Way to Russia Talk Lounge

mtepsic · Just Starting Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 9

After posting several threads about this topic and running into many problems everywhere I finally made my trip to Russia and decided to post my experiences here for the ones interested.
First things first.... Croatians definitely do not need a visa to visit Russia. After gaining all kind of information about this topic online here:
http://www.mfa.hr/MVP.asp?pcpid=1615&dmid=156#pocdrz http://www.croatia.mid.ru/tarif.html ; I visited the Russian embassy in Frankfurt where I was told that I could definitely enter Russia without a visa as long as I would have a travel voucher.
My trip led me from Frankfurt airport to Samara international airport. In Frankfurt people where at first surprised that I didn't have a visa, but the computer system at the airport informed the clueless employees that I don't require one. The first real problems I ran into where in Samara. The officials at passport control could only speak Russian and had no idea about the visa free regime between Croatia and Russia. After handing them the printouts of the above links they held me at the passport control for about two hours (until everyone else on the plane went trough passport control). Several other official were called (of whom again nobody spoke English) to look at my papers (by the way, I ordered my tourist voucher and invitation from waytorussia). After another half and hour the head official told everyone there (with a huge surprise on his face) that I could enter the country without a visa. I stayed in Togliatti for about a week with my girlfriend, which registered me through the post office in her name and her address. All without any problems (except that there is not to be a mistake made on the registration form, otherwise you have to re-do the whole thing). Then went by train to Nizhny Novgorod where I stayed for less than 72 hours and didn't register. From there I went to Moskow to stay for another two days, where again I didn't register. When I flew out of Moskow, the lady at passport control only asked to see my passport and if I had a voucher.... nobody ever even asked about an invitation and a registration.
I hope that I could help someone here with this thread who is running into similar troubles. If you are Croatian and want to fly into Samara you at least don't have to worry about running into problems anymore, since the officials now know that they have to let you in without a visa Wink

Greetings

mtepsic

greg222 · VIP Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 506

Thanks a lot for reporting back on this. I'm glad it all worked out.