Kazakhstan - Russia - Georgia
 

Hi all,

I'd appreciate advice about getting Russian visa to ride from Kazaksthan to Georgia via Russia. It would be a 3 day, 2 night transit, and I'm thinking of staying overnight in Astrakhan and Russkoe.

I am already travelling in India, heading to Pakistan, all sorted, then China, all sorted, then Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. So will need to get my visa somewhere along the route.

1) Do I need a full tourist visa, or can I apply more easily for a transit visa.?
2) Does my bike need a Carnet?
3) How to deal with lack of access to money in Russia
4) Where can I get a visa on-route?

Here's my trip at Polarsteps - https://www.polarsteps.com/PabloCros...0-bullet-dream

Thanks guys

See the answers below


1) Do I need a full tourist visa, or can I apply more easily for a transit visa.?

You dont get a tourist visa on the road. only transit visa.
Hopefully

2) Does my bike need a Carnet?

No, only if you want to cross, Iran, Pakistan, India ....

3) How to deal with lack of access to money in Russia

Simple, just take a lot of cash with you


4) Where can I get a visa on-route?

Maybe in Tiblisi, maybe in Ankara, Dushabe, Tashkent, Bishkek.

Visa for Russia
 

You can apply for an e-Visa. Takes 4 days to process, gives you 16 days to stay in Russia and costs you less than 50€.
Try this link: https://evisa.kdmid.ru/
I just did it last week and it worked without any trouble in my case. Good luck.

Bruno :thumbup1:

Hi Bruno,

Just what I wanted to hear! I'll follow your link.

Did you need a Letter of support?

Thanks,

Paul

Hi Paul,

I was busy on this topic as well recently for my own trip this summer.

There are 3 main types of visa that COULD be of use for you.
- Tourist visa: up to 3 months of validity, but afaik you can only apply for this in your home country
- Transit visa: it's supposed to be quite uncertain how many days you will get to transit (they usually calculate with 500 kms/ day). Don't know if you can apply on the road for this visa.
- E-visa: this sounded like an interesting question to me as well (low priced, like Bruno also said), but MIND YOU: you cannot use this type of visa at every land border! As far as I was able to find out, you can use it at the crossing from Russia to Georgia ("Verkhnij Lars"), but NOT at (at least) the western crossings between Kazakhstan and Russia.

For this reason, I applied for a regular tourist visa, which is in process right now.

If time is not limited for you, you can always consider to put your bike on the ferry from Aktau (Kazakhstan) to Baku (Azerbaijan) and fly in yourself to Baku.

Visa
 

Hi Paul,

no invitation, no letter of support no hotel booking. It's really pretty simple. However, you need to upload a copy of your passport and fill in the form. That's it basically. It's all well described on their platform.
Bruno

Question:

How can you use a eVisa to cross from Kasachstan to Russia, when there is no border officialy supported from and to Kasachstan with evisa?

https://electronic-visa.kdmid.ru/checkpoint_en.html

You used the border to Kasachstan, where also the official Russian website says it is not possible to cross with eVisa?

Western cards don't work in Russia as it is currently disconnected from SWIFT. This includes ATMs, so yes, you will have to take with you any currency you will need. Euros and Dollars can be widely exchanged.

If you don't want to carry a lot of cash it is possible to apply for a Tinkoff Debit Card for Foreigners. Basically you apply online and a representative delivers it to you in a day or two at an address you select. You then go to one of a large network of ATMs and preload the card with the Roubles you have changed. Hey presto you have a card to buy fuel, hotels. etc. As it's a Mir card you can use it in some neighbouring countries.

Also consider road and health insurance. You can *probably* buy road insurance at the border. It's only a small fine if you don't have it but you don't want to think about the consequences if you have an accident without it. For health insurance, the state will pay for A&E treatment but not anything above that. Even in Russia this can get pricey and your western health insurance company can't pay because of the aforementioned SWIFT issues. Go to a broker like Rosgosstrakh or AlfaStrakhovanie in the first city and you should be able to buy cover.

Hi there, same question here. We are planning to travel east. From Georgia thru Russia to Kasachstan. Could get in with an e-visa but the question is if I can get out and into Kasachstan with that e-visa. Anyone on here that has tried it?

No. The evisa system is designed to promote tourism within Russia from the west, and is only valid at certain border crossings listed on the evisa web page. There are no evisa crossings between Russia and Kazakhstan because the citizens of those countries enjoy visaless travel.

E-visa to exit Russia
 

Thanks TomKat.
Thought so... Still find it strange that you can not exit a country once you are inside. Are they not stamping some sort of visa/entry into your Passport when you enter at an e-visa approved border crossing?

Yes, but there's no visa physically in your passport so they can't see if you have one or how long you're permitted to stay unless they're linked to the evisa system.

Based on recent experience of entering India, Cambodia and Vietnam using their e-visas, your first entry must at a designated entry point, usually an airport or big land border post, where immigration have the technology to capture biometric and passport details and add stamps/ details to your passport. Then you are free to enter/ exit wherever as long as you have your passport and printout of the e-visa, and of course, the border post is open to non-locals/ you're allowed multiple entries/ within the validity of the visa.

I'd be really surprised if there's a different procedure in the Stans/ Caucuses/ Russia.

Yes, you can get in from Georgia to Russia.

But no, as described before and as you can also read in the eVisa, borders to Kazakhstan cannot be crossed with eVisa.

And I am sure some tried, but also sure, they could not enter.