Hi,
I'm planning on driving my car from Budapest to Mongolia (entering from the west through Russia) this summer. Since I'm a US citizen, I don't have a visa concern. My uncle (Polish) and his son (Hungarian) are coming with me. We attempted this trip last year and they secured visas easily at the Mongolian embassy in Budapest. Unfortunately, I had car issues midway through the trip and never even got close, so I returned to Budapest with car.
This year, planning to do the same thing, my uncle and cousin just went to the Mongolian embassy and were told they needed a letter of invitation. When they pointed to the visa from last year, the consul told them that it was inappropriately given to them by the representative at that time. So my uncle went to a Budapest travel agency that claims to be able to make such arrangments (this was today) and when the agent went to the consul and explained we would be coming by car (100% my car, not theirs), the consul said that in that case the letter of invitation must also include that the Mongolian issuing the letter of invitation taking responsibility for my uncle and cousin.
Does this sound correct - or has something changed in the last year? Can anyone give me a recommendation for getting a standard letter of invitation?
Thanks for any tips or insights,
Csaba (writing from Washington, DC)