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The first pitfall is the visa. Going to Russia is not as simple as going to England or Spain. It’s a little less complicated than getting security clearance to visit a CIA weapons lab. Read on. To get a visa, you need an official invitation from the Department of Ministry. A lot of people make their livings filling out these documents, so don’t expect the system to disappear any time soon. If you are organizing your travel through a tour agency, university, or place of employment, you will be a much happier camper if you have them obtain the invitation for you. This saves trouble with visa registration later (see below). However, if this is not a possibility, a numbernother of organizations sell invitations, my favorite being www.visatorussia.com. The invitation will need to list your dates of travel and your “itinerary.” This is a list of every city you intend to spend more than 3 days. You are allowed to list up to 5 cities. Always list 5, even if you don’t currently plan on going to that many. It’s easier than getting a second visa if you change your mind mid-trip. This does not mean that you can’t go to places not listed on the itinerary, but it can sometimes cause problems with visa registration. The invitation will be either for a business or a tourist visa. Tourist visas run for a maximum of 3 months and are less flexible. You need proof of hotel reservations, theoretically for your entire trip. Business visas are far more flexible but the invitations tend to be more expensive. I personally prefer business visas. The whole process of getting the invitation and then the visa may easily take two months and will rarely take less than one, so plan ahead. If you can help it, do not buy a plane ticket until you have your visa in hand. The second
pitfall is visa registration. Russia does not believe in letting anyone
– citizens or foreigners – wander about unsupervised. Anywhere you go and
stay for more than three days, you will need to inform the authorities.
Do you really have to bother with visa registration? That depends on whether you like living on the edge. Police officers occasionally stop people on the street and check their documents. This happens primarily in Moscow and in the Caucuses. You can always claim to have just arrived that morning and are within your three days (police of my acquaintance have actually suggested this to me). This does not mean that you won’t be fined; having your documents in order also does not mean that you won’t be fined. The Russian police are notoriously corrupt. Some travelers argue that you are much more likely to get in trouble if you try to register your visa, thus alerting the authorities of your presence. The other time that it might matter, is that hospitals may refuse to admit a patient not registered within their “jurisdiction.” I’ve never actually heard of this happening, and it’s best to stay out of Russian hospitals anyway. That said, failing to register your visa is a breach of a law the Russian government takes very seriously, and – at least in theory – can lead to incarceration. Since there is no defense (you did break the law, after all) there is nothing the US government can do to help you, other than trying to see that you are not mistreated in the tuberculosis-infested Russian correctional system. Suppose you do want to register your visa. If you are studying or working, your school or employer should be able to register you – if you got your invitation from your school or employer. If not, there is usually nothing they can do (this is the primary reason not to use services like visatorussia.com). Similarly, if you stay in a hotel, they should register your visa. They often forget to do this out in the boonies, so you may have to remind them. What if you
aren’t staying in a hotel? In Moscow or St. Petersburg, many hotels run
a side-business of registering visas for a not-unreasonable fee (usually
$15-20). Ask around. Similarly, many travel agencies will take care of
your visa registration for a fee.
This is primarily a problem in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and you are unlikely to encounter it much elsewhere. However, most of the good museums and theaters are in Moscow and St. Petersburg. There is a way out. Students studying at Russian universities or “long-term” workers in Russia generally get a by on the foreigner surcharge. This is one of the primary reasons to travel to Russia as a student or a volunteer (getting an actual paying job is extremely difficult). However, even if you just want to be a tourist, many schools run fairly cheap study programs for negotiable durations (usually there is a 2-week minimum). You aren’t obligated to show up to class, and the cost of a week of study (about $80 or so) is about the same as the foreigner surcharge at some theaters. It is no surprise that many people choose this path. Two example programs are CRLC (St. Petersburg; www.crlc.pu.ru) and Moscow State University (www.ruslang.ru). Similarly, a business visa rather than a tourist may get you around the foreigner surcharge at some places (the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg is one). These are the three primary pitfalls you are likely to encounter in Russia. Forewarned, they should present you with no problems. Enjoy. Additional Resources Volunteer Opportunities www.baikal.eastsib.ru/gbt_irkutsk/Volunteer_List.html Russian Language Programs · CRLC
(St. Petersburg): www.crlc.pu.ru
Job Opportunities in Russia · CIEE:
www.ciee.org
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