Visa Registration in Russia

WE CAN HELP YOU WITH VISA REGISTRATION.

Registration is simply the process of validating your visa and registering your presence in Russia.
So not to face hefty fines and delays upon departure from the country, be sure to stick to the following STEP-BY-STEP VISA REGISTRATION GUIDANCE:

• upon arrival, you will be given a migration card (see the image below), which you should fill in carefully (your full name, passport data, purpose of visit, duration of stay, terms and purposes of visit and the prospective place of residence) and the instant you cross the Russian border, the customs’ officials stamp it thus indicating the date and site of your arrival

• when filling in your migration card (and all other official documents concerning your stay in Russia), do your best to avoid contradictions between them. If you are travelling with a tourist visa, you should mention "tourist" purpose of visit, if it is a private visa - you check "private" purpose, etc.

• if you stay on the territory of Russia for more than 3 days, you have 72 hours (excluding weekends and official holidays) to register your visa.

• as you may already know, the rules of visa registration changed in January 2007. In order to register the visa a copy of your passport and migration card should be taken to the local branch of the migration service. This should be done by the landlord or hotel representative.

The authorities accept the form and give a tear off coupon that the foreigner should keep until departure. When leaving, the foreigner renders the tear off coupon to the landlord (he does not need to show it at the border) and the landlord passes it to the police. This should be done within 24 hours after departure. Please note that the foreigner himself is not supposed to go to the police at all. The registration is to be done within three business days upon arrival.

• if you stay in a hotel or a hostel, your visa registration is to be done either at no additional charge or at a tiny administration fee of $2-3, when you check in.

• if you are renting an apartment through an agency, it should be set up to register you as well, but things are a bit more complicated: the procedure might take a bit longer and as a rule you pay $20-50 for the service.

• if you are staying in private accommodation with friends or a family, you have to register yourself – and this is the most hellish procedure! You should have an Izvesheniye from the person whose flat it is and they will be responsible for registering you at the branch of OVIR (the Ministry of Passports, Visas and Registration). We advise that you call some travel agency or law firm and ask them to make a registration for you –otherwise you will feel the Russian bureaucracy at its worst!

• be sure to keep the migration card safe until departure – you should hand these migratory forms back at the customs and if your migration card was lost/stolen or simply not stamped you will be prevented from leaving the country until you are fined and all the necessary paperwork is in order.

WE CAN HELP YOU WITH VISA REGISTRATION.

It’s worth keeping in mind

• Children under eighteen, entering the Russian Federation together with their parent(s), get a migration card as well as adults and their visa registration is to be done simultaneously with the registration of their parents’ visa.

• The registration of a foreign citizen, who entered the Russian Federation, is produced on the place of his stay, which means: if you stay in a certain city for longer than 3 days, you are to be registered and, if later on you move to another city, you are obligated to get a new stamp on your migration card, i.e. to register once again during three working days from the day of arrival to the new place of your stay.

• Some small hotels, guest houses and hostels, that are not licensed by the OVIR, won’t be able assist you with registration. So you either make sure that the hotel, you plan to stay in, will register your visa, or simply contact any travel agency, which provides this service for a certain fee.

• There are certain people, who are not supposed to register their visas: These are foreign states’ government officials, leaders of international organizations, as well as members of their families; foreign citizens, who came to the Russian Federation for less than three days; warship seamen and warplane crewmen; civil ships seamen (either not leaving the port territory at all or leaving it for less than 24 hours); crewmen of the civil fleet of airplanes, trains and other means of transport (not leaving the territory of airports, stations, etc).

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