Russian Visa

[Wezza]

Hi guys,
Just wondering if anyone here has had experience in obtaining a Russian visa? I'm looking at going in April to see my girlfriend. I will be staying with her in Kazan and maybe visit Moscow and St Petersburg. I'm not sure whether I need a tourist visa or whether I can get a homestay visa? Also, I'm aware I also need a letter of invitation which she will write, my question about this is what needs to be written in this letter?

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

 

[NM]

I used this group many years ago for Visas for my family to visit Ukraine. They were efficient and knowledgable. But that was quite a while ago (2003).

Russian Gateway Tours

 

[Happy Dude]

Whilst I'm sure you could enter enter on either visa type, I'm gonna guess that by entering on a tourist visa you'll save yourself and GF plenty of paperwork. I've been twice in the last 10yrs and both times used an agency to get a tourist visa and haven't had any issues. Most recently, I used visalink in 2010. They were good but a little costly (approx $250 - so make sure you stay the whole month to get your money's worth!). Use them or similar if the path of least resistance appeals. Other than that my visa experience is limited to web-searches at the time and whatever was in the LP. If you're staying longer than a month, a homestay visa may be your only option. Perhaps the consulate website could shed some light on the homestay visa requirements. It might be worth asking on thorn tree too. Kazan is a lovely city deserving of more tourists.

 

[moa999]

having done a 4 day trip to moscow in 2008.... not easy. not cheap... but very well worth it.

 

[Wezza]

Thanks for your replies guys. After discussing it more with my girlfriend, I think I will go for the private visa. It is a bit more time consuming and a bit of a stuff around for her but she wants to do it, it's much more flexible once i'm in Russia. She's already made an appointment with the foreign ministry in Kazan to organise my invitation. I just have to email her a scan of my passport photo page. Once I get the official invitation, I can apply to the Russian consulate in Sydney for my visa. Bloody visas!

 

[Wezza]

My girl is going in for the interview today. I had to scan every page in my passport that has any writing/stamps in it. She had to show her employment history, proof of income and a few other things I can't remember exactly. It takes approximately 1 month to get the invitation, then she has to send it to me which I then send off with my application & passport to the consulate in Sydney. What a stuff around!

In fairness, I looked at the requirements for Russians to get an Australian visa & it is a similar process.

 

[Wezza]

Update: My invitation is ready! My girlfriend will go in & pick it up on Tuesday.

 

[flychrisfly]

Make sure you fill in all the spaces on the application form - one poor man ahead of me in the line didn't thinking "the nice man at the embassy will help me fill this out" but the embassy official's attitude was like "it is a privilege for you to be visiting mother Russia so grovel" and suggested the man get an immigration agent to help him complete the form. Further, the man brought a stamped self-address envelope for the stamped passport to be returned in as he was from the country but the man said "you'll have to mail this to me" which the embassy guy misinterpreted as a command and therefore reacted badly. "I have to?! I have to?! I have to do nothing!!" after which he threw the man's paperwork at the man. The poor guy managed to move forward with his visa application after a bout of apologies and some grovelling.



I filled out all the fields on the form in English but made a mistake in one of the fields (since the information I needed to enter was from the invitation which was in Cyrillic) but the official simply corrected it in the Russian column.

Good luck!

 

[Wezza]

I am mailing my application because I am in North Queensland. I will be sure to fill out the form completely. What information did you fill out incorrectly? The address you were staying at in Russia?

 

[flychrisfly]

I can't recall exactly but I did answer two different questions with the same answer as that was the best I could do with the information i had in the roman alphabet.

 

[Wezza]

No worries. Well I've looked through the application & it all looks pretty straight forward, so hopefully it should be all okay. I'll just have to double check I have everything in order before I send it, I don't want any delays! I'm supposed to leave on April 14th.

 

[Wezza]

Just thought i'd give an update, got my visa today! I sent everything to the consulate in Sydney. I paid the $110 for the regular 10 day processing. My passport was sent back to me on the 10th day. I'd heard alot of horror stories about the Sydney Russian consulate being hard to deal with, but I had no problems at all. Just fill the application out carefully & there are no problems.

 

[flychrisfly]

Congrats!

[filler to fill the filling]