I am traveling to Russia with a group. I want to make my own international air arrangements to come home. My flight leaves 5 hours after the group flight and I save over 8 hrs. of travel time. The group will not provide an airport transfer.

I know my visa expires on the day of departure. What happens if the airport is closed because of weather, the flight is delayed or cancelled, the car breaks down on the way to the airport, etc. I understand from the Consular Web Site that the results can be draconian and some people have told me not to do it.

Is it sensible or safe to do it or too much worry and trouble.

Welcome to Flyertalk, linums

There's a consular official at every international airport who will extend your visa/give you a separate exit visa in the unlikely event you miss your flight. Which airport would it be and what time of the day? (If it's Moscow, don't worry - airport closures due to wheather are almost unheard of, two of the three major airports have direct rail link to the city and the third one - SVO - will get its rail link by the end of the year so you'll have to try real hard to miss your flight because of traffic).

My clients' experience is that you could easily have a problem if you leave after the expiration of your visa; other clients have had to pay a fine (even when circumstances were completely beyond the traveler's control). This happened as recently as July of this year out of Moscow.

We generally circumvent this problem by issuing the invitation for the entire 30 day period (hotels and most tour companies will only give you an invitation for the period of your reservation).

Marc David Miller

IF you already have the visa then I'd just be very responsible about being at the airport early for the flight.

If you don't already have the visa just apply for the full 30 days or at least a few more days than you plan on staying.

If something goes wrong - take care of it at the airport. First you might get fortunate and go through without issues (not likely but it does happen). Second - its likely that you'll be asked to pay a fine - be prepared to pay it and then leave - don't argue, just pay - if you argue you might find yourself in even worse situation.

Personally I'd get myself checked in (they probably won't notice)....then take your chances leaving and if questioned explain the situation and ask "what can I do to take care of the problem" and pay your fine.

I wouldn't worry too much - just be aware of the situation if something goes wrong.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

That is a good strategy if you should find yourself overstaying your visa.

The one point that I will add is that your visa application should reflect the dates on the invitation (you can't add any additional days from the end date on the invitation, and most hotels and tour companies do not extend the dates beyond what the client pays for).

I traveled to Russia last summer. I was on a cruise that began in St. Petersburg. The tour company sent us visa applications to be processed by a visa expediting company. I told them I wanted to arrive three days early. They had no problem changing the dates on our application. I don't know if it made any difference that it was at the beginning. I don't remember whether it extended beyond the intended departure date from St. Petersburg.

Do hotels that you book your clients into typically register them for the duration of their visa or their pre paid stay only?

Hotels generally only register people for the duration of their stay in that hotel (not just pre-paid). On a practical basis, this is not an issue as long as you spend less than 30 days in Russia. For instance, I will arrive in Moscow on October 1 (where I have a residence), fly to Kazan on October 2 and register at the hotel there, then go back to Moscow on October 5 and stay till October 20. I've never been challenged, nor have any of my clients in similar circumstances been challenged.

Marc David Miller

That's interesting. In May I flew with a friend to OVB where I have a residence. I was on my ME visa and he was on a tourist visa. We were only there 3 nights total. He bought a room at the Sibir Hotel for one night and was grilled upon flying out of OVB back to SVO as to where he was and why he did not have the other nights paid for and stamped on his migration card. One of the 3 days we were there was May 1 and therefore not a working day and, as I understand it, therefore not to be counted as one of our 3 days to register. I guess it varies from place to place???

xxyyz (not 100% sure if I spelled that right), posted in April '07 that he found Russia-visa.com to be the cheapest "complete package" Russia Visa service. After diligent searching, I can't find anything cheaper. They charge $160 for a 30-day single-entry Visa with the invite.

If you are a do-it-yourself person, the SFO Russia consulate is the only one I found with clear instructions for getting the Visa entirely by mail from them.

http://www.consulrussia.org/

I have not seen any info about how far in advance, one can get a Visa. I'm traveling OSL-->SVO-->HKG in May, and LAS-->EZE in January. I thought I would get my Russia Visa now before I thrash my passport by carrying it around hiking through FitzRoy and Torre del Paine areas in Patagonia.

I booked OSL-SVO-HKG to allow four days in Russia. I'm not sure if that was the optimal choice if it leaves me 3 days in Dublin, 2 in Oslo, 8 in China/HKG (I want to go the Yellow Mtn), 2 in TPE and then home to LAX/SAN. (I've never been to Moscow, Dublin, or Oslo before.) If necessary, I can ask Aeroflot to change when I pick up my tix.

On the Visa and "invite" applications, I plan to ask for more days than just the four that I know I will be using. My plans might change.

I am planning a trip to Russia in May of this year. I am in Seattle so I have a local Russian Consular office to go to so I am hoping to do the visa process myself.

I plan to use BMI miles for LH flights and open jaw into/out of St. Petersberg and Moscow and take the train between the 2 Russian cities. I am not sure if BMI will issue ETicket or paper ticket for the LH flights to Russia.

Ideally I would want to book now only the first hotel stay (say 3 nights at Moscow) using hotel points. The entire time in Russia would be a week (very little time I realize but work limitations as always).

I have read what I can here and on the web and remain somewhat confused.

It appears it will be fairly simple to get the big-chain hotel to give me my 'invitation/visa support document, but this involves only a 3 day stay. As I mentioned, my air travel may be via ETicket.

I have also read here it's best to get your visa validity period for a bit longer than you actually plan to stay so I was thinking 14 days total.

So, my question(s) is(are) can I just provide the 3 day support/invitation, some sort of 'evidence' of an ETicket, put 14 days on my validity request, and get 14 days? Is my validity period precisely based on my first hotel, say May 7th... if my flight was delayed to May 8th, would this be okay? There are many statements on various websites about just getting the first hotel and being sure to register in each city (2 in my case) and not worrying the rest. But I'm still not clear on how to fill out the papers so that I get the length of stay needed (with a cushion preferably). Do the Consular folks just see the 3 day hotel and 14 day request and think 'no problem' and give me the 14 days?

I must admit I've been perplexed by the multidocument, don't worry the rules/etc. of the Russian visa process but I had determined to get there this year (I'll be in Germany already to see relatives). I know I sound like an idiot but if someone experienced could show me in a concrete way how to deal with the ambiquity I see in the process (dates on support vs dates of validity of visa) I sure would appreciate it!

many thanks,

NewK2

As long as the visa is valid when you enter and leave you are okay. I think that what you get depends on what you send in and the mood of the person handling the request. I've heard stories both of people sending in requests for longer than their documentation being accepted with the requested dates and also of being accepted with only the documented dates.

I generally stay with friends and have used a visa service. I gave the service a longer set of dates than my intended travel dates. If you are relying on the hotel documentation for your visa support, why not reserve for a longer period of time and then change your reservation? You may even be able to express your concern about the visa directly to the hotel and ask them to extend the dates on the letter they send you.

Given the rather frosty relationship between the Russian Federation and the UK. How easy would it be to get a visa through an agency. Plus what are immigration officials like.

I am debating a trip to either Tallin or Helsinki and then training it to St Petersburg. Onto Moscow and then fly back to London.

Also any tips on good but cheap hotels in both cities?

Just to bump this to see if anyone has any answers??

Can't help you with cheap hotels but I can tell you that there's no reason to think you won't get a visa if you just follow the procedures and have your documents all in order. That's more than doable.