General

Visa to the Russian Federation is a document, permitting you to stay in Russia for a specific period of time.
A visa is issued with 2 of your photos stapled to it, and lists your name, address, passport details, entry and exit dates of your visit. If you lose this paper, you will have serious problems leaving the country; so it’s a good idea to have a copy of your visa in a safe place. If you have to stay longer than the period the visa was issued for, you must apply for an extension well before it expires; otherwise you will face similar problems.

Types of visas

Generally, there are 2 types of visas one can obtain in order to visit Russia:

1. Tourist visa
2. Business visa

There won’t be any problems obtaining a Russian visa of both types; the only thing you must take in consideration is time. Your passport must be valid 3 months beyond intended stay; however vaccinations are not required.
Standard time for processing your application is 10 working days, but allow for two weeks. If any of your papers are incorrect, you may need additional time to obtain the correct documents. If you submit your documents less than 9 working days in advance you will have to pay double fee. Yes, Russians are capable of doing the paper work faster, if you pay.

Russian visas cannot be obtained at the airport on arrival; there have been cases where people have hoped to obtain a transit visa on their arrival in Moscow, and were mercilessly deported.

What you will need:

• Visa application form (available from embassies and travel agencies);
• Passport (copy of the passport if sending documents by mail);
• 3 passport-size photos;
• Corresponding fee.

This is applicable for all types of visas. For particulars on the different types of visas see below.
It is advisable to include a copy of your tickets/reservation of the tickets along with your documents. Write a cover letter, and include a prepaid self addressed envelope if you want the consulate to send you the visa by mail.

If you apply for a visa in person, you will be issued with a slip including a number. When you come to pick up your visa, please do not forget this slip. They do require it.
On entering Russia, your visa will be stamped. Your visa must also be registered and stamped by a visas department at every city you are staying at during the visit. You must register within 3 days of your arrival. If you stay in a hotel, administration will do it for you. But don’t be concerned if you have to do it yourself: it takes 2 minutes and your personal presence in the visas department is not required, therefore anyone in your family/group can take everyone’s passport and fill out the form for you. It is, however, a very formal procedure, a relic of socialist times.

When you leave Russia, they will collect the visa on the border, so save your tickets if you ever need to prove you have actually been in Russia (this may be handy for the purposes of fiancee visa application).

Tourist visa

This is the most common type of visa that foreigners use to visit Russia.

In addition to the papers mentioned, this requires a "tourist voucher". If your travel agent is not familiar with organizing tours to Russia, they may be a bit confused as what this is.

A tourist voucher is a confirmation from a Russian tour operator, that you have booked a hotel and that they take responsibility for your stay.

Why they call it "voucher"? Nobody knows, but in addition to normal confirmation from hotel that is required by most embassies, the Russian consulate has some further rules over who can issue such a document. The tour operator must be a registered tourist company that has been assigned a special index in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. This index and a tour reference number must be indicated in the confirmation (copy of a fax message).
Most Russian hotels will issue the voucher for you when you book accommodation with them.

Business visa

For business visas a tourist voucher is not required but you need an invitation from a Russian company.
The invitation must be issued by an organization that is registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. In order to obtain a multi-entry visa, the hosting organization must apply to the Russian Foreign Ministry for authorization.

If you visit Russia on a business visa, you can stay wherever you want, at hotel or private apartments, and you don’t have to book in advance which is very convenient. You can ask the person you are visiting to get/buy you a business invitation. There are some organizations that do it for a fee, and their names and addresses may be obtained from the visas department (in Russian they spell it as "OVIR" - the department where they issue "foreign passports", special documents for travelling abroad). Just ask the person you are visiting to find out at OVIR where he/she can get a business invitation for her foreign friend. The fee that companies charge for business invitations may be anything from 5 to 80 dollars, depending on the city; in big cities like Moscow fees are higher.

Private invitations

You can also visit Russia with a private invitation, too.
A person must apply to a district police office ("rayonniy otdel vnutrennikh del") that will then send a request to the visas department. The person you are visiting must fill out a special form that can be obtained from the police office, and include a receipt, transferring the corresponding fee and proof of residence (a document from the government communal service that is in charge of the area where they live - "domoupravlenie"). Usually processing of the application takes anything from 2 to 4 months, and one cannot receive any information as to when the application will be processed. If you wish to visit Russia on a private invitation, take this time matter into consideration. The rest is the same as for business visas.
Notes

The Consulate reserves the right to invite any applicant for an interview, but these cases are rare.
The US consulate is particularly overworked so they have special requirements on how the documents should be submitted.

• Copies of the passport pages should be trimmed to the size of the original and stapled to the upper-left corner of the application form.
• Two of your photos should be stapled to the copy of the passport page.
• The other photo should be stapled to the specially marked place in the upper-right corner of the application form.

They reserve the right to return the documents if they are submitted incorrectly.

Do not forget to carefully check your visa when you receive it. If there is any misspelling or mistake, you will be refused entry to Russia. If there are mistakes, return the visa to the embassy for corrections. This is another reason why you should take care of your visa well in advance. If you send documents by mail, allow time for delivery.

There are, however, companies who provide help in receiving Russian visas hassle-free. We recommend Visa To Russia, which is fast, reliable and reasonably priced.

Fees

(for USA only; in the other countries may differ)
• Single Entry Visa - $70.00 (1 business day service - $150.00)
• Double Entry Visa - $120.00 (1 business day service - $200.00)

Visa processing fees are non-refundable.

Sergei Maniliouk