Buyer beware !!!
ILS received our passports and applications for Russian visas on April 18. Our departure date is June 14. After 6 weeks had passed in silence, and with only 2 weeks before leaving, I called several times (they never answered the phone). Then I sent emails inquiring about the delay and asking whether we would get our passports before June 14 or whether we had to declare them lost and drive to Miami to the US Passport Agency to get new ones (cost of the trip + fees would have been around $800).
Finally after 3 emails I received a sharp, unprofessional answer 1) accusing me of 'having put the wrong departure date' (NOT TRUE), 2) saying they could immediately send back our passports without the visas if I was not happy with their service!
No apology, no reassurance, no guarantee we would get our visas. I realized they had not even looked at our application yet. When finally they did look they asked me to email the tracking #, i.e., proof of delivery of our docs to them, and our flight tickets proving our departure date.
Meanwhile, with only 11 days to go before leaving, I had made an appointment in Miami to get new passports. The very hour we set out driving to Miami we got a call from a lovely woman at Worldvisitcenter.com who told us she now had our files and would get our visas to us within 7 days. We got them 5 days by overnight Fedex! Kudos to worldvisitcenter.com !
Not only was ILS incapable of processing our visas within the 5-7 week period, they are non-responsive and rude. Moreover, we paid $35 EACH = $70 to overnight our passportsback to us. I had asked if they could not return our passports together in one Fedex envelope, i.e., $35 instead of $70, and was told "not possible. You have to pay for separate Fedex delivery''. Well, guess what? They arrived together in one Fedex envelope. I asked for a refund of the unused $35 ... no answer!
ILS is a disaster. They are a company to avoid, assuming they even stay in business. VFSglobal is now processing Russian visa applications.