Way to Russia Talk Lounge

aspqrz

Last November I went to Russia for 11 days (arrived St Petersburg, departed Moscow) and read up extensively on this site for information about visas etc.

Interestingly, a lot of what was said was going to happen simply *didn't* happen.

* On arrival at St Petersburg, *no-one* wanted to see my Visa Support Letter/Invitation. The harried woman at Passport Control simply took a cursoryt glance at the Passport, stuck it in the Scanner, removed the arrival slip, and stamped it.

* No one was interested in Customs Declaration Forms. There wasn't even a Customs officer on obvious duty.

* On departure from Moscow, no one was interested in Customs Forms unless you happened to be non-caucasian, as far as I could see.

The Passport Control Officer was about as interested in my Passport as the one at St Petersburg was. Looked at it cursorily, scanned it, stamped it -- and didn't even take out the departure slip!

Obviously these things *do* get done the way that WtR says, at least sometimes, but how often are they simply ignored.

BtW, the Passport Control guy at Moscow actually said "Have a nice flight!"

On the whole, a much less painful experience than I was thinking it would be (of course, travelling on an Australian passport might have been the difference Smile

Phil

ashton · Lounge Lizard Joined: 08 Apr 2004 Posts: 80 Location: US

You are correct that sometimes these things do not happen, but other times they do. I don't think they ever ask for your invitation or support letter once you are in the country. Technically, you are supposed to have it at all times, but I don't think I have ever been asked for it.

Customs is hit or miss. I have been there a few times when they were very strict and other times when you just walked through when entering. When leaving the country, I have had all of my bags and pockets checked and then other times just walked through. I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to this. I find that many countries do this for some reason.

If you are lucky it is not a painful experience, but it certainly does happen. It is probably better to be prepared for the worst just in case. I always assume the worst case scenario and if I just breeze right through, it's just a bonus.

I have found though, that you are less likely to go through all of this if you travel in off-peak months. I don't think I have ever not been checked repeatedly if I went during summer.