russian visas

Its a real nightmare. I used CIBT and they took care of everything. They did a good job too. Www.CIBT.com Here are some picts of tourism in Moscow in the winter burrrrrrr http://budapestflat.shutterfly.com/russia Have fun James

Thank you for the tip. Brrrrrrr! indeed! We were in Russia once before .... 2004 or 05 in St. Peterburg. At that time, we needed a document from our hotel in order to exit the country. Do you know if that's still the case?

We were there in January of 2011 and didnt need anything to get out. We got a single entry visa based on pretty specific plans. But the visa processing company took care of everything. Not cheap. Seems to me we paid about $200 a passport. We just went to Moscow. I am glad we did as it was an excellent experience but ...... well ......... i've had more fun other places.

Thank you so much .... your info is very helpful. I think we will end up booking a hotel and using a visa agency. It seems that would make the whole bureaucratic thing easier....and then we can still spend the balance of our time at our friend's family's apartment. I would rather have the extra expense then spend the whole time worried about being deported on the spot!

Don't bother with letters and all that stuff! Use the services of gotorussia.com and they should take care of everything, the invitation, the visa. We used their services and found them very professional, efficient and the least expensive of any that I checked out. We stayed in a hotel in Moscow but I would imagine that they could handle staying in a private residence.

Yeah, definitely using a service .... can't remember its name, but it's the one that our regular travel agent likes. And definitely booking a hotel. The big issue has to do with the difference between staying in a hotel, which leads to one set of papers and rules and staying in a private home, which leads to a whole different set of papers and rules - eg: the hotel's support letter can be e-mailed or faxed while the private home stay support letter must be snail-mailed. And on and on. It was reassuring to hear that you did not need an exit document from your hotel ... hope that is always the case and not just a Moscow thing or a lucky break! Anybody else out there have any recent experience with hotel stay and exit documents. ... or lack thereof?

As mentioned, we used gotorussia.com and needed no "support letter" or invitation from the hotel we were staying at in Moscow. Gotorussia.com took care of everything. Upon arrival in Moscow, the hotel recorded our arrival at no charge to us. Before spending a lot of time on this, give them a call.

Will do! Thanks again for your help!

I also used gotorussia for the travel documents I needed when I went to Russia last Sept. They took care of everything in a timely (but expensive!) manner and it was a great relief not to have to worry about filling out all the paperwork correctly etc. I did not need an exit document from my hotel.

Thanks for the info, Lisa!

hi lynn - i've travelled a bit but the only other time i needed a visa was to china and it was handled by my traveling company. here is my russia visa experience: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/86956/russia-visa-experience.html ... which i must say wasn't great but worked out ok. as others say here, go with a us company who will handle everything from invitation to visa. i had to get invitations on my own only because i mistakenly picked a 3rd party company in san diego, in hopes that a company in the city i live in would make things easier. i was very wrong. my visa total cost $300! high, i know. and it wasn't even a rush order. be sure to have detailed plans, of when you'll arrive and what cities you'll be in, and when you depart. andrea

i did receive a migration card when i took the bullet train (only 3-4 hours) from helsinki to spb. part a was taken by border patrol when i arrived and i had to keep part b with me at all times and return when i was on my return trip, again by train. andrea

Hey, Andrea Thanks for your response. Summary of where we have ended up: Originally, our Russian friends, whose houseguests we plan to be, were getting us private guest invite letters...as opposed to tourist invite letters. Here's the problem we ran into: 1) The Russian hosts can't apply for the private invite letter until 45 days before the guests (us) will be entering Russia. 2) It can take up to 30 days to get the letter issued. 3) We have to have the original copy of the private guest letter to submit with our visa applications; it can't be an e-mailed or faxed copy. 4) We will be in Berlin for 10 days before we enter Russia, and we need to have Russian visas before we leave US. All of which means that the clock runs out on us since we can't start our Russian visa applications here until we have the invite letter. So, we have ended up booking a hotel room and using an agency to deal with the whole process, from invite letters through visas. About $300 each and well worth it! Hints were dropped here and there that one might book the hotel for the purpose of getting the visa and then cancel the hotel after the visa is issued.
However, we are remembering the process from a trip into Russia in '05 when the hotel registered our passports and gave us stamped papers at checkout, which we needed to show on our way out of the country. Don't know if that's still the case, but we are playing it safe and keeping the hotel room. Sorry to go on at such length, but maybe this info will be helpful to somebody else. Again, thanks to all in this community for the help!