Why you need a Russian Visa

Why you need a Visa.

Most Westerners can visit virtually any country without a visa. Just show your passport and you are straight in, with barely a glance at your papers.

Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to Russia. Western countries dont think very highly of Russian tourists, and make it difficult for them to come to Europe without a Schengen visa.

This can mean a long trip across Russia to the relevant embassy in Moscow and a mountain of paperwork to complete.

So Russia has always returned the favour and made visas compulsory for ALL visitors to Russia.

Don't even think about trying to arrive in Moscow or St Petersburg without a visa ! Even if the airline failed to check your documents and you managed to get a plane there, you would be immediately arrested at the airport in Moscow and send straight back home at your own expense.

How to get your Russian visa.

The cheapest (and most difficult) way to get a Russian visa is to simply get your Russian girlfriend or fiancee to send you a personal invite. Any Russian is allowed to invite foreigners to Russia. This will prove much cheaper than paying for a business invitation from a reputable company/visa agency, but will cause immense problems and headaches for your girlfriend. She will need to provide dozens of documents, fill in countless forms, stand for hours at a few different government departments, who may or may not be willing to actually bother to do their job. Assuming that your girlfriend actually manages to get an invitation, she then has to post it to you in your country. The Russian post service seems to take even longer to send things out of Russia than to receive them, so you may be waiting for a while. Once you get the invitation you then need to apply to the nearest Russian embassy consulate, post your forms or wait in a queue and then face the possibility of having your application rejected for any number of simple "errors" that the consulate might happen to think up.

If you are contemplating a visit to Russia then DONT DO THIS !

The other way is to use the services of a visa agency. These people apply for visas everyday, they know exactly how the Embassy likes the photo attaching to the form, how they should answer the rather peculiar questions about reasons for visiting Russia or organisations that you are supposedly visiting. This is the method that I would recommend.

Now Im going to talk about the various types of Russian visa.

Tourist Visa

First of all we have the tourist visa. This type only allows a single entry/exit for a period of upto 30 days. Great if you are visiting for a short time or a quick holiday, but no use at all if you have a Russian wife and want to spend the entire summer with her, or want to give up the rat race in the UK or USA and move to Russia semipermanently. The tourist visa is cheaper than the business visa and depending on how often you are planning to visit Russia then it might be the most appropriate visa for you.To get the tourist visa you only need to complete a couple of easy forms, get the visa agency to provide a tourist invitation and then relax and let them handle the legwork and paperwork.

Business Visa

The Russian business visa is the best option for those looking to stay in Russia for an extended period of time.

There are a variety of options available, 30/60/90 days, 6/12 months, single, double and multiple entry. In the past this type of visa was the favoured method for businessmen, NGO workers, those hoping to teach English in Russia for a whole year and intrepid travellers who were aiming to walking solo across Siberia during the winter or ride a motorbike from St Petersburg to Vladivostock.

A couple of years ago the laws changed and now even 12 month business visas have a clause written into them that states "entry only allowed for 90 days out of every 180 days". This changed everything. The new law means that travellers now have to perform a visa/passport dance and run in and out of Russia every 3 months, changing passports and visas as they go. Depending on how deep your location inside Russia, this may mean anything from a couple of hours journey to a few days expedition.

Despite these changes, the business visa is the best option available for visits of more than a month. In theory business visas allow access to just about every city in Russia (except those permanently closed for security/military reasons), they are flexible in terms of length of stay and the best option for those visiting for any other reason than a short holiday.

Registration.

However you get your visa, and whatever type, Russian law requires that you register the visa within 3 working days of arrival. In the past only OVIR, a Russian immigration office, could register the visa. Having spent weeks of my life trying in vain to persuade, bribe, coerce, threaten and compliment OVIR workers into graciously giving the registration stamp that my visa was legally entitled to this filled me with dread.

A couple of years ago a new system of registration was introduced, which allows foreigners to register their visas at a post office. Russian post office workers, whilst still as grimfaced and unhappy as OVIR officials, seem slightly more willing to register visas.

Please bear in mind though, that most rural post offices will have rarely seen a foreigner, let alone register one, so might not have the necessary forms or knowledge to do the registration.

My first registration at a post office entailed my wife having to provide her propiska(a stamp in her passport which shows where she lives), flat property deeds, passport and my passort, visa and small registration form , all of which needed to be photocopied in triplicate.

The post office copied a few documents, provided a form to complete and charged a small fee (around 200-300 roubles).

The process was fairly quick and easy, especially compared to the nightmare that is the OVIR office.

To summarise, decide which type of visa you need, depending on how long you plan to stay in Russia.

Find a reputable visa agency in your own country and apply early.

Visas can take up to a month or two depending on the time of year.

Dont let the visa process put you off visiting Russia.

Russia is an exhilarating, beautiful and interesting country and one that deserves more visitors.

If you liked this article and want to know more about Russia then visit my site: http://www.sovietcity.com