Just wanted to find out if the payment needs to be made to the DHL for passport
delivery ahead of time while filling out the airway bill or is it that DHL gets the
money during the delivery?

Prepaid airbill - you need to pay them ahead of time.

Just a general heads up, nothing in Russia gets done without payment up front. The usual method is 50% to start and 50% to finish. If you pay it all at once, you'll wait forever, same with paying everything afterwards.

thanks.

But are you suggesting that pay 50% to DHL ahead of time and 50% after delivery of passport?
Is that what you did?

Even in the US, DHL, Fedex and UPS don't like giving credit terms...

No silly, with DHL you have to pay the whole thing upfront or they won't serve you at all. I was just talking in general about how everything else works in Russia.
Russ might be more familiar with DHL, but working for an attorney here in San Francisco, we sure get a lot of services (from couriers to office supplies) up front or on our tab, that sure wouldn't happen in Russia.

Yes, just go to the small DHL office by the embassy and prepay an airbill for her passport & paperwork delivery. Depending on city cost is anywhere from 1000 to 1500 rubles. Also, if you want to pick-up your package in Moscow and not have it delivered then give the 'deliver to' address of the main DHL office in Moscow...

ok thanks.

So let me quickly understand this - pay upfront to DHL in DHL office, fill up the airway bill
and handover that filled up airway bill to embassy after the interview?

yep, that's it...and good luck

Your fiancee will get detailed instructions inside her packet.

How long does it normally take for packet to arrive? Ours was sent out on July 26th.

about 2 weeks (depending on where she is)....ours was sent on 20th july ..received it this last week.

Yep, my fiancee's made it all the way to Vladivostok in about two weeks.

About 2 weeks to Irkutsk as well