Moscow Travel Forum

Hi, I am planning to order an invitation from realrussia.co.uk This does not require an accommodation, but they seem to have given me a fictitious accommodation, and I am wondering about the authencity of the invitation. Can anyone help me with this? The hostel that I am staying at does not do invitations.

A lot of people who need more flexible itinerary and don't want to book tickets and hotels in advance order visas through RealRussia or WayToRussia, of course, de jure such visa will be the fake one, but we had no reports about problems connected with this stuff. BUT: Keep in mind the matter of registration! In the case you stay in one place longer than 3 working day - you need it. Ask the hostel in advance, and in the case they will tell you that registration doesn't exist anymore and you don't need it - choose the other hostel to stay. It's not truth. Usually the hotels (hostels) take additional fee for registration. Real cost of registration is 118 roubles (ab. 5USD), the hotels do it for the price from 0 till 600 roubles. The reasonable price is 200-300 roubles (they need to go to the immigration office or to the post office to do that, so it takes a time and some additional work). The registration fee doesn't depend on the duration of your stay.

had similar wories when I last visited last year. I applied for an invitation from Way to russia. It came through with no problems whatsoever. It did have a name of a hotel that I suppose I could have stayed at if I needed to. I didn't need to as I was moving on from moscow to st petersburg and back. Interesting to note that the registration is still in force but i didn't need to register as i was not in the same place for THREE WORKING DAYS. I flew to Russia on a wednesday then took the train to St petersburg on the FRiday. I then returned by train to Moscow on the Monday night and flew back to the UK on the wednesday.

Hope all goes well for you

Nick

I never had problems with such invitations.

Its the norm, nothing to worry about.

How long are you going to be in Russia? A friend of mine came to visit me in St. Pete for a week with an invitation from a hostel organization. It listed the hostel as her accommodation, although she was really staying with me. But this allowed her to have the visa registered through the hostel, which is much, much easier than registering it yourself at a government office. Just check with Realrussia about where and how you are supposed to register the visa. You may have to find that hotel that's on your invitation and then pay them some money to register you.

Hi there!
Does anyone know how exactly they check if a person stayed at one place in Russia or travelled so there were no more than 3 days in one place?
Also, if one gets an invitation from some visa company, and then registers at the post office with an adress of a person he/she is staying with, would there be any problems? The adress would be different to the one from invitation, besides, the invitation would state purpose of visit as 'tourist' while registering at private address would be 'private'. And this is illegal as well. :)

As soon as the stamp on the migration card doesn't exist any more, nobody (de facto) will check this information. In accordance with the law you have to keep the "slip" of the application form with you till the end of your visit in this very place. But since the complete responsibility relating to registration is "on the shoulders" of the receiving part (hotel, hostel, person) - they prefer to leave the slip with them, because they have to send it back to the migration authorities via post mail upon your departure. In theory police can check the hotel and compair data of registration with the list of guests, but we have no any reports about it, and even in this case it will be the problem (they will be fined) of the hotel-hostel etc, not yours.))

Thanks! :)
But if a person will be travelling around, he/she doesn't have to be registered anywhere at all? I've heard you need to have some paper with you when departing from Russia

No, then you cross the border leaving Russia - you don't have any document confirmed your registration - because you don't have any stamp on migration card and the slip of application form is sent back by receiving part. So you don't need to show something crossing the border. All information about your registration is saved in computering database. So it would be better to have any registration anyway if you plan to visit Russia once again))))

Thanks for info!
Well, I don't actually need to have a visa to go to Russia, but a friend of mine does, and I am trying to collect information from people who actually know how it works on practise, and the easiest way to do it. :)

You can try to check threads about Russian visa and registration in the forum of WayToRussia ))) Because the reports about "how it works in reality" depend on the place of stay))) In Moscow not like in Irkutsk etc etc)))

Even if you're constantly travelling around and never stay anywhere more than three days, you really need to have a registration from at least one place, or else you could get hassled when you leave Russia. Also, that location should match what you originally told them in your visa application (technically, you aren't supposed to go anywhere that you didn't previously state when you applied). Also, I've been questioned by police wanting to know why I didn't have a registration for being in their town, and I had to show them a departing train ticket to prove that I was leaving in less than 3 days.

mary, the rules has been changed in 15th of January, 2007. Now even in the case you'd be asked about registration you can't show any stamp or document confirms this. Even they ask tourists this year they just answered: sure, I was registered in the hotel (hostel) etc. No any stamp in migration card anymore. F.e. people who travel by Transsib and don't stay in any place longer than 3 days and didn't register at all, had no any problems with this. The same at the passport control on the border, then you are leaving Russia you don't have any document confirmed registration too, officers know this and don't ask any documents except passport with visa and migration card (without registration stamp).

Just to add that since 15th of January 2007 nobody need to go to the police (immigration authority) to register the guest. The procedure now is very easy - the receiving part comes to any post office fill the application form, pay registration fee - that's all. The post offices work all weeek long from 10am till 8 pm. The problem occurs just in non-tourist destination there the post staff never did it - and sometimes refuse to register. But the people who was caught in such situation reported that despite this they didn't have any problem on the border. As to the question of AnnabelLee - now all responsibility (and huge fines) - is the problem of receiving part.

thank you very much for the answers! i will check further with visa agencies, and then we'll decide what way to do it. :)

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