This is the reply I got:

Dear Gareth,

This rule is only for EU national passport holders who are applying with simplified invitation containing Tax Number of inviting organization.

With official invitation issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs you may apply for multiple entry without previous visas.



All relevant information regarding visa application process can be found on our website Russia Visa Information - UK - Home Page

Any help to anyone? not sure which route us folk go down, probably the former.

any info on how to proceed appreciated!

G

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Hi,

The below applies to Romanian citizens (EU passports):
In order to get the Russian busines visa, one needs the following:
- passport valid for another 6 months after the expiration of the requested visa;
- visa application form;
- passport photo;
- letter of invitation ("LOI") from Russian company/organization. The LOI must be submitted in original. This will add supplementary costs because of the transport fee from Russia to the destination country. LOI from Stantours - 95 Euro + 55 Euro DHL transport fee;
- Health insurance - 80 Euro/1 year (original and copy)
- Fee at the Embassy - 35 Euro
- Emergency fee - 35 Euro.

Without emergency fee will take 7-10 day to issue the visa. With emergency fee, they issued the visa in 45 minutes, on spot.

The documents can be submitted by another person then the owner of the passport.
The documents ca be picked up by another person then the owner of the passport if he/she has the receipt given to you by the Embassy when you submit the documents for visa along with the payment.

Safe travels,
Adrian

Although we dont know the exact question they read, this is a typically Russian response. No direct answer, introduce a further point and not get a lot further forward!

An ИНН Tax Number is required by any Russian Company, Partnership or Self Employed persons and individuals here on Residency Permits (me!).
Not initially, but eventually.

I can't remember if HUBB or another Site, but the topic of having one or not arose recently in reference to Visa Invitations, as it takes longer for the Foreign Ministry to process Invitation aplications where the inviting organisation does not have an ИНН.

All Applications for Invitations are submitted by the Inviting Organisation to the Ministry. The Ministry issue an official Invitation Certificate which eventually gets to you and is what you submit (original document or telex reference number) with your Visa Application. Ministry processing times vary depending on if the Inviting Organisation has a registered ИНН tax number. Presumably because the 'bona fides' of the inviting organisation can be quickly accessed via their computors through the tex records.

If you go through a Visa (Obtaining) Agent they worry about all that detail for a fee.

I suggest talking with the Embassy's Visa Handling Agency, as the link - they are the ones who initially check/reject your Application while you wait there. The staff are mostly Russian speaking East Europeans, not Russians, and generally more helpful.

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thanks Tony,

I have just emailed them. due to the fact it is a business visa, should I be stating that I am self employed, there for opertunities, etc etc or is it fairly widely known that travellers get business visas to travel?

Just wondering how 'honest' to be, I dont want to get into a pickle!

G

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I just wanted to add my bit.

We got a 3 month- Multi entry business visa for Russia last year. This was even though the embassy website says you need to have had a visa before.

My cover letter simply said that I wanted to enter Russia to look for investment opportunities and i stated a long list of cities that i wanted to visit.

The Visa was issued without any pain- Apart from the cost.

G,
Self Employed is no problem. You still need the Invitation but not an 'Employers' letter. You must produce original Bank Statements (or certified print outs) for the past 3 months which must have a current balance equal to at least £100 for each day of the Visa validity.
Once you have your visa no one worries if you are on business, holiday etc, nor which parts of Russia you go to (other than military and border restricted areas). When I used visas the invitation/application said Moscow and Peter - the visa says nothing and not a query when I produced it in Magadan, Vlad or other places.
In fact the Police in Fevralsk (east section of BAM road), not having seen a GB passport before, took it to the station to photocopy and check on the computor. No problem. Same when once stopped on a gravel track high in the Caususes not far from Chechnia and very close to the Georgia border.

For UK citizens, 3 month MEBVs have never required previous visas - as you apear to have discovered assuming you are a UK citizen.
It is the 1 year MEBVs that required you had a visa before, within the previous year.
This requirement appears to have very recently disappeared from the UK Russian Embassy Handling Agents Website. It is unclear if the rule had been dropped or overlooked!

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Ok, I sent this:

Hi,

I am having trouble locating information on the requirements for UK citizens to obtain a 12 month multi-entry Business Visa.

I have been told that to obtain this we must have previously held a Russian visa. Is this correct?

We are looking to travel from early next year, have never been to Russia and will use your services to obtain the LOI and 12 month visas. Could you clarify what we need to do in order to achieve this?

Regards,

-----------------------------------------------------------

and I got this:

Dear Gareth,

You don’t have to have previous visa to apply for multiple, this rule refers to different, simplified type of invitation which cannot be obtained by UK nationals.

Please check our website for documents required, visa fees and processing times:

http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/Business.html


All relevant information regarding visa application process can be found on our website Russia Visa Information - UK - Home Page

Yours sincerely,
Vitaliy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So it looks like there is no problem and you cannot make a mistake? too easy to be true surely!

G

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Great stuff!
A lot of people will be relieved to see that.

They operated that rule in the past for 1 year Business Visas (they have to be Multi Entry because of the 90/180 condition) - as letsdo1 observed.

Thanks for getting that cleared up. I'll report it on another thread which is waiting to hear.

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Thanks for that update, i for one am definately relived,

Am leaving for Mongolia/Magadan/Vlad at the end of April from London.

Reading everything up to now i had feared the worst and suspected i may have to choose between Kaz and Mongolia with a double entry visa, but if i can get a multi entry business first time around that would be great, as much as i would like to do turkey i dont fancy the Azerbaijan Baku ferry...

I will be applying for my visa in the next week or so, i will update with any success or failures for a first time British passport holder.

Cheers

-Don

I'm leaving for Magadan via Mongolia mid July. Likewise on the Baku ferry, so I'll be going through the Balkans and Turkey, then getting the Trabzon-Sochi ferry into Russia and onto Volgograd that way. Skipping the Stans for another time.

Let us know on this thread how you get on with your application. Who you getting your LOI from?

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And now it has re-appeared on the Website - "Thats Russia" !!

From here Russia Visa Information - UK - Business Visa Processing time
"For EU citizens applying for multiple entries business or humanitarian visa with invitation letter containing Individual Tax Number (ИНН) visa processing time is 10 working days.
Applicants should also have a single or double Russian visa in the last 1 year, without which they cannot apply for multiple entries."
The bold type is on the site, so they must be aware of confusion.

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Aw ffs, I thought I had it all sorted!

G

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This particular quote has been addressed further up the thread...

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Collected from Gee Street today a 12 month MEBV.

This is my first ever application.

One problem was that they required the ORIGONAL LOI, which caused a delay owing to a mix up between Stan Tours and Real Russia. I was sent ''packing' when I turned up with a copy of the LOI a couple of weeks earlier.

Alec:

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I wanna go back.

That's excellent news. How much did it cost you in the end all in? Who'd you get your LOI from? What questions did they ask? You taking a bike? Anything special you have to provide for that? Applying for mine in a couple of months months so any advice would be helpful. Cheers.

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