I am citizen of Russia and live in the U.S. as a permanent resident. I have a valid загран. паспорт while my внутренний паспорт expired (I never received a new one).

I want to travel to Russia, but my загран. паспорт is stamped “отметка о выдаче заграничного паспорта во внутреннем паспорте не произведеча.” The consulate mentioned once that unless that stamp is canceled, I will not be able to leave Russia--which means I have to stay in Russia as long as it takes to apply for and get a new внутренний паспорт. Is it really so? I'd be fine with this, but the passport department there (in Russia) does not know how much time it will take. In any case--

Will I really need to wait for a new внутренний паспорт while I am in Russia before I want to leave Russia? Or will I be able to go to Russia and back to the U.S. without applying for a new внутренний паспорт?

My suggestion is to get a new one. (not sure how) In my experience the border control is highly automated now, so my guess is, they will know. FCOL, the border control prints out landing cards at DME now on the spot.

For people who can't read cyrillic, its the Russian Internal Passport, a relic of the Soviet era, which to this day, as a foreigner I still don't quite understand. Ditto for that 7 day (formerly 3 day registration).

I come from a family of lawyers ( I am not one) and was always taught to follow and respect the law, the law is the law, even if I think that sometimes these laws make no sense.

Are you a US citizen?
Then Moscow - Kaliningrad train with a stop at Vilnius would be an option.

Did you read the OP? Seems crystal clear to me.

I guess it is sort of outdated info. I know a man who has such a stamp in his passport but still entered and leaved the country many times without any hindrance.

Russian internal passport is essentially an equivalent of other countries' identification cards. It is not actually a passport, the name is deceptive and inherited from Soviet and imperial times.

That's reassuring... I guess we should not take this statement on the NY consulate site seriously:

По возвращении в Россию владельцы новых загранпаспортов, выданных за границей, должны обратиться в КД МИД России (г. Москва, 1-ый Неопалимовский пер., д.12, станции метро �Смоленская� или �Парк Культуры�) либо в Представительство МИД России по месту жительства для проставления отметки о выдаче ЗП во внутреннем паспорте и аннулирования записи "Отметка о выдаче загранпаспорта во внутреннем паспорте не произведена". В ЗП должен быть также проставлен скрепленный печатью КД МИД России штамп "Отметка о выдаче загранпаспорта во внутреннем паспорте произведена".

I have just received an email from the consulate in NYC in response to my question about that stamp:

MY QUESTION: могу ли я выехать из России по смоему деиствительному загран паспорту, если в нем стоит печать �отметка о выдаче заграничного паспорта во внутреннем паспорте не произведена�?

CONSULATE: По жизни на 100 % никогда нельзя быть ни в чем уверенным, но очень много людей живут и путешествуют без внутреннего Российского паспорта. Мы не видим никаких юридических препятствий в целом и для пересечения границы в частности в связи с этим штампом. С уважением, Генеральное консульство России в Нью-Йорке.

I don�t like the sound of the first sentence in that response, but the ending is pretty straightforward.

And then I came across a different statement on the SF Consulate site: "При первом приезде с новым заграничным паспортом в Россию необходимо явиться в Консульский департамент МИД России . . . с новым загранпаспортом и действующим внутренним паспортом . . . в которых будут проставлены отметки о выдаче загранпаспорта и, соответственно, аннулирована запись на 3-й странице Вашего загранпаспорта. Без штампа Консульского департамента в новом загранпаспорте "отметка о выдаче загранпаспорта во внутреннем паспорте произведена" владелец паспорта выехать из России не сможет."

a7m

Though some Russian official bodies do have highly usable and well-maintained websites, some still do not.

I wouldn't expect it from a consulate that they keep their website up-to-date, they've surely got no team to track all the changes in laws and procedures especially if these laws and procedures don't affect the consulate itself directly. MFA should make a centralized website on all those matters, it is the only possibility to keep everything more or less up-to-date.

Wow - quite a philosophical response from the body that is supposed to have some concrete legal answers and interpretations.

I was in the same exact situation once a few years ago. I prawled multiple Russian forums for evidence of what typically happens. The accounts varied with certain cases indicating that folks went back and forth with no problems while some, mostly older testimonies, were saying that there could be problems. I decided not to play with fire and get a new internal passport and the cancellation stamp. Notice that you don't have to get a cancellation stamp in Moscow but can do it in a MFA regional post if this is more convenient to where you are going (e.g. Ekaterinburg or Samara, etc. - google for a list online).

Now - this is a part where YMMV - getting a new internal passport can take between 3 days (po znakomstvu) and 1 month (told it was maximum) but nobody would commit to a firm processing deadline. The problem for me was that I didn't have one month to hang around in Russia. A friend of mine from Volgograd got a head start on a new passport by shipping his papers/pics/power of attorney in advance to his mother who started the process and brought all the docs. He showed up on his next trip, got the passport and was done quickly with all of this. In my hometime, it was a "no go". My relatives couldn't use a power of attorney from me as I supposedly had to personally apply for a new passport. So, the way it worked out for me is that once I got there, I had my girlfriend use her connections to expedite the process in 3 days for a reasonable "private" fee. Then I shlepped to Ekaterinburg's MFA and spent a day to get it done (mostly hanging around the whole day waiting for a big boss to show up. In the end the boss was gone on emergency trip and his secretary processed about ten of us in 5 minutes shortly before closing. It took longer to find a bank nearby to pay the fee for this privilege).

Next time around, when I got a new external passport here, my internal passport was valid but I forgot to ask them to "cancel" the stamp. So, a couple of folks on Live Journal said that a new practice is that the embassy/consulate can cancel it here (they have stamps and don't say now that they have no jurisdiction over internal passports). I went without an appointment and asked nicely and they did for free and in under 10 minutes.

So, I would recommend pursuing various avenues before you give up and just travel back and forth. I admit it is aweful and is such a relic of the past. I wish we had just one passport like the rest of the world. May be one day.

Thanks a lot, fungirl. Quite informative ... and makes sense as far Russia is concerned. I'll fly there in January for three weeks. Let's hope I'll be back

So I thought I'd drop a line about all this ... in case someone in my situation needs answers. I made it to Moscow and, as I was crossing the passport control, asked the guy in the booth whether he would let me out of the country with that stamp in my passport. He said he didn't care about the stamp. He even added that he didn't understand why it could possibly be an issue.

For my part, it appears that I will have the stamp cancelled before I have to leave Russia. But his words seemed reassuring.

Out of curiosity, how would you go about canceling that particular stamp? The office that takes care of the internal passports? Is that the local branch of the MVD?

You take your "foreign" and "internal" passports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID). It has offices throughout the country:

http://www.kdmid.ru/cd.aspx?lst=cd_wiki&it=/Список представительств МИД России на территории Российской Федерации.aspx

The offices are typically open twice a week, so you have to check their schedule ahead of time. In my case, it took five minutes. Good luck.