Visa Paperwork

Our visa invitation paperwork is correct and thus provides you backup when required. Obtaining a Russian invitation over the internet (if you strike a legitimate source) can lead you to unexpected problems.  For example, the supplier may not help with additional information and when it comes to the required registration of your visa you have to visit a Russian police station explaining (do you speak Russian) why you don’t have a travel voucher which allows you to check into a hotel or homestay (part of the registration process). You may end up paying large extra fees to get this registration done. Our paperwork and local partners, ensure things proceed smoothly and you don’t waste time.

Once you have moved along the red tape highway and passed through invitations and the actual issuing of the visa, you then face the next part of the journey - local visa registration!

You must register your visa if staying more than 72 hours at (technically) any place you stop for this time period. You pay a local fee to do this. The fee varies across the country and has ranged from EUR1 to EUR40 per person. Whilst visa registration has been a requirement for many years the actual procedure and its seriousness has increased over time. 'In the beginning' this was done once when you arrived and was a simple task. Then it evolved into a more complicated procedure.

The registration law is still confusing. One thing known is that the authorities insist that the registration papers are to be filled out by the actual inviting entity, i.e. a host, be it a homestay, a private apartment, the actual hotel, or the actual company that a visitor came to do business with.

Our local partners ensure this is done and assist with the process. This is part of our overall services. The visa must be registered in each city where a 'foreigner' is staying for longer than three business days.

An inviting entity or host must fill out the registration form upon arrival for a foreign guest and submit it to the authorities. The tear off coupon part of the form remains with the foreigner for the duration of a trip but must be handed back at the departure point. If the authorities do not receive that tear off coupon, they assume that a 'foreigner' has overstayed a visa and the invitation supplier, host and 'foreigner' may be subject to fines.

Currently one form is not approved for use in all Russian cities so there may be some variations. Our local partners ensure the correct forms are available at each point. We do not suggest you use one form (which we believe can be obtained from the web). Our partners have these various forms.

Naturally, as with all Russian Red Tape things can change - just after this is published I bet