Practical tips for travel in Russia
(this section is only for people looking for/interested in practical tips about travel in Russia)
We found it a real headache getting ourselves sorted out with paperwork for Russia, so here are a few practical tips from what we found…
Visas. You can get a 30 day tourist visa, or various types of business visa. We went for the 90 day business visa, but to do so there are some extra hoops to jump through.
-To get any sort of visa, you need to get an “invitation” from Russia. This just basically seems an excuse to charge you some extra cash from the “department of invitations”!
-In the end we just did the whole thing (for a 90 day business visa) through a very helpful Edinburgh based company called Russia Direct. They also sorted out all the extra bits we had to do for getting a business visa (for which Al had to establish a “company”… with himself as President, and me as vice president!!). They do charge quite a bit for their service, but they were extremely reliable and well informed -and even once we were in Russia they were able to reply instantly to queries and put us in touch with their partner company in Moscow. Unless you have an excess of time (to figure it all out by yourself), or a shortage of cash (and so you cannot afford to pay a bit extra), I would highly commend them…
www.russiadirect.co.uk
info@russiadirect.net
Registering This seems to be a bit of an out of date formality in Eastern Siberia – you are supposed to register in any city in which you stay for more than 2 nights. After visitng the registration office nine times (!!), I eventually managed it in Magadan (where I arrived), and then did not stay anywhere long enough to need to register again… a bit of a headache all in all, but worth doing. Once we had this one registration stamp on our visa, all the police we met seemed to be happy enough… I kind of got the impression that out in Siberia none of the police really know what you are supposed to do with your visas these days. In most parts of Russia I think it is quite easy to register in hotels… but we never stayed in hotels as such.
This is just my experience, so things may be different for you. I think it is certainly important to register when you first arrive at least.
Do contact Russia Direct for good advice.
Tags: Russia (Siberia)
Rob