RussianTexan

I'm in charge of organizing a Russian visa for an American citizen in our party & I cannot believe the depth of information required. It's more than the Consulate asked for a Russian passport!

My query is about the letter of invitation: I can order it from waytorussia.net but which hotel do I put down? We don't really want to stay in hotels. Should we just make something up? Or maybe make a 1-day hotel reservation?

How should I go about getting the letter of invitation? We don't want to do the private visa, we don't want to bother our family with that.

ncvet61

How long are you staying? You have up to seven business days to register your visa, (keeping in mind it can take up to 72 hours to submit your visa and to get it back). If your staying longer see how I do it using GTR.

I mostly use www.gotorussia.com as I live far away from nearest embassy. I stay with family in Russia but find it easier to get tourist visa. GTR issues the invitation and they email me the name/codes etc., of hotel in Moscow, (My invitation states I am registered there for my entire stay), but I fly to Kurgan on day of arrival in Moscow, (not registering in Moscow).

I fill out the visa application after GTR gives me the proper invitation letter information.

I then register within 7 days in Kurgan at family address. I've never had a problem doing this. If you're staying with family/friends in Russia and you get there within the 7 business days, you can go to local office and most likely register on the spot. Your family/friend should know the proper office.

Don't register for 1 day as most hotels will "register you out" after one day.

a7m

The US asks Russians even more useless information when they apply for US visas, but on to your question...

Are you applying directly to through consulate? If so, you have to obtain a hotel invitation (called visa support letter). Most hotels in Russia that are used to dealing with foreign tourists can issue it to you for either free or a nominal fee--and email it to you. Important: visa will be valid only starting the day of your hotel stay. The end date is not important, because the visa will be for three years (as long as the passport is valid for 3.5 years).

If you are applying through a third-party agencies like VISA HQ (my only experience), they should take care of everything. In my wife's case, they put some hotel I never heard of. We stayed in a different hotel, which registered us with no problems.