paperwork when arriving vladivostok
 

hello guys,

we gonna take the ferry from toyama/japan to vladivostok.
Does someone can tell me how to handle the paperwork and how exactly to release our vehicle from russian custom (which office, ...)?
how and where can i get the obligatory insurence...

thanks for any informations

danyo

Now for my 100th post on the HUBB...

Unless the situation has changed this year, go to the Bizintour office on the third (?) floor of the Vadivostok Sea Terminal. They will be able to do the work for you. In 2003 the price was up to 100 dollars.
Some people have succeeded on their own (usually with the help of a Russian), but I would just pay the money rather than taking many days. Hotels are not cheap in Vladivostok, so you may actually save money by paying the $100.
Contact the Vladivostok HU Community for more information.
And let us know the situation after you arrive in Russia!

Are you in Japan now? Peter Forwood on a Harley Davidson arrived a couple weeks ago and is going to Vladivostok in May.

Chris, what would you suggest for someone arriving at the Vladivostok airport with their motorcycle? Is there a Bizintour office at the airport, or would I have to go to the seaport to use their services?

Thanks.

Mike

Sorry
I have no idea. Bizintour is the travel agent that handles ferry operations. I doubt that they will go all the way out to the airport.
I guess your best bet would be to talk to your shipping company and get them to introduce you to a customs broker. Or maybe someone in the Vladivostok HU Community knows.
I did come up with this company in a search for Vladivostok airport. They seem to handle customs work.
http://www.air-cargo.ru/en/feedback/
There is an e-mail address on the bottom of this page for the customs dept.

[This message has been edited by Chris in Tokyo (edited 27 April 2005).]

Thanks Chris. Info much appreciated.

Mike

Hi

Inform about date of your arrival me or Shustrik

My box melnikova_d -- aT -- mail.ru

The telephone in Vladivostok 757809

Than we can by that we shall help...

------------------------------------
email address obfuscated by Grant to prevent spambots collecting it.


[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 03 May 2005).]

As far as I know, one our friend working in insuranse company. She helped some people with insuranse procedure in last year. I'll ask her about help when anybody arrive in Vladivostok.
Everybody, who will be in Vladivostok in this year - call me or Daana. Take care! http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif
(sorry for my english)

my current contacts:

+7(4232)203963 (home)
+7 902 553 7482 (GSM cellular)
dvoalex [{a-t.]} mail dot ru
ICQ: 48042015

=========================
Don't make it easy for the scumsucking spambots to collect your email address and spam you!

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 11 May 2005).]

Danyo, when will you be arriving in Vladivostok? I hope to get there somewhere between July 18 and 25.

Shustrik, thanks for the info on insurance and contact info. I will be in touch with you and Dasha (with whom I've communicated by emai) when I have a definite arrival date. Any help in Vladivostok will be greatly appreciated.

Mike

yeah, keep in touch.
and when you'll be know "arrive-date" - email us.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

thanks to dasha and shustrik, we already stay in emai-contact.

mike, we hopefully will arrive in vlad at 23th of may by ferry form japan. depending if we can find our vehicle, which got lost when shipping from bangkok to japan.....

danyo

This is from Peter Forwood who just arrived in Vladivostok yesterday. Looks like good news!:

Managed to clear customs this morning in an hour by myself, no cost.

What to do:
On the boat ask the second mate to get your Bill of Lading ready early and to write down the customs address an a piece of paper. He will have the Bill of lading by 3pm Sunday, but you have to pay 10 dollars to have it early, else it is not ready till Tuesday.

Take photocopies of passport, visa, immigration card, both sides (get hotel registration if possible before you go to customs, they stamp the back of your immigration card to show you have been registered, not sure if this is necessary as I already had it), customs declaration, both sides, (where you have declared the motorcycle on the back page) registration certificate (ownership papers if you have) and bill of lading.
You also need a letter in Russian to the Customs office stating your intentions. To travel across Russia to xxxx, details of the motorcycle including engine and chasis number and rego number, your home address and where you are staying in Vladivostok.

With this they will process a paper, for me 20 minutes, which you keep to give to customs on leaving the country and which lets your bike out of customs in Vladivostok.
For me, they wrote the letter in Russian at the Customs, window 3 is the official "transit" of vehicles window, but the lady at window 1 is in charge and handled everything for me, she went away and got her boss (speaks good English), who wrote the letter, and did the photocopying for me, no charge. Better to arrive with the letter and photocopies if it is possible, they might not be as friendly everytime.

The motorcycle club could do the letter probably.
I haven't made contact yet, will tonight, as I wanted to do customs myself, often easier.

Suggest other travelers also go alone to customs with the documents if possible.

[This message has been edited by Chris in Tokyo (edited 16 May 2005).]

For some reason I was under the impression that one needed to have a list of all posessions bringing into the country, written in Russian. That would include the bike, camping gear, tools etc. Is that the case, or is the Letter of Intent as described in Tokyo Chris' post all that's needed?
Thanks.
Stan

Chris,
Currently Peter Forwood in my home, he is fine. Everythings fine.
In tuesday he'll take bike from custom. Near thirsday leave Vladivostok (to Khabarovsk) http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif

Thanks to Peter and Chris for posting the above information. This is the first I've hard of the need for a letter of intent in Russian. Have other travelers encountered this requirement also, or is it something new, or have I somehow missed this despite all my online research on traveling in Russia?

Further questions: Was a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, and some sort of vehicle warning sign (a triangle??) required? Did you bring in a gps, and if so was there any problem with that? Were you asked for a Russian translation of your drivers license?

Thanks again for the very useful info.

Mike

Mike:

if I am not mistaken, the AAA Intl. driver's license has a page in Russian in it.

You're right Stan, there is a page in Russian in the IDP. But, I have heard the Russian authorities might want a Russian translation of a persons US drivers license. Of coure, I've also heard they don't. So it goes. ;o)

Peter & Chris, you referred to an "immigration card." What's that? One more thing I'm not familiar with, apparently, despite all my research.

Thanks again.

Mike

Many questions, which I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge...
But first, you must understand "It's Russia!!" You will hear this from almost every Russian you meet (right Shustrik?)
Things change fast. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. ANY problem can be solved with time (and sometimes a bit of cash).

"Letter of intent" has never been a requirement before. But it seems like a better system than $100 to an agent who will take a day or two.

Fire extinguisher, etc.: Never heard of this being required. Don't worry. If you need it you can get it in Russia cheaper than at home. IDL should be OK. Has been OK for a dozen friends and myself in the past. Don't worry!

Immigration card: You get it at the port/airport. Some embassies will also give you. Don't worry!

List of possessions: You can write everything you bring on your customs declaration, but usally people only put the very expensive items (cameras, computers, etc.). Sometimes this is all on the Carnet. But you don't need a Carnet for Russia.

All the info I got from Peter is in the post above. If you need anything else, you can take care of it when you get there. Don't worry!

Note that ALL this information can change tomorrow.
Why?
It's RUSSIA!

But don't worry! You will love Russia.
There are only three things I don't like: Siberian mosquitoes, annoying drunks, and the kid in a Lada that ran my down. And none of those killed me (although the Lada came close). So, (did I say this before?) Don't worry!
It's Russia...

Update from Peter Forwood in Vladivostok:

To get the bike finally out you have to pay port handling fees. An exhorbitant 2100 Rubles plus document fees of 700 Rubles. This gives you 3 days parking on the wharf in security, time to clear customs proceedures and is unavoidable. It all adds up to about $US100.00

(note from Chris: See. Anything can be overcome with time and money)

Hello Chris,

Could I ask you a question,

Could I rent a motorcycle in Japan and take ferry to Vladivostok or Sakhalin island for a fee week ride ?

Do I need a paper works ?

Thanks

Jeff

I seriously doubt it.
I don't think you can't take a motorcycle you don't own out of the country.
Too much paperwork, anyways.
If you find a rental company that will let you do that, though, let me know.
Start a new thread if you want to continue this discussion.

Right http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif
usial answer. Why lift don't work? Its Russia! %)))

Chris, thanks for all the answers to my quesions. I'm very appreciative.

Mike

[This message has been edited by liketoride2 (edited 17 May 2005).]

Thanks also from me! My bike is due in Vladivostok around/before June 30 (via ship) and I will be there shortly afterwards. Peter Forwood's guide is most helpful and I will follow suit. Just one question (and excuse my ignorance), but where does the customs declaration come from? Do you also get this when you arrive in Russia (in person) or is it something you need to ask for? I think I will have all of the other items, but if someone could confirm this one, that would be great.

FYI, here is my plan

www.users.bigpond.net.au/AdrianScott

Maybe I will see some of you in Vladivostok?

Regards,

Adrian

im right now in valdivostok, trying to get my vehilce out of customs. will keep you up to date how it works for us.....

daniel

Now they already get their's tuk-tuk and just has rest and little repair.
Everythings fine, they already tryed almost all sort of local beer http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif))))

[This message has been edited by Shustrik (edited 24 May 2005).]

All was wonderful, the truth I was afraid that tyk - tyk will make on roads of Vladivostok of failure http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/smile.gif Drivers of machines, when it saw with curiosity overlooked about rudders of the car.

Here I have laid out some photos

http://public.fotki.com/GrozaB/daana/sisu_and_danial

[This message has been edited by Daana Rafalasko (edited 26 May 2005).]

Daniel Snaider asked me to post this for him about getting his tuk-tuk through Vladivostok customs. It is long, but very detailed. Thanks for the information Daniel!!

How we got our vehicle out of customs in Vladivostok 24th of May 2005
By Daniel Snaider

We asked at the information desk, right at the entrance of the ship gRUSh for our gBill of ladingh. We were asked to pay US $10 to get the original paper on Monday 5 p.m. at the custom storage. Sunday we just got a copy of it.

On the ship we got the custom declaration, which we had to fill out. On the back you have to declare your vehicle. When we left the ship, the immigration/custom will stamp front and backside and you should take care of it as good as of your passport and immigration card.

On Monday we went to the custom storage to pick up our Bill of lading, but even with some pressure we did not get it before Tuesday, 11.00 a.m.

Collect following papers and make photocopies and go to gcustom of transportationh. They have to stamp your bill of lading and give you a special paper, which lets your bike out of the custom storage. This paper you also need for custom when leaving the country.
[The office was located at: Ul. Strelinkova 9
To get there, we took bus No.61 in front of the Lenin-monument, opposite side of train station. The bus will take you to the beginning of ul. Strelinkova. Ask the bus driver to drop you on the right bus station. Then you have to walk about 3 min. down the street.
You will find the office when you go up the street, which starts on the opposite side of the main entrance of building gStrelinkova 9h, go up till the first right-curve. Enter the building on the left hand side from the backdoor.]

Required papers:
Bill of Lading (gcarnasenh (?)), Passport (copy also visa), immigration card (copy both sides), custom declaration (copy both sides), and vehicle registration papers and owner papers and if you already have insurance (but I think not really necessary). And we were asked for a gletter of intentionh, in which we have to ask the custom to release our vehicle.
[The letter of intention should include all vehicle specifications, the home address and where you stay in Vladivostok (we wrote hotel Ecuador) Shustrik (thanks so much!) organized the travel intention with the country of destination/departure. We had the feeling that this letter is not required by law, but the custom in Vladivostok just want to get 100% sure that the vehicle will be taken out of country. Please contact Shustrik in Vladivostok. He got all information and can give you this gletter of intentionh, which you easily can fill out with your specifications.]

On the left side there are three desks. We went to the lady of desk No.1. She was not really happy, to see someone who couldnft speak Russian. So she looked for help and found a custom broker (his name of course: Sergey!) who spoke some words English. Anyway, we had to write the letter of intention in Russian. We brought one, but this was not gofficialh enough, so the custom broker wrote another one for us. We had to sign this letter and than the letter had to be signed by the boss of custom!
After all we got our stamp on the bill of lading and we got the paper.
The whole process took us about 45 min. and the biggest problem for them was this letter and that we couldnft speak Russian. Keep smiling!

With the stamped Bill of lading and this paper we had to go to the cash desk (KACCA), located at the sea terminal 3rd floor. We had to pay unavoidable and incredible 2800 Rubles (about $US 100). With the receipt we went down to the storage and got our vehicle out of custom at Tuesday afternoon.

Please remember all time: things can change fast or never in Russia!

Once again, my thanks for posting such valuable information. The process sure sounds intimidating, especially for someone whose Russian is largely limited to da and nyet (In desperation I'm bringing an electronic translator but I'm not sure how much practical help it will actually be). When I arrive any help from the HU community there will be greatly appreciated.

My projected arrival date, subject to change, is around July 25+-.

Does anyone know if the process for a bike arriving by air instead of ocean shipment will be essentially the same? Will the location of the customs office be the same as the one described above? I haven't done a final booking for bike transport yet and can go either air or ocean freight.

Shustrik, would it be possible for you to email me a copy of the letter of intention mentioned in the post above? If so, I would much appreciate it. I realize it will be in Russian, but with the help of a Russian - English dictionary I could probably read it.

Thanks again.

Mike

[This message has been edited by liketoride2 (edited 28 May 2005).]

I am arriving in Vladivostok by air, and my bike is coming by ship and I want to understand how the customs declaration (mentioned above) would work? At the airport, do I fill it in and provide details of my bike then go to the docks? Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Adrian

I arrived in Vladivostok on Wednesday evening and by 1:30pm on Thursday I had the paper work done (including Russian registration and insurance) to get my bike and if it weren't for the inconvenient location of my container (buried deep) I would have had my bike that day. I came back next day (Friday) and by 3pm was riding out of the port, free to go. I pretty much followed the advice provided above (THANK YOU ALL) and had all of the papers ready for the famous lady at counter number 1.

The Letter of Intent is most definitely required and we had to get the Chief of Customs to sign it (after making some minor edits). I got my insurance from "alphastrahovanee" on the 2nd floor of the morskoi voksal (sea terminal behind railway terminal). I paid 650 rubles for 2 months insurance and had to pay about 1500 rubles to release my bike from the port - that was the total cost.

Adrian

Go Adrian!

gday all
we have been crossing in and out of russia for the last 2 months and this is what we have found nessesary .
you must get an immigration card from immigration and you may have to ask for it , also you need compulsory insurance and we have so far only succedded in getting 15 days at a time , but it is available at any decent size city .you must then get a temporary import document and make sure they put the a maximun time of 2 months on it or more if you can .
a gps is no problems at all and it has actually saved a search or two as the guards where more interested in the gps than searching us , just told them it was an electronic map .
we are of course heading west to vlad so the european russian borders may be a little easier.
hope that helps , but to date the russian borders have been some of the easiest .
mick
www.thelaststans.com

Arriving in vladivostok soon
 

Dear Hu Community
we arrive at sunday in Vladivostok (24th June)
If anyone posseses a copy of a letter of intention and can scan it , it would be very gratefull.
Yuri the suggested Agent is unfortunately busy in next days, so if anyone knows another good and perhaps english speaking custom agent in Vlad please post it.
Thank you and greetings
Rocco

Custom Finished Today
 

Dear Hu Community

we just finished the custom in Vladivostok after arriving from Japan yesterday.
The whole process took us 5 hours, so much less then expected and we did it by ourselves.

1. Bill of lading copy we got on the Ship paying 10 USD
2. Immigration card also on the Ship
3. The passenger officer on the ship (office beside the stairs 1st floor) had an computer and wrote us a Letter of Intention including a map where to go...
4. Arriving in Vlad we filled custom declaration (they took the bike which i mentioed there out and said bill of lading is for this) got stamp on immigration card and thats all what you can do on sunday (they take the bike themselves down you cant do it)
5. Morning at monday 8.40 we went as the Passenger officer told us, two rooms beside the store room of our bike to an Agency Wladpaccko, they made copies of everything, said they have no time but told us friendly each next step. Diman was the name of the person
6. He organized within 1 hour the Original bill of Lading in the same time we went to the insurance company at 2nd floor abtostravanee

7. We entered the famous Strelnikova but not 9 it was 14, here we went at first with a russian letter of Diman to the Chief of custom Room 804 ground floor left. he was not there so we went in 803, the lady was very friendly and commented my passport pictures, wrote a type of bill and brought me directly to the second counter in the main hall (not window 1,2,3 it was one before this windows an there was written kacca)

8. Now our lucky road seemed to be finished cause the lady here was not really happy to see us and shouted we have to go at first to a bank and pay 100 Rubel with the bill of this only we can proceed. (the did not give us our copies back they kept it at the counter)
9.So we went to Svetlanskaya 47, Primorye Bank, went in ground floor to the left where there is written tamoschenje/ Custom and paid after some discussion the money
9. Back in the taxi we came to the same counter back, the unhappy lady had not really changed her mood, but proceeded to type all details in the computer, the pink/ green document came out, she stamped the copied bill of lading and gave it to us. She kept the original and copies of Visa, Bike license, Insurance, Passport and Dimans letter.
10. We went back to the Sea terminal Diman told us we should go to the customs kacca to pay the store fee . So we went in the backside of the See Terminal in the 2nd floor, paid 2550 Rubel went down to the store room and drive the bike at 2 pm out of the custom.

Thats all, if we left Russia i will place some copies of these documents at my webpage that you can see what is te target (Manu & Rocco on Tour)
Regarding previous comments thanks a lot for the informations, we felt prepared, copied everything allready sunday 2 times and had a big shock to get everything so easily;)

Safe ride and bye
Rocco:cool4:

Help!!
 

Hi Rocco or who ever is reading this,

Ive got friends who are in Irkutsk at the moment having a day off after a tough 3 days in Mongolia due to bad weather, they need info on travel from Vladivostok to either Japan or South Korea and onward to the U.S.A., also whether a carnet is needed for both countries and possibly the cost of the relevant documents. They need info on ferry or flights to either country asap please!!

Sorry for the short notice but any help or info recieved will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

Roi. n Bron.

There is a weekly ferry from Vlad to Japan.
You need a carnet for Japan.
Cost of such document varries accourding to the country issuing.
Check with your auto club.
There is also a ferry to Korea.
Carnet was not needed in the past for Korea. Don't know about now.

For onward shipping to USA, you will have to find a shipping agent. Look in the shipping section.

Look through the HUBB or use the search function. Most of the info is already here.

Sounds like pretty poor planning if they are all the way to Irkutsk and just now in a hurry for info on how to get out of Vladivostok...

Info Greatly recieved.!!
 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info, will check the hubb out, sorry to tell you its not bad planning, they were going to Magadan originally but circumstances have changed in Magadan so the other alternative is to cut there losses an go via Vladivostok. There not on the H.U site so no access, im doin it all by text for them on the phone thats why its my headache.

Thanks again Chris, your the only one that has info'd me in the last 3weeks, so now i'll have to get my thumbs working, to text them.

Roi. n Bron.

Vlad
 

Hi,
sorry but we had no connection in the last days. We had to come from Vladivostok to Ulan Bator in 6 days cause of our visa date, and it meant to ride without stops and internet. Finally we did it, i can only upport what Chris said. I was with Carnet in Japan, but as a German rider i had to drive non legal cause of a treaty in 1948 which was not signed by my country....
Rocco

WOW! That is fast!
I think it took me 10 days in 2003 (not inlcuding days spend partying with local bikers in Vlad and Khabarovsk). And we used the train for part of the way...

How are the roads this year?