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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-15-2013, 08:18 AM
I have gotten two russian visas process in the past few months. It's a piece of cake. I used a company called Real Russia in the UK and they handled the whole thing so damn easily.
I'm assuming they should be able to process a 3 year one also. Not sure though.
I suggest you look them up. It saves you the hassle of having to go to the consulate in person and deal with forms and incompetent employees who work short hours.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-15-2013, 08:51 AM
Quote: (05-15-2013 05:53 AM)Roosh Wrote:
It looks like the time for Americans to visit Russia for extended stays have come after last year's change in the rules.
With a 3-year tourist visa, you can stay for up to 6-month periods.
Quote:Quote:
In accordance with an agreement between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, effective September 9, 2012 US citizens can receive multiple-entry business, homestay/private, humanitarian and tourist visas valid for up to 3 years and allowing a stay of up to 6 months per visit. Requests for this longer validity visa require a written letter of invitation composed by the host, and processing cannot be rushed. (See detailed visa requirements below).
http://russia.travisa.com/VisaInstructio...rtnerID=TA
My guess is that you would simply have to do a border run to reset the 6-month clock. You still need to get a letter of invitation, but many companies sell that online.
Has anyone tried to get a Russian visa lately?
I haven't heard of this but sounds promising. I do know that right now there is a special business/work visa you can get that allows you to stay in Russia for 180 out of 360 days during a calendar year. But only 180 days per year...it's not all that expensive.
Also, you can buy a 1-year 'business' visa on the black market here for like 1000 Euros from what I hear. A friend of mine did this, worked great, he just had to leave every 3 months to reset.
Try 'expat.ru' online - unf. I get blocked at work but it's usually pretty good and up to date with visa stuff, replete with (horror) stories.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-15-2013, 02:35 PM
Quote: (05-15-2013 02:21 PM)The Duke Wrote:
Quote: (05-15-2013 10:45 AM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:
I have been checking with expat.ru on those visas. Right now, it is too new to know if you can do a border hop to renew for 6 more months. People tend to think you can but you know how that stuff goes. Even if it is legal, border patrol needs to know it is legal.
For what it's worth, Ukrainians can renew their stay in Russia with a quick border hop.
Perhaps immigration officers at the immigration counter in airports know the rules better than border guards (non-airport ones)? In this case, perhaps crossing via an airport is safer? BTW, if you want things to go smoother at the immigration counter in an airport, I recommend dressing in business attire (business casual). In my experience, if you dress right, you get less questions.
I just renewed my Indian visa with a border hop. I was secretly hoping I would be denied entry so I would have an excuse to go back to Ukraine.
I thought Ukrainians, Belorussians and Russians can all travel freely amongst their respective countries? At least if they use their international passports (I know Russians need to register in Ukraine if they just have their domestic passports, but can still enter Ukraine, saw it live last year on a work trip).
Heh but I am sure the Ukrainian girls are better looking and lower maintenance that what we have here in Moscow!
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-15-2013, 03:18 PM
I literally just got mine. Took about 3 weeks, paid $400 and I just dropped off my passport, took a photo and answered some of the questions (they even filled out the form for me). I'd say it took 20 minutes, incredibly easy. This was in LA though, not sure how you would do that in whatever EE city you are in now.
Edit: And now I'm good until May 2016.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-15-2013, 03:23 PM
slubu: You did it yourself at the Russian embassy? Which invitation service did you use?
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-16-2013, 02:47 PM
Looks like I will be making a run to the Russian Consulate in Frankfurt soon.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-17-2013, 02:24 PM
I have one of these now too. Easy to get, about $350 and a month turn around time. You can apply by mail as well within the US, no need to go to an embassy/consulate in person.
It's six months per entry, and as someone said above, the current thinking is that a 1-day hop across the border will reset the clock. So you can stay in Russia for 3 years continuously, minus the semi-annual trips across the border to Finland, Mongolia, Estonia, or Ukraine (none of these need visas for Americans).
It's not clear if that interpretation will always be the case, but all evidence points to immediate returns being kosher.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
05-18-2013, 02:36 AM
BigDave, did you mail your application and passport directly to the Russian consulate, or did you use a visa service like slubu? If a visa service, which one? Did you provide an invitation letter with your application? Does the invitation letter need to be "notarized" in Russia?
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
04-30-2014, 05:02 PM
Ok, just dropped off my application for the 3-year tourist visa...hope it comes through - we'll see. Guy there said they have not had any problems (yet).
BTW this is the service I used - pretty helpful, they do a lot of Russian visas (Chinese too).
http://www.pvsinternational.org/visas.html
I'm wondering how I register once I get there given I'll be staying with friends/Air B&B. Will figure that out later I guess.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
04-30-2014, 08:07 PM
For the record, I used RealRussianVisas from the UK when I wanted a student tourist visa for a 10 day trip. They were great.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
08-26-2015, 10:16 PM
Has anyone here actually tested the 180/360 rule with a 1-day border run? I've done lots of digging online with mixed results (consulate sites don't mention this rule, expat.ru posters are mixed - some saying they did it with no problems, one who even spoke with a higher-up at the border and was told the 1-day run was acceptable, while others there saying that the rule is still technically enforced).
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
08-27-2015, 07:38 AM
My russian student visa came yesterday. It took about 2 months to get the initial invitation letter from the university, which caused me to scramble on my end as I leave next Wednesday for Moscow. I used an expedited process with Russian Connections travel agency. The agency went to the consulate in San Francisco for me with my documents and my visa was issued in about 7 business days.
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Russian 3-year tourist visa
08-27-2015, 02:14 PM
In April I applied for the 3 year visa from the consulate in Minsk where I was living (with the required Belarusian residency of over 3 months necessary to apply from a country other than that of your nationality) using one of the bogus invitations from the Internet and was unable to get it, even though the service selling the invitation listed that it would work.
The lady at the consulate actually called her superiors to find out if it was possible to grant me the 3 year visa and then informed me that to get that one I would need a real invitation issued by the actual Russian Migration Department which you can get if a friend or business associate or whoever in Russia requests an invitation for you. None of this information was available beforehand so I was pretty bummed but they still sold me a normal visa which I used to see Systemofadown in Moscow and it was actually worth the $140, it was a really sick weekend. I've heard that the rules can vary from consulate to consulate though but that's just my experience.