport regulations
Booking costs money	"Booking is free" is printed on the queue pages themselves	Washington and Houston queue pages
Register under any name and sort it out later	The applicant is required to use the real full name from Russian documents; New York warns that if the booking does not match the action requested, service may be refused	Washington appointment page, New York booking page
A mobile consular session can be bought	The Embassy states that no dates for outreach sessions are announced at present	Embassy page on consular outreach sessions

The Embassy asks on its page on consular outreach sessions that anyone offering such paid services while claiming an arrangement with it be reported to the consular section's general mailbox, for onward transmission to Russian law enforcement. The practical reading is dull but useful: the only mechanism that produces a slot is the waiting list, and the only lever you control is being registered in it, on a working email address, before the 20th.

Does one appointment really mean one document?

Half of the internet says one appointment equals one document. The posts say something more precise, and the difference decides whether you go back into the queue for a second month.

• Every consular action requires a booking, and New York warns that if the booking and the action requested do not match, service may be refused.
• Several questions fit into one booking only if they are handled at one window by one specialist. You add them with the "Add question" button at the moment the booking is created, not later.
• A passport and a power of attorney are different windows, so they are two separate bookings.
• One booking certifies one power of attorney. A second document, or the electronic equivalence service, is added to the same appointment with "Add question" when you book.
• In New York a child under 18 is booked under the parent. Booking a passport for yourself and for the child is done with "Add question", and the system offers two adjacent slots.
• Washington says the opposite in its 5-year passport pages for children: each child needs a separate booking.
• Houston states that every consular action requires its own appointment.

So the working rule is not "one appointment, one document" but "one window, one appointment", with the child rule checked on the page of the post you are going to. This single button is the difference between one trip and two.

What does it cost and what can you pay with?

The tariff of 31 July 2026, approved by Embassy order No. 171 on the rates of RF Government Resolution No. 889 of 11 November 2010, has two columns: the total fee, and the consular fee inside it. Under the Consular Charter (Federal Law No. 154-FZ of 5 July 2010, art. 36) Russian citizens are exempt from the actual-cost part, which is why the Embassy's tariff page says they pay column 2 only.

Action	Russian citizen	Full fee	Detail
Biometric passport, 10 years	$90	$90	Photographed at the post
Biometric passport, child under 14	$50	$50	Recommended from age 6
Passport, 5 years	$35	$35	Three 35 x 45 mm photographs
Passport, 5 years, child under 14	$15	$15	Two photographs
Changes entered into a passport	$10	$10	Not a reissue
Real-estate power of attorney to close relatives	$40	$88	Proof of relationship required
Real-estate power of attorney to other persons	$70	$154	The usual case for a sale
Other powers of attorney, and substitution	$40	$88	Sections IV.2 and IV.3
Electronic equivalence, per page	$10	$22	Counted by sheets of the original
Certified translation, per page	$35 into Russian, $45 from Russian	$77 and $99	Per page
Non-working day surcharge	$20	$44	Holidays and non-working days

Two traps live in this table. The first is the payment instrument: Washington accepts money orders only, made out to Russian Embassy, and states that cash and cards are not accepted, while New York accepts cash only. The second is the power of attorney for real estate: the preferential $40 applies to children including adopted, spouse, parents and full siblings, and only if you bring the original or a notarized copy of the document proving the relationship. A power of attorney to sell an apartment issued to a friend or a distant relative is the $70 line, and a money order written for the wrong amount sends you home.

Which form do you fill in before booking, and where is it tracked?

The 10-year biometric passport

Filled at zp.midpass.ru and printed together with its two-dimensional barcode. The draft lives only in that browser on that device, the code word cannot be recovered remotely, and the form carries no application number: the number is assigned by the officer at intake, and the receipt you are handed carries it. Employment covers exactly the last ten years, in Russian, with no empty lines and full addresses; the portal FAQ requires an explanation of what you did and where you lived for any gap of three months or more, while the Embassy phrases the same rule as gaps over three months, so treat exactly three months as explainable. No photographs are attached: you are photographed at the post. Readiness of the new-generation passport is tracked at info.midpass.ru by the number from the receipt.

The 5-year passport

A different portal, passportzu.kdmid.ru, which is also where New York points for its readiness status, plus three 35 x 45 mm photographs (two for a child under 14, matte, on a white or light background). Both types take up to three months at a post, because every application from age 14 goes to Russia for clearance; the administrative regulation gives one month by place of residence in Russia and three months at a post abroad. The point most guides omit: for the biometric passport no shortening of that term is provided at all, while for the 5-year passport the portal FAQ lists cases where the term can be shortened, such as treatment abroad or the illness or death of a close relative abroad. If you are in a hurry, that is the document to ask about.

What if your zagranpasport has already expired?

The right to a new one survives; the proof of citizenship does not. Both Washington and New York allow filing on a valid internal Russian passport, original in hand; with neither document valid, citizenship verification comes first and cannot be filed alongside the passport application. Personal appearance is required, and neither mail nor a power of attorney is accepted. The full route is in our guide on renewing a zagranpasport in the USA.

To enter Russia sooner there is the certificate of return, governed by MFA order No. 24518 of 4 December 2023: the form at reentry.kdmid.ru, two 35 x 45 mm photographs, the expired passport and the internal passport with copies. It is issued in 2 business days, or up to 27 business days if an additional check is run, and it is valid 15 days for entry to Russia only. Without an internal passport, written statements from at least two Russian citizens, signed before the officer and backed by their own valid passports, confirm your identity; if even that is impossible, the post queries the Russian Interior Ministry and other consulates, which is exactly when the 27 days appear. New York takes urgent applications for this document without any booking, from 09:30 to 11:30 on working days.

How do you book a power of attorney and what do you bring?

Separate booking, separate preparation. The draft is uploaded in advance to notary.kdmid.ru; officers certify what you uploaded and, by MFA order No. 20795/209 of 29 September 2022, they neither retype paper texts nor draft documents for you, so a template comes from the samples page or from a Russian notary. Bring the originals of your valid passports and a printed copy of the first page and the registration page of the passport of the person you authorize: wrong passport data is a classic reason for a document to be rejected in Russia. A power of attorney cannot be perpetual, and with no term stated it lives one year. Revocation is a separate service and can be done at any Russian post regardless of where the document was issued. Details reach the Federal Notarial Chamber within 3 business days and the notarial register within 2 more, after which the document can be checked at reestr-dover.ru.

For paperwork that has to travel, add the certification of an electronic copy equal to the paper original: the officer scans the document, signs it with a qualified electronic signature and emails it to you the same day, and a notary in Russia performs the mirror action on paper. It is charged per page of the original and, under part 2 of art. 103.8 of the Notariat Fundamentals, it is unavailable for transactions in simple written form and for identity documents, although notarized copies of identity documents are accepted. The American side of the same problem is covered in notarization and powers of attorney and in apostille for Russian documents. If the reason for the trip is a parent flying in, plan the medical side in parallel: see bringing parents to the USA.

What can you do without an appointment at all?

Before spending a month in the waiting list, check whether the service needs a window. Consular registration is filed at id.kdmid.ru and can be done entirely by mail: the printed and signed application plus a copy of the first page of your passport, mailed to 9 East 91st Street with a prepaid USPS Priority Mail return envelope, and no fee is charged. A ready passport can also be mailed to you if you hand in a USPS Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express envelope with stamps and a tracking number, and Washington adds that stamp QR codes and printed labels are not accepted. Passport readiness is checked online, and the certificate of return in New York is accepted urgently without a booking.

What cannot be done remotely is short and firm: the passport application, the power of attorney and citizenship verification all require you in the room. One deadline belongs here too. After a change of name abroad the zagranpasport is invalid 6 months after the change of personal data under art. 8.1 of Federal Law 114-FZ, the internal passport within 90 calendar days, and the document proving the change must be filed within those six months. New York separately advises applying for a new passport about six months before the current one expires, which, against a three-month processing term and a month in the waiting list, is not caution but arithmetic.

Typical scenarios

Illustrative composites, not real clients. Ernest, Sheepshead Bay. His passport lapsed in February and he spent March refreshing the calendar at midnight, convinced bots were taking everything. He was never in the waiting list at all: he had registered with a Gmail address, the confirmation link never arrived, and there was no request in the system to move. He re-registered in April on another mail service, received an offer after the 20th, and filed in June on his internal Russian passport.

Second scenario. Roksana, Edison NJ. One booking, one power of attorney for the sale of an apartment. Two things went wrong at once: the authorized person was her cousin, not a close relative, so the fee was the $70 line rather than $40, and she had not added the electronic equivalence with "Add question" when booking. The document went by international mail and arrived three weeks later, while the same appointment could have emailed it the same day.

Third scenario. A family in Tampa booked two child passports as one appointment because a friend in Brooklyn had done exactly that. Florida belongs to the Washington district, where each child needs a separate booking for the 5-year passport, and the second child went home unserved. The rule was on the post's page; the friend's experience was from another post.

Find the kdmid queue of the post that serves your state, register on a non-Gmail address, stay in the waiting list, watch the 20th, use "Add question" for everything that fits one window, bring the payment instrument that post accepts, and check the fee line before writing the money order. The figures here come from the official post sites and the tariff linked above, and consular rules change without notice. Money that follows a sale in Russia is a separate problem with its own rules, covered in our notes on moving money between Russia and the USA after sanctions, sending money from Russia to the USA, third-country bank transfers and the status board on Wise, Remitly, MoneyGram and Western Union. At SafeBridge Insurance Group we answer insurance questions in Russian and English at (315) 871-0833; insurance services are provided by a licensed insurance producer (New Jersey producer license 3004390206, NPN 22313558), and a business or truck policy can be quoted through the online quote form. Consular, immigration and legal questions belong to the posts themselves and to a licensed attorney.