Hi Guys, I am planning on applying for a 12 month Business Visa for Russia very soon. When I apply for the Visa I will be full time employed but at the time of entry to Russia I will be unemployed.

I have noticed that one of the requirements for a Business Visa states "Applicants who are self-employed, company directors, working from home or unemployed need to provide bank statements for the last three months which have a current balance of a minimum of £100 per day for the duration of the visit (not required for housewives, students and retired applicants). Please note that if you wish to provide online banking printouts please make sure they will be certified and stamped by your bank".

Does this mean that I will need to have £36,500 in my bank account to get this Visa or is there a way around this? Or because I am employed at the time of application I will not need this?

Sorry to just drop in on this thread, but I have been unable to find any info on this after hours of hunting through HUBB and other external sites. Your help is greatly appreciated. All the best.

I was in the same boat as you - I just got a letter confirming my employment from employer at the time and sent that off with the application. No problems.

Excellent. I was thinking something along these lines but unsure how it worked. I will just have to not let my employer know about my plans to leave till I have got a letter and Visa sorted haha. Thank you for your help.

We got a 'Cultural Visa' which is 12 month multi-entry and much like the business visa. However, we did not need to involve an employer at all.

Just a LOI and the last 3 months bank statements showing +£100/day balance. We supplemented this with a statement from my ISA and that was enough for it to be granted.

HTH.

G

Thanks for your reply, really apreciated. I am slightly confused (easy to do haha), are you saying its possible to get this Visa without a £36,500 bank balance? I will have more along the lines of £15,000 so need to satisfy all Visa requirements with that. All the best, Matty.

You don't need the £36,500 in the account - they are just looking (if they look at all) to make sure that you have enough funds (or flow of funds) to show that you can be self supportive whilst in Russia ie you will not become a burden on the Federation purse.

Brilliant. Thank you for your help, this will be my first big adventure and just tackling the admin at the moment so your help is greatly appreciated. All the best.

.
Hi Craig,

Can you please tell me more about the formalities when leaving Russia, and entering Mongolia.

Thanks.

vette

When leaving Russia at Tashenta about 500m before you get to the border you need get you registration checked, this is at a small building just before an open shed that looks like an aircraft hanger. Then on to border control, first customs to take your bike out, then to immigration to get you passport stamped. From there it was out of border control to another gate where your passport is checked. That is the Russia side.

It is 25ks to the Mongolian border control. You need to pay for your tyres to be disinfected (maybe $5), then immigration, vehicle (temp import). They made us open a some luggage for inspection. After you clear border control you need to buy insurance about $20 iirc.

It is all pretty straight forward though.

Thank you Craig, much appreciation to you.

Are there opening and closing hours, or is it a 24 hour border?
What time did you get there, and was there any queuing, and waiting?

vette

Hi

we were there one year ago in summer. The border opened around 9 in the morning (the imigration guy 500 m before the post came even later), they made a lunch break and it was closed in the evening. Closing can get you trapped, as told us some French people, that had to stay the night in no-mans land, as the Mongols didn't like to work any longer that day.
When we were there, it was said, that the border is closed on sundays.
There is usually not so much traffic at this frontier (besides the days when the Mongol Rally crosses), but it takes some time (we had to wait longer as the computer system of the Russians was not working at the first moment).
Be aware, that Mongol border guys like to be bribed, it was really an ugly crosssing, I liked the border to Senegal much better.

Regards

Christian

PS we had to be transported on a Uazik, as pushbikes should not run on their own through no-mans land
Here is a report of our travel (in german): Bike Siberia: Erste Mongolei-Eindrücke, positive wie negative

registering in Russia
 

We entered Russia ,registered in a hotel , travelled for 3months kept all receipts from food, diesel when asked, arrived Magadan ,registered in hotel, during the 3mths of travel we were in and out of Russia twice, and were asked for our registrations , so showed our receipts. Every one was happy.
This was 2011 July.. August... September..........camping in our vehicle.

Not 24 hour AFAIK and as like the guys above we had to wait for lunch to finish where the registration check is done. I think they are closed on the weekend/Sunday also.

We had no bribery issues at the Mongol border and the staff were friendly.

I concur with these comments, particularly the lack of bribery issues at Tashanta.

Also mentioned above was to have to show the inside of your luggage. I always (politely) say I don't want to because it's a PITA and I have nothing of interest for them anyway. 9/10 (including at this border) it works and I don't have to unpack anything.

Also try to pay as little as possible for having your tyres sprayed. I got away with about 50 cents in Kazakh money, claiming I had nothing else. It's a p!ss take IMHO anyway.

Once you leave the Mongolian border compound having done customs and immigration (barrier/ big fence...) try to ride past the clown who tries to sell you the 20 $ road tax (what effing road?) and insurance (bollox, between the border and UB, there's absolutely nobody to have a collision with anyway. Also no police or anyone else to check...). There's nobody in a car to chase you; I think it's just a con anyway.

For me paying for the desinfection is a bribe, especially when you can negociate it. But as we were on cycles, this was not necessary.
They tried it on 3 occasions, first, just to get in at the gate, the guardian wanted some money, we refused. He then gave us some formulaire to fill it out. As there were so many sandflies flying around, it was hard to fill out the formulaire, as we could not hide in a car.
In the building itself, an officer wanted money for doing his job (filling a formulaire). Last occasion to make money was offering change. We were coming on saturday and it was not clear if the bank would be open. But we could change at the bank, by searching the responsible person (so it seems to be possible to change at any time).
The story about the french people waiting in no mans land is especially bad, as they had a handicaped persion with them (the group got separated, some were let in, others were too late).