Russian visa

The Russian visa situation changed dramatically in 2023, when Russia introduced its unified E-visa for 55 countries. There is no invitation letter needed for this, so that simplifies things for those eligible.

However, the duration of stay is only 16 days. If you want to stay longer, you will still have to head to the consulate to apply for a regular tourist visa, and will have to incur the additional cost of a letter of invitation.

Visa-free

Wikipedia has an updated overview of the visa-free nations.

Belarus visa-free rules

Visa-free entry is not available for foreigners who are holders of valid Belarusian visas. This was (and officially still is) planned in a mutual visa recognition agreement between Belarus and Russia, which has been drafted but never been signed (as Belarus was reluctant) and basically now been postponed indefinitely.

Do look up the current situation for crossing the land border between Belarus and Russia. It remains a tricky issue.

Updates on the matter are welcome in this forum thread.

E-visa

Citizens of the following countries and territories may obtain an e-Visa:

• The e-visa is a single entry visa.
• The validity period of a unified electronic visa is 60 days from the date of issue. You have to enter Russia within 60 days of receiving your visa.
• The permitted period of stay is 16 days. You can stay for 16 days within the 60 day window.
• The application can be submitted no earlier than 40 days and no later than 4 days before the expected date of entry into the Russian Federation.

You can apply here. Make sure you have a look at which border crossings you are eligible to cross at (not all of them).

Like many other E-visa websites, the application process can be fickle. Questions and experiences welcome in the Russian E-visa forum thread.

If you are struggling or don’t want to deal with the application process yourself, you can use Ivisa.

Embassy visa types

3 types of visas are relevant to most travelers: tourist, transit and business.

• Transit visas are the cheapest and easiest to obtain but limit you to 2-10 days.
• Tourist visas are issued for 1 month (sometimes more), and cost around 100$.
• Business visas are the most expensive and most flexible. You do not need to be on a business trip to get a business visa, you just need to be willing to pay for it.

Visa validity

Russian visas are date-specific. This means you cannot enter before the entry date on your visa, and cannot leave after the exit date, but you can enter after the entry date and leave before the exit date.

Eg.: a 30-day tourist visa valid from 1 January – 30 January. You can enter on January 1, or 2 or 3 or 4, etc. But you must in any case leave before or on 30 January.

Tourist visa

Russian tourist visas are typically issued as single or double entry for 30 days. If you want to stay longer, you will need a business visa, unless you carry a USA passport, in which case you can get a multi-entry 3-year visa.

To get a tourist visa, you need to first get an invitation letter from a tourist agency in Russia. With this letter, and a bunch of other documents, you can apply at the consulate of your choice. See the chapters on application and invitation letters below for the lowdown.

3-year tourist visa for American passport holders

If you carry a USA passport, you can get a multi-entry 3-year visa. Americans with the 3 year visa can stay in Russia for a period of up to 6 months at a time and can re-enter immediately with a new stamp.

Procedure is the same as applying for a regular tourist visa. However, no one offers a 3-year visa invitation letter. Americans applying for a 3-year visa should get the regular 1-month invitation letter.

When filling in the actual visa application, they should write dates 3 years apart in the visa application. This strategy has worked for Americans so far.

The first date on your visa invitation letter should match the first date of your visa application. This will be the start date for your visa.

Visa prices

Visa fees typically depend on the number of  entries, not the type of visa. Fees vary widely depending on your nationality and the consulate you apply at.

Some examples: EU consulates usually (meaning, not all of them) charge local citizens 35 EUR for single or double entry visa, but it can be over 250 EUR for other foreign nationals. Also be aware applying through a visa processing center can easily triple the price.

In the USA, fees are $90/144/270 for single/double/multi-entry visas.

Generally, standard visa processing takes 4-20 days and expedited processing in 1-3 days costs double. Call or visit the consulate to ask for a more exact time estimate.

Business visa

We will assume you are a tourist, not someone actually interested in doing business in Russia. If you are in business, you can get an invitation through your contacts in Russia.

Business visas can be:

• single- or double-entry valid for up to 3 months
• multiple-entry valid for 6 months, 1, 2, 3 or 5 years. 1 year is standard, 3 and 5 years is available for some nationalities (could not find a list yet, but definitely EU and Indian citizens are eligible).

As with visa-free stays, travelers on a business visa must not stay longer than 90 days within a 180-day period.

In most cases, multi-entry visas are granted only to those who have obtained a Russian visa before, unless you are from the USA.

In addition to the general visa documents, you will need an invitation letter. Similar to a tourist invitation letter, but more expensive and a longer waiting time (see below).

Transit visa

Like other Russian visas, transit visas are date-specific, so be ready to use it. They are given for 1 to 10 days, depending on the distance and your mode of transport. The benefit: they are cheap and easy to obtain while traveling, while tourist visas are often more difficult or impossible to get depending on your nationality.

In addition to the general visa documents, you will need:

• Photocopies of visas for countries which you will enter and exit Russia through (if applicable)
• Transport tickets from country A, through Russia, to country B, or car documents and a printout of your planned route.
• No letter of invitation is needed, so you are saving money.

If you are traveling by airplane, you will get a transit visa until the day you have to catch your second plane (no more than 3 days).

By car, the consulate expects you to cover 500 km per day, so specify a route of 5000+ km to receive 10 days.

For cyclists – it is up to the whims of the consulate whether to grant you a visa to bike from Kazakhstan to Ukraine or Mongolia. It is entirely feasible to apply for the visa with car documents or train tickets and then, after you receive the visa, decide to use a bicycle, local bus or hitchhike instead. Your mode of transport is not printed on the visa.

By train, it depends on the length of your journey (eg. Moscow – Vyborg: 1 day, Moscow – Nakhodka: 8 days). Each embassy has slightly different rules. Some may say you can only have 1 connection, while others grant 2 or more. Some may deny the transit when the connection time between 2 trains is very long, while others will let you hang around for an extra day or 2.

Are transit visas location-specific? Sometimes, entry or exit locations are written on the visa, but most of the time they aren’t. Anecdotal evidence suggests that even with an exit point written in your visa, you can exit at a different crossing than you applied for, as long as you exit to a third country (so not hopping back into the same country you came from).

We do not know if this will work in all cases, but so far, we haven’t heard of travelers getting into trouble exiting at a different border crossing from the one they requested. YMMV.

If you choose to go this route, in order to maximize your visa, book train/bus tickets that will take 10 days to cross the country (i.e., Vladivostok to Murmansk, or 1 day stops in each city). Russian train tickets are refundable.

Visas for children

We do not know so much yet about Russian visas for children. Please enlighten us if you know more.

It has been reported that not all companies know how to apply for a Russian business visa with accompanying children.

Invitation letter

A big point of confusion for first-time visitors to Russia is the concept of an invitation letter.

It all starts with a lack of consistent naming. If you have read other guides, you might have encountered the terms visa invitation, visa support documents, tourist voucher, tourist confirmation, et cetera. We call it a letter of invitation or in short LOI. These are all the same thing – an invitation from a Russia-based company dealing with tourists.

All travel agencies offer this service. You send them a bit of money, and soon you will find an invitation letter in your e-mail inbox. Technically, the invitation letter consists of 2 documents (in Russian). You just need to print them and bring them to the consulate when you apply for your visa.

Each LOI has a number code which you will also need to fill in on your application.

Prices

The price for a tourist LOI tends to be around 20$, and it usually gets delivered the same day via e-mail.

Prices for a business LOI range from about $80-150 for 8-20 day processing and double that for faster processing, with multi-entry support documents being generally more expensive than single or double entry.

Where to get it?

Plenty of options. Some hotels or booking sites give you a free LOI when you book with them for a number of days. If you are booking a tour, the price for the LOI should also be included.

Ivisa is a reputable company with good prices and they gives us a commission for referrals, so we are happy to recommend their tourist LOI and business LOI services. If your embassy needs a detailed day-by-day itinerary, Realrussia is a good option thanks to their handy itinerary builder.

Visa application

It is possible to apply for a Russian visa either directly through the consulate or via a visa processing service or travel agency.

Some consulates in the US, Canada, and Europe outsource their visa processing to another company, and they will make it much easier to apply through that company (for a fee), but it is still possible to apply directly at the consulate with some persistence. Note that applying in the consulate typically requires being there in person, whereas the processing services allow mail-in applications.

Expect to pay about double for your visa with the visa processing service. If you want to apply through the consulate directly, look far in advance to book an appointment: places are usually limited, and the consulate loves to send you back home because of a missing document.

If the consulate states that visas are processed through ILS/VFS/VHS but you do not want to use that service, be adamant and request to make an appointment to submit your documents in person in the consulate.

Updated information on required documents and visa processing for each consulate is usually available on their website, which tends to follow the formula city-name.mid.ru, city-name.kdmid.ru or country-name.mid.ru.

Required documents

For all visas, required documents include:

Completed visa application and invitation letter

You will likely need to fill in the form online. On the application, you will be asked to write the dates of your visit to every country in the past 10 years. Don’t worry too much about this – just give a rough estimate if you cannot remember.

For tourist and business visas, you will need to purchase a letter of invitation before you can fill out the application.

A passport, copies and passport pictures

• A passport with 2 empty pages valid for 6 months after planned departure from Russia.
• The embassy tends to keep your passport while your application is being processed.
• A photocopy of your passport
• A 3,5 x 4,5 cm photo

Health insurance

Valid travel health insurance is required for EU/EEA citizens, though this may be overlooked at some embassies for the transit visa. Generally not required for citizens of other countries.

The travel insurance must often explicitly state Russia. Big insurance companies tend to know the Russian consulate’s idiosyncrasies, just call them up and ask for the standard letter, they will know what to do.

Other documents

Depending on your nationality and the consulate, you may need to provide:

• A note from you or your employer stating the purpose of the visit
• Bank statements from the past 3 months
• A detailed day-by-day itinerary
• Hotel bookings

Longer-term visas will probably require HIV test results.

Russian visa application on the road

Things change quickly for Russian visas, so do double-check with the embassy in advance if someone bothers to pick up the phone.

Long-term registration needed

To apply for any category of visas except transit on the road, you must have a long-term  ( > 90 days) registration in the country you are applying in. If you are a traveler, you can only get a transit visa. These days, this includes countries like Georgia where many people can get a one-year tourist visa.

Embassy reports

• Almaty
• Astana
• Baku
• Bishkek
• Dushanbe
• Erbil
• Tashkent
• Tbilisi – transit visas – tourist visas
• Tehran
• Ulan Bator – transit visa – tourist visa
• Uralsk
• Yerevan

More Silk Road visas