Does anyone know of a reliable company in the States that will provide me an invitation on the cheap? I prefer to take care of my own visa arrangements, I just need the invitation. Of course, unless one of the nice FTers wants to spend the whole day in OVIR and get me one

OVIR doesn't even exist anymore, at least not under the same name, offices, or Orwellian atmosphere like they used to have. I use waytorussia.net. It's a Moscow based company, but you fill out their web form and they'll e-mail your invitation to you (attached as a PDF) within 24 hours. Most importantly, they're one of the government approved agencies to issue invitation letters. I've used them 3 times already this year, and I've yet to have a problem with them. It's a $30 fee.

I've used russia-visa.com a few times. I think they are $20 for just the invitation.

I used Russia-visa.com as well. I have never had an issue and was happy with their service. If you are staying in a hotel they will be able to provide you with the necessary letter. Ive received one from the Sheraton and the Swissotel. They make you provide a credit card and will charge you for the letter in the even you cancel your reservation however.

It doesn't?! OMG!
It's the damn registration that I dread... last time I spent 2hrs in a pretty Orwelian office in the southern part of the city. Argh.

On a side note... How does the registration work with an invite from one of these companies?

I've never done this before, always had someone go to the OVIR and get one for me.

Well, it is Russia, so even going to the post office is Orwellian. Registration is done by one of two methods, and it doesn't really matter who you receive the invitation from. If you're staying in a hotel, let them worry about it. If you're staying in an apartment, the landlord is responsible. If you're staying privately (with a friend or something), you need to go to the nearest post office and register there. Your friend will need to go with you and take their passport as well. They have you fill out this long form, take photocopies of your passport and the passport of the person you're staying with, and then mail in your registration. They tear off the bottom of the form to give to you as evidence that you've registered. It's a hassle to deal with the post office hags, but it's better than the old days of OVIR.

In reality, my experience recently has been that they're not even really looking at registrations that much anymore. It's still required, of course, but the last two times I've left the country, they glanced at my passport, stamped it, and out I went. They just waved their hand and smirked when I tried to show them my receipt for registering at the post office. I talked to another guy who said he hasn't been asked for evidence of registration in the last 9 trips over 2 years. This whole dust-up with Georgia could change that, however, so I'm still making sure I do it.

Ah... Things changed over the past year and a half! So, just to make sure I got it all... no more registering at OVIR, I do it at the post office now?

I'm not staying in a hotel and renting. I'm staying at my exwife's apartment in Moscow (she'll be with me... yes, there's an OMNI thread brewing!). Now, I'm not even sure if she's got her propiska there. If not, I take it I'll have to find someone who is propisan there?

You're right about Georgia. I thought about blowing it off, but no more... My back-up plan was to have a few business cards from the head of their Border Service on standby (met the guy through my work) It did expedite security screening at SVO-C last year, but anyway, I'm getting off topic.

Thanks for your assistance all!

You will need someone registered at the address you are staying at -- or who is willing to register you at their address. That and finding a post office that has a functioning computer are the hardest parts of the new procedure.

My understanding is that if you're registering at the post office, you'll need to go there with the person who owns the place you're staying at. If your ex can't go or doesn't have her passport, I suppose you could just take along any Russian with a passport who will claim you are staying with them. As far as if you can just show up at the post office by yourself and try to register, I don't know. I've never tried it because I don't speak Russian. If you do, you can always try it by yourself and they'll tell you if you need the owner to register.

To register at the post office (actually, I believe it's "notification" rather than registration) you do not have to be present. The Russian who is registered at the address you will be staying at needs to be present with his passport and the other documents detailed above.

For what its worth, I stopped by the American Embassy my last trip to Russia last month.....the person in front of me was asking the same question and they were told that they could get themselves registered in the post office and they were given the form to fill out. (doesn't mean they were told correctly).

I totally agree with the posters that say to get registered especially with the Georgia conflict. In July I was being yelled at when leaving for not having printouts of my tickets even though I obviously had my boarding pass (How do you think I got my boarding pass if I didn't have a ticket - not to mention how did I get to Russia in the first place). After I said 5 times that I had an electronic ticket the man gave my passport back to the immigration woman and she finally stamped it. It was a fairly ugly scene and even the Russians in my line moved to other lines to avoid this booth (think it was dumb luck that the guy was there as I think the woman was asking him a question about the previous person going through)....It was somewhat funny when I looked back as literally no one was going through that line after me even though the other 6 or 7 lines had rows 10 deep. Given the current state of affairs I think this would have had the potential to get very bad, and no reason to actually give a reason for problems.

Aside from the one incident the changes have been very good as far as I'm concerned - I stay at hotels in Russia and they are now responsible for your registration and you don't have to carry anything around (less reason for police to stop you also, though I haven't had much trouble in the years I've been going to Russia).

I had a similar issue with the numbskulls at OVB when trying to leave. I was trying to go through the initial security check to get to the ticket counter to check in for my flight. Here's how it unfolded:

Security Guard: I need to see your ticket
Me: (handing him my printed out itinerary with my confirmation code on it)
SG: No, I need your ticket, this is just your flight times
Me: No, this is my ticket, it's an electronic ticket. I have to get my boarding pass over there at the check-in counter.
SG: I can't let you through here without a ticket.
Me: They don't give us paper tickets, it's all electronic. I give them my confirmation number and then they give me a boarding pass.

This went back and forth for a while, with the people behind us getting very irritated. Finally, the guard called over a supervisor. They went to the ticket counter and pulled a copy of the passenger list. Then they came back to me, mumbled stuff in Russia to each other while looking at me like I just climbed out of the sewer. Finally, they let me through with what I'm quite sure was a barely audible "govnyuk." This was in April, and the last two times haven't been so bad since the e-tickets are becoming more common in Russia. Still, on my last trip out of SVO, I got a brief hassle from a gate agent who wasn't going to let me on the plane without showing my paper ticket.

ROTFL. I went through a version of this dialogue in Tbilisi this spring - LH this year introduced PYOBP on its TBS-MUC route and as I wasn't checking baggage I thought I'd make use of it. Exact same dialogue, except they thought my BP (with BP printed very visibly on top) was an electronic ticket.

That is exactly how it use to go at Indian airports. [Fortunately, it's usually not an issue at the major international airports in India anymore, but it wasn't so many years ago where the above kind of story would hold true for India as well.]

This is infuriating; I go through this every time out of the CIS, the morons at TAS being the most threatening.