We're going to be visiting and staying with friends in Moscow and traveling to St.Petersburg & Kazan. My friend tells me to get a tourist visa as a homestay visa is almost impossible to get and nobody gets one. I found a place that will sell me a letter of introduction for $20: https://www.russia-visa.com/ They tell me I can register with their agent in Russia for $30/head. Is this the best way to go about this? Is this place reliable?

There are four of us and we're talking $50/head before we even get to the visas. Okay -- that's not a lot, but I want success, not deportation. I believe we'll actually connect at SVO and fly into LED to start our trip. What is the registration-on-arrival process like? Do we just find whatever the right office is, pay their fee and go our merry way?

Homestay visas will take months to obtain and require a lot of paperwork on the part of your hosts, as well as visits to the local OVIR office.

The way I understand it, you don't need to do anything in Moscow, as you're staying there for under three days. Only in cities that you'll be in for over three days are you supposed to register, and you really only need to register once. Make sure the service that you get the invitation letter from can register you in St. Petersburg. Since you won't be in Moscow long enough to get it registered, registration only in Moscow is useless to you.

That's basically what my friend told me and he's lived there for ~15+ years.As I understand it I just need to register once in the first city listed on my itinerary and all will be well.

Thanks for the info!

Length of Time to Obtain Visa
 

Can my wife and I (U.S. Citizens) simply fill out the form, head down to the Russian Embassy (New York City) with a copy of our air ticket and hotel reservation, pay the fee and have a visa ready the next day?

P.S.: This is for a single entry tourist visa, less than 10 days in country.

Yes, according to the Russian Consulate in New York - if you are ready to pay more!

ETA don't forget you need a voucher/tourist confirmation from the hotel/tourist company - a hotel reservation alone is not enough.

bcmatt - thanks for the info .... uhhh, errr, nevermind :) I see Russia is a place that requires a little more advance planning than some other places.

If you are interested in trying somewhere post-Soviet, go to Ukraine instead. Still has Slavs, Orthodox Churches, Georgian cuisines, fur hats in winter and quite a few Russian speakers, but you no longer require a visa for short visits.

Getting a Russian visa is very doable, I've done it dozens of times over the years, but you do need to allow a few weeks lead in time! Moscow is not really the place for an impetuous, lastminute city break ;)

On the other hand, Russia has been ready to abolish visa for EU and US citizens for quite a while. But only as a repriprocal measure. Anyway, savvy travel and visa agencies are normally able to organize a pretty painless Russia experience.

Interesting post,

A friend of mine arranged a business visa for me from the Russian embassy in london, and gave me a ref. number, and said just go down with my passport and its done. For a business visa, do i need to show hotel documents, letter of introduction etc too? since i dont actually have any, or even know who's officially invited me!!

No, because you will be applying for a business visa using the invitation from your friend. You need the hotel stuff if you are applying for a tourist visa without any other sort of invitation.

You will still need more than just turning up with your passport I suspect - visa application form, photos, and postal order for the fee! And don't forget the embassy is only open to visitors in the morning and can have long queues.

Details at http://www.rusemblon.org/

Sorry yes, i forgot about the Visa form, good you reminded me!

I'm still concerned about the Invitation, and the Introductory Letter from my company -since i dont have one!!

Moscow Registration
 

Travelling to Moscow again, but this time have a conundrum. I am arriving to Moscow and staying the first night at Sheraton palace, which will register my visa. However, for next 5 days I am staying at a private apartment. My visa is issued on the basis of hotel invitation for all 6 nights (initial reservation made for 6 nights, then downgraded to 1 night). If the hotel will register my passport, will i have to do another registration with local OVIR? Do they register just for the exact number of nights, of for the whole period of the stay? Any suggestions appreciated.

I am pretty certain (but could be wrong) that you will be fine with just the registration at the hotel. So long as you are registered somewhere in the within the first three days, you are covered for the trip, whether you then move to different accomodation or a different city! The real problem would be if you had no registration at all - potenial for a large fine on exiting the country.

The hotel may not be able to register you for a period that exceeds your actual hotel stay -- I would call or e-mail the property directly to find-out for sure...

They are sticking to the official guideline and saying that they only register me for the hotel STAY, and they don't know what I need to do after that. Knowing Russia, it seems to me that bcmatt may have a point and one registration is good enough, but I just want to be sure... the hotel clerks are not being helpful as expected.

Is it absolutely true that once you are registered once, lets say in Moscow, and travel to lets say Nizhni Novgorod, you don't have to register in Nizhni again? If thats the case, then one registration at the hotel on the first night would be sufficient for the whole trip, but who knows?