How far in advance should you apply for the visa? we are hoping to leave the UK January next year but wont be entering Russia until around June/July as we pass through the Caucasus/central asia etc.

G

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For this reason I have usually taken multientry visa which is valid for one year. Makes life much easier.

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Applications can be made for Visas for dates up to 3 months in advance.

Make sure Invitations are for the dates you require - not from the present date. A Visa will only be issued, and valid, for dates on the Invitation.

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Thanks Tony,

I had another read around and I found 45 days on 'realrussia'

I think Im going to need a 6 month business visa posted out to us on the road!

Also I notice you can only stay for 90 days out of 180.

Do you guys manage ok with this? I think we will be ok. 2 weeks across the Altai then out of Mongolia to Baikal and around for 2 months with 2 weeks to allow for shipping.

How do you explore so much in Siberia with only 90 days in country?

G

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I'll look up where I got 3 months from.

Not my problem any more I now live here permanently and have a Residency Permit. No Visas, no Work Permits, no time limits (other than be here for a minimum of 183 days per year)!

The 90/180 day was introduced in 2009 to clamp down on the people living here full time apart from an annual 'visa-run'. Border officials were meant to check dates/days manually from the 'passive' list that came up on the computor when they scan/swipe your passport. But they never bothered to count/check if they saw you were 'coming and going' fairly regularly. This won't work any longer as the computor now has an 'active' list that flags up overstay.

The alternative that some ex-pats here do now is get a 90 day visa, and pop across to Riga, Vilnius or Helsinki for a new one every 3 months. But for most UK citizens they must go back to UK to apply (result of a diplomatic tit-for-tat game a while back).

Anyway 90 days is about the limit of reasonable weather conditions in siberia and further east!

You should be OK but take note of dates/days as your trip progresses. This works on actual days here. If you go into Kaz or Mongolia the clock stops counting until you re-enter RUS - until you have a total of 90 days here.
You cannot renew or extend visas within RUS and overstaying a visa is fairly serious, particularly if you want to come back - and you will!!

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Thanks Tony, Just confirmed everything I thought. We will make do then.

Not sure where we will be 45 to 90 days from Russia. TJK prehaps? that could be a nightmare with couriers etc.

G

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Just take the multi entry visa, it is valid for a year and you don't have to worry about couriers... If you just get it.

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We were looking at the multi entry, but only 6 months.

Taking the 12 month would require us to enter Russia earlier than planned to just 'activate' our Visa.

What would be the easiest way to do this?

and IIRC I cannot enter Russia from the Caucasus? we were going to take the ferry from Azer to Turkmenistan and into central asia.

my apologies to the OP, I dont mean to Hijack the thread!

G

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Griff:

At least 20 working days in advance.

I recently had to ferry an aircraft through Russia (part of a trip from Canada to Singapore), and I encountered great delays getting a Russian visa. If you are not part of an organized tour, the visa application has to be approved by the Federal Office for Migration (FOM) in Russia.

Go to the website of the Russian embassy or consulate in your country, you should be able to find instructions and download the application form there. Be sure to fill in the application exactly as instructed... my first application was rejected because I used a normal blue ballpoint pen, rather than a black pen (as specified) to fill it in.

There's a little bit more information about the troubles I encountered getting the visa at a post I made about the ferry flight at a Canadian Aviation website - to view it, click here.

Michael

Sorry for a mini hi-jack, but I've been looking at getting my Russian Visa this morning too, and have been following such threads with interest.

The stumbling point on the multiple entry business visa I've reached is this;
That is from the Visa processing site. I do not have a single or double entry visa in the last year, but was planning to go in to Russia, out to Kaz, back in to Rus, out to Mongolia, back in, and then out again into the Ukraine. Meaning by my maths I would need a multi entry. How do you get round this problem?

Thanks

Birdy

Birdy.
That is a rule introduced since I got my first Visa, which was a 1 year ME Business one. My first one was in 2005 and from then I had the same type continuously 'back to back' until I got a full time Residency Permit.

An answer could be for you to get a single entry, short period, Visa, come and have a Beer or two with Motoreiter and I, then go back and apply for a Year ME Visa.

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Birdy...

In 2010, when I applied for my first Russian Business visa, I was also concerned about the requirement to have had a (used) Russian visitors visa in the previous year. I had never been to Russia, but I applied for the ME Business visa anyway. I received it without any issues.

As it turned out, I wound up going elsewhere and never entered Russia that year. I'm now in the process of applying for a second ME Business visa for this year. The invitation has been issued... crossing my fingers again that there are no issues with the visa application.

Actually, I don't see that requirement (for a previous visa) anywhere on the Russian Embassy site (Canada) or on the VisaToRussia site that I used for the LOI anymore. Have they dropped that "requirement"? Maybe the key word in your quote is "should" vs "shall" or "must".

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Hm that makes a little hope, i could need a multiple entry visa as well, but on all german websites they write a previously used visa is necessary since 2010. Should be the same for other EU states.
I just wrote to some visa agencies, will keep you posted what they say.
The bad thing is the other visas are only valid for 30 days :/

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Tourist Visas can be valid for up to 30 days - never longer.
First Business Visas can be valid for up to 90 days - subsequent ones for up to a year, but with a 90/180 day restriction.

The rules are slightly different for different countrues - usually as a result of diplomatic arguments between them making things more difficult and the other responding similarly.

But always check with the Consular section of Russia Embassy Website in the country where you reside and THEIR own handling agency.

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