Way to Russia Talk Lounge

THD · Just Starting Joined: 15 Apr 2007 Posts: 8

I am planning a longer trip to Russia during the summer and I am not sure if I have understood it all correctly. I plan to first land in St Petersburg and stay with a friend for two weeks, we plan to make short trips (<2 days) to Vyborg and Moscow together and some of the old finnish parts of Russia. Afterwards I plan to take the train with another friend from Moscow to Irkutsk, spend maybe two days there before heading off to Mongolia and China. Leaving russia three and a half weeks after I arrive. If I understand correctly, the only place I need to register is in St Petersburg with my friend's landlord and that is achieved through the post ofice. Is this correct?

I was thinking of maybe returning during the Christmas, in January but since I am not sure if I was going to do that I was going to wait to apply for another toursit visa until after I am back from Russia and Mongolia. Will this be a problem, that I already have one (expired) visa in my passport? The website recommended a business visa but since I am not sure, I am willing to wait and see rather than paying the business visa fee up front.

Also, I applied at the Swedish consulate last year (May 2006) and had no problems, even with photocopied tour voucher forms. I think it helped that I was travelling on an Australian passport. Twice when I called them they replied something to the tune of: Wow, you are an Australian, how wonderful! Oh and the Australian consulate in St Petes is amazing, they are the most helpful human beings on the planet!!

nikir · Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject:

I agree it's all quite confusing but the way that I interpret it is:

1. You will have to register in St Petersburg as you are spending more than the statutory 72 hours there.

2. You don't need to register on the train, but if you are not fluent in Russian, and a good bullshitter, keep your tickets. You may need them as evidence.

As for expired visas, I have 5 in my passport and it's never been a problem. Only the immigration officials have a problem finding the current one.

Enjoy your trip!

awksus · Just Starting Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 7

Hello,

I own a dacha just outside of Tver. I was slightly alarmed to hear this new registration law and procedure, as the last time I travelled to Russia in feb. the hotel just gave me a 'stamp' as per-usual.

Now that I own property, for simplicity reasons (which may not be the simplist route, please advise) and time sake, I was planning to go for only a week in May - and get a tourist visa and just put down my property address.

I have had a power of attourney register me into the house during the legal-exchange process, and I hold all documents, but I am very confused on how I can/should/if I need to register myself. If I can register myself (can I?) using the PDF attached on this site, doesn't it require a Russian Citizne's passport too to go along with it on the form?

Any advise greatly appreciated. Thanks.

kfac · Just Starting Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1

Hi,

I think my question is probably in line with that of THD (posted April 15). I'm going to Russia on a visa of which the purpose listed is "Cultural/Academic Exchange." I'm not sure if this is a business visa or not (which contributes to my confusion). Essentially, when I arrive at my destination city, I will be registered by the local university. I'll work there for a while, and then I want to take the trans-siberian back to east with some potential 1-2 night stops along the way, as well as a few nights spent in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. Do I only need to be registered by the local university, or do I need to worry about registration in St. Petersburg and Moscow along the way (if staying over 72 hours)? If so, how does this work with a visa issued at the request of, and registered by, an academic institution?

Many thanks,
Kate

WayToRussia · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 12:50 am Post subject:

To Awksus

If you are the owner of your own property, then you can go to your local immigration officials (most likely it's the local police station) and say that you want to be registered at your datscha. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether datschas have the legal status to be registered at.. never heard of it...

I would not bother too much though, if you know a hotel that can stamp your visa, maybe that's what you should keep on doing... In Russia it's always like this: lots of rules, but in reality everybody does it in their own way and it's absolutely fine. It's part of the experience.

WayToRussia · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 12:52 am Post subject:

2 Kate,

Your visa belongs to the "business" category if the invitation was issued by the university. You should make them register the visa for the whole period and then when you travel to another city and meet the officials their only way of knowing when you arrived is from your own words, if you don't have your tickets on you. You need to register only if you arrived longer than 3 working days before.

Cheers

rubik001 · Just Starting Joined: 26 May 2007 Posts: 2

Admin, please answer. If I have 3 month business visa, 2 entry.
So I can register the visa first time for all period, and then go out and when I back, i do'n need to register the again?

Thanks.

fimas · Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject: visa support

Hi everyone
I couldn't find the appropriate topic for my question, but this is the closest one. Any way here's the situation: My son is now in Kyrgyzstan working for a Peace Corps he has a US diplomatic(green) passport. He has a very limited internet access so I am posting this for him. He and his friends want to visit Russia this summer. We did not know about your site here so we found a site which advertises that they are an American-Russian business and they provide hotel bookings, apartments and visa support. When he called their Saint Petersburg office to inquire about visa support he was told that visa support cannot be provided to US citizens who are currently in one of the CIS countries according to some new law. That sounds very strange and doesn't sound quite right. Do you know anything about this? Is this true and if it is what are the ways around it?

martien · Just Starting Joined: 04 May 2007 Posts: 4

?

I don not get it anymore. It's getting difficult now.

As an independent traveller, I will be going through the far East. My invitation company is based in Moscow. There is no way I can receive that registration paper by post. I won't be staying in any city long enough to wait until I receive it. Especially not with the quickness of Rusian post officials!

So, is it a good idea to just register my visa at the first hotel I stay at, just a stamp in the passport like in the good old days? It's a three months business visa by the way.

Martien

jknotten · Just Starting Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Last time I went to St. Petersburg, I tried the new registration procedure, with my girlfriend as the inviting party. All went well at the post office and the first part was completed successfully.

However, now that I have left Russia, my girlfriend can't find the right place to submit the tear off coupon. She's tried at the local police station and also at the post office but they say that she must keep the coupon! This can't be right.

Has anybody managed to submit this coupon in St. Petersburg, and if so where? Otherwise, is there a postal address to where she could send it?

Any help much appreciated!

uraltraveler · Just Starting Joined: 07 Jun 2007 Posts: 3

Anyone had experience in Ufa/Bashkortostan since the new law went into effect? One person in our group already has a one-year business visa with an invitation that doesn't list Ufa as part of the itinerary. Will that be a problem or can we simply register in Ufa as usual? I know that Bashkortostan is a more restricted area so I want to make sure we don't have any problems.

nurisnuris · Just Starting Joined: 19 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

I will go to Sant Petersburg in 10 days, i will spend 3 full days at St. Petersburg and my hostel will fix the registration for me during those days, but then i'm taking a night train to Moscow, spend one whole day in Moscow and come back with a night to Sant Petersburg to take a bus in the morning to go to Estonia. So my problem is that i don't know how i can register during that whole day i am spending in Moscow as i won't be staying in any hostel. I will arrive to Moscow in the morning, spend the day there and take the night train to St Pertersburg. Do I need registration for that day? How can i do so???

Thank you!!

Ehop · Just Starting Joined: 19 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Having read other posts, I have tried to write a summary of the procedure if you are travelling on a Tourist Visa. Please let me know if you think it is accurate. Confused

1. In any place in Russia you visit for more than 2 working days, you need to register. If you visit multiple cities, you should repeat the process in each new city (if you stay there more than 2 days) though apparently you might be able to persuade the initial hotel or landlord to register you for the entire period of your visit to Russia even though you are not actually staying with them for the entire stay.

2. Does this mean that if you move locations often enough (i.e. no more than 2 working days in any one location) you never have to register?

3. The registration should be done by your hotel if staying in a hotel or by someone you are staying with (a friend, a landlord, your in-laws) if you are staying in a private house/flat/apartment.

4. This person eg landlord, needs to take your completed registration form down to the post office, where s/he will keep the coupon ("talon") and then give it to you.

5. When you leave the city, you should return the coupon to the person who got it for you (but it is advisable to get a photocopy, just in case you are asked for it at the airport).

6. This person (eg landlord) should send the coupon somewhere, but at this stage no-one (including post offices, local police stations etc.) knows where or what to do with it! This aspect seems the most worrying as in theory you have broken the law by not returning the coupon, but at the same time there is no practical way of compliance.

Is this an accurate summary of the situation?

Tupolev-154M · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:55 am Post subject: visa registration

Hello all

I am new to these forums and would like to share my experiences with visa registration in Russia since I am a frequent traveller to Russia. I remember the old visa registration at OVIR which was really a pain. Now I had the pleasure to use the new registration procedure for the first time.

Me and my girlfriend went to a post office to do the registration. In fact it was only a small post office in Saint-Petersburg and not one of the big ones downtown. My gf asked the lady on the desk if we can do visa registration here and she replied: "No!" Shocked

After telling her that post offices need to do visa registration the lady all of a sudden opens the desk and what do I see there on top of all?? Yes, visa registration forms! Rolling Eyes

I already printed the same form at home but the lady insisted that we need to buy one (in fact my print out was in excellent condition while the one of the post office was just a cheap copy). the lady then said to my gf that we need to fill it out without one mistake otherwise we need to buy a new one. The form by the way costs 18 roubles. The form actually is quite tricky so we made many mistakes and needed to buy two more versions for 36 roubles Laughing

. After an hour or so we were finished and gave our passports (they made some copies) and they confirmed our data, took one part of the paper (we received the other part of the paper). I then also paid the registration fee, I think it was around 200 roubles.

All in all service in the post office was pretty unfriendly but I guess the lady just had a bad day. The new visa registration procedure is easy if you speak Russian or know someone who speaks Russian (that's usually the case if you stay at an appartment there) and definitely much much easier than the old registration procedure at OVIR! Two thumbs up for Russia for making it easier!

I hope this post is useful.

Best regards

Tupolev-154M

charles · Lounge Lizard Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 179 Location: USA

Here's my experience with registration so far, trying to register a one-year business visa purchased through WTR. The company providing visa support is Европарнас (Evroparnas), but I don't know who they are & have no contact info (it wasn't provided to me I don't think). I arrived in Russia (Moscow) July 12, and got a room through Flatmates.ru. I went to the local post office with the woman hosting me, and it took us about an hour to get the registration done (and cost me about 180 roubles). The post office had copies of the form, but no, we didn't have to buy them. And yes, if we made one mistake we had to start over with a new form. I stayed there 3 weeks, but I forgot that I needed to return the bottom part of the form to my host (she didn't know she was suposed to turn it back in, and obviously the post office didn't mention it either).

Now I'm in Novisibirsk, and I've been trying to register this week. I'm staying at a small hotel which won't register me, and my friend has been trying to register me while I search for an apartment. Yesterday we went to a post office but they wouldn't do the registration. Something about me having arrived three weeks ago, so they couldn't do it. I don't understand Russian well enough to know what happened, but the lady told us to go the immigration office. Today we went to the local УФМС (immgration) office. Was that the right place to go to? what is OVIR, by the way? anyway, they wouldn't register me, either. They said, that because I have a business visa and the inviting organization, Evroparnas, is in Moscow (my assumption), that I need to either (A) live in Moscow, or (B) live in a hotel. I'm not going to do either, but what are my options if I want to register my stay?

By the way, it would be great to have the registration procedures on this site in Russian (with a reference to the new law), so we can print & show them to people who are unfamiliar with them. Or did I overlook this?

thanks