Embassy report: Russian transit visa in Tiblisi

[steven]

Please read and post reports on the transit visa at the embassy of Russia in Tbilisi below.
Another forum topic collects reports on the Russian tourist visa in Tbilisi.

We summarize all info on the Russia visa page.

See here if you are still in need of a letter of invitation for your Russian visa.

[rienesl]

August 2013:
You have to go to the Swiss Embassy, which has a Russian Federation Interests Section. There are two ways of getting in there:
1) Come _VERY_ early to get a place in front of the crowd, wait for 3-4 hours, sometimes even more
2) Come early and pay 50US$ to the sharks in the minibus right to the opposite of the street, wait for 1/2-2h. To be fair: After paying, those people not just speed up the process, they really _DO_ care about you and help you with all the paperwork!
Important: If you don't speak russian, you might be asked to leave and come again, when english speaking staff (exactly one person, very basic english) might be present.
Getting a transit visa takes 10 days costs 50US$ in cash (caution: only notes with the new design are accepted) and is issued for 10 days (!). They are certain, if they tell you, you should come for pickup that day at 17:00. But be careful: If you don't speak russian, you will not understand who is first and therefore might be refused to enter and asked to que again (don't ask, how I got to know that...)
Polish will have no problems, Germans are usually refused to get a visa because of "problems" between the two consuls. If you are _VERY_ nice and polite, there might be a way...

[Mrs800Days]

We recently got a Russian transit visa from the embassy in Tbilisi and crossed Georgia to Russia through the Verkhny Lars crossing (we're travelling overland in our car to Kazakhstan). There's a report on both the visa application process and the border on our website; http://www.aroundtheworldin800days.com/ ... rders.html
Emma x

[andyoxus]

Great stuff. You're missing an 'l' on your link, though: http://www.aroundtheworldin800days.com/ ... rders.html

[Mrs800Days]

Thankyou andyoxus! corrected link

[jerseyman]

Hi,
After reading à récent report from 2 people getting à russian transit visa easily in tbilisi I decided to go for it I'm an british citizen so could not hitch threw iran and so decided that the russian visa would be simpler and cheaper than the hassle of the azer visa + boat to kazakstan. So I went to the Consulate with all the necessary documents including the form filled out on the site. I was welcomed by friendly security and then english speaking helpfull staff, they first insist on you meeting the diplomate who also speaks very good english. I asked and was informed that it's no problem at all to get à tourist visa and not just the simple transit, price and period is the same : 60 dollars and 10 days, you just need the tourist coucher which cost me 25 pounds(double entry) but with no waiting time. The company I used for the voucher was realrussia.co.uk sent the money and received the documents almost instantly. I had always wanted to visit moscow so I came back the following day with all of the new documents, took à few hours to get threw the queue but once there no problem! Came back 10 days later at exacly 6pm as told I came out with my double entry russian tourist visa! The double cost 90 dollars not 60. I'm going to visit my cousins in finland that live not far from the border, I'm writing this from the train in moscow about to leave for finland, I'm just praying that I don't have any problems on re-entry, will let you know. I have registered my visa and I'm taking the train rather than hitch to be safer on the visa re-entry... Russia is awesome, really enjoyed moscow and the visa is easy peasy, much simpler than applying in your home country (I tried à few years ago and failed). Enjoy

[Biscotte Adventures]

Update from 10 June 2016 in Tblissi

As noted before in the visa section, all papers listed were necessary. We arrived at 09hrs opening time but were told to return at 1130hrs when the Consul would be present. We had a pleasant chat (in English) with the Consul, he said "no problem".

Deposited our papers on 10 June and told to return on 24 June to receive our passports. French passport (5 working days normally) and $75 USD, Canadian passport (10 working days) $135USD.

We were a bit shocked by the prices for a 5 day transit visa. Absolutely sure that there was no corruption underway, the cashier verified the prices several times on her files. We paid by VISA card, no problem. Paid inside the embassy.

Inside embassy are photocopy machines and photo machines. Outside the embassy are a collection of Ford Transit vans that do printing and photocopying (and prepare visa online).

Embassy Door located N41.71121 E044.74305

Free parking (we camped overnight) N41.71027 E044.74184 shopes, cafe, fuel, bars nearby. Periodic free Tblissi city wifi.
Chris.

[nickdrewe]

I picked up my Russian tourist visa from the consulate in Tbilisi last week. Some additional information:

I was told that as an Australian, my application form was required to be completed in Russian only, and that an additional "autobiography" was required, also in Russian (as per the instructions on the consulate website, also only in Russian - http://www.georgia.mid.ru/Docum/infan.htm)

Fee for a 30 day Tourist visa was $100 USD, 10 business day processing time.

Full report here: http://pineappleexplorer.com/2016/06/15 ... i-georgia/

[Travelphernalia]

We also applied for a transit visa in Tbilisi and was ready on the 5th day.
We arrived to the Embassy at 1:10pm on a Monday. There are a lot of people outside. Just skip them and go straight in. Once the police guards figure out you are a foreigner they will let you go through. The very friendly guy on the first checkpoint told us to wait for Window #1.
The lady in there speaks very little English but was very friendly. The consul came out to tell us we didn't really need a visa for transiting on an airport, that we could just wait in there for 16 hours. We explained we wanted to visit Moscow even if it was only for few hours. He smiled, said, "oh, you want to visit Red Square! Ok, no problem".
They gave us a voucher to come back on that Friday between 9am and 1:30pm.

What we brought:
- The Russian Application filled online and printed (in English) with photo glued on it.
- One extra passport photo
- Our Flight tickets
- Copy of our Uzbek visa
- Copy of the Georgian stamp on the passport
- Copy of our passport
- Our passports

They gave us a paper to fillout right there that was fully in Russian. We asked for help as they don't have the forms in English and the lady that takes the foreigners also doesn't speak English. Basically is just your name, last name, type of visa (TR2 for Transit) and I think that was it. They will help you.

Then we paid by credit card on the cash register inside the Embassy. Please do ask the lady to check her tables well. At the beginning we were being charged $285USD! After the initial shock and her noticing our faces, she checked again...twice! The price dropped to $85USD for Irish Passport and $55USD for Mexican passport.

They do keep your passports in there. We thought we might had issues when checking in at hotels, but this wasn't an issue. Just carry a copy with you.

Easy.

[vagabunda]

June 2016
We recently got Russian tourist visas in Tbilisi (US and Swiss passports). This is what we needed:

US passport (3-year multiple entry visa)
-signed letter from applicant requesting a 3-year visa under the 2012 agreement and listing current and future itineraries (overall entry and exit dates, destinations)
-printed application form
-printed tourist voucher and letter ($30, obtained via waytorussia.net, delivered by email within minutes)
-1 photo
-copy of passport photo page
-copy of Georgian entry stamp on passport
-filled out a short form with basic information (name, birth date, type of visa, etc.) at the consulate (not sure if it's available in English)
-they kept the passport for 7 working days but we could have filled out a form (in Russian) to keep it during processing
-$160 paid by Mastercard at the consulate's cashier window (had to show them how to swipe a US card, but it eventually worked)

Swiss passport (30-day single entry visa)
-printed application form
-printed tourist voucher and letter ($30, obtained via waytorussia.net, delivered by email within minutes)
-1 photo
-copy of passport photo page
-copy of Georgian entry stamp on passport
-copy of travel insurance letter
-filled out a short form with basic information (name, birth date, type of visa, etc.) at the consulate (not sure if it's available in English)
-they kept the passport for 5 working days but we could have filled out a form (in Russian) to keep it during processing
-$45 paid by cash (USD) at the consulate's cashier window (they did not have change for a $50, so they kept the change!); initially they wanted to charge $110 and we had to ask the nice woman at the visa window (in Russian) to verify the price, but it was resolved eventually (maybe the cashier confused Switzerland with Sweden or some other country?)

Go right up to the entrance guard and tell him you're applying for a tourist visa; they'll ask you to walk in right away. The guards inside are polite and speak English and will send you to the right window. The woman who handles tourist visas is very nice and patient, but speaks little English, so be prepared. The woman at the cashier window was not and did not, so be prepared We arrived at about 11:45 a.m. to drop off our applications and the whole process took about an hour. Pick-up the following week (in the morning) just took a few minutes.