Russia, registration after entering the country

[tba01]

i ll travel in russia from west to vladivostok, with a multiple entry business visa
i heard a lot of story about registration when in the country - in hotels, .... or others. with contradictory information. some people says when you re in , nothing to do, others that i must check in every x days.. anyone can tell me something about that and where is the thruth .
i will cross border where there are not big cities and will do lot of camping - so not clear where i can do any paperwork during the trip
someone can help?

[colebatch]

Originally Posted by tba01

i ll travel in russia from west to vladivostok, with a multiple entry business visa
i heard a lot of story about registration when in the country - in hotels, .... or others. with contradictory information. some people says when you re in , nothing to do, others that i must check in every x days.. anyone can tell me something about that and where is the thruth .
i will cross border where there are not big cities and will do lot of camping - so not clear where i can do any paperwork during the trip
someone can help?

Unless something has changed very very recently, you need to get registration. I am not sure where people are saying you dont need to do anything once in ... but do yourself a favour and go to a hotel in your first few days int he country and get registration. Pay em a bit extra and see if they will register you for the duration of your stay.

[maximondo]

You can either do that or go to a police station and it there.
I can not remember exactly what you need but just have on you a copy of your passport and visa page.

Make sure you do this! Ive heard of people having a lot of trouble when leaving the country.

[telemarker]

Colebatch is right. In Volgograd now and registered on Monday. We checked into a hotel, to clean up and let them do the registration for us, though they took a little persuading (big holiday this week for Victory Day celebrations!) Cost about $10 (250Rbs) and was done the same day. Have met locals here who said they`ve heard of travellers who`ve had problems when not registered, especially on exit?! We plan to camp much of the rest of our time in Russia (til the end of May) but will probably use another hotel later to get another stamp? Hope this is of some use?
Robin.

[telemarker]

Sorry, should add the police station thing takes a while (half day or so by yourself if you speak some Russian it will obviously be a little easier!?) and you need your passport and the registration slip which you will have filled out and stamped on entry...
Good luck.

[Chri8]

Hi

I'm not sure if police station works good, usually they might send you to the post office, where this can be also done (last time they told us, post office will do it only if you are within 3 working days - allthough 7 was the magic number), but as with doing yourself, it could take some time and needs language skills.
Simplest is hotel, that might be a reason why you are sometimes turned away from hotels (cheap ones), that don't want to have hazzle with foreigners.
We just got our visas (astonishingly fast and a lot time in advance), there was a letter accompanying them, where the possibility of an online registration for the whole stay was mentioned (we had full service for business/tourist visa), I would have to scan the migration card and send it to them, rest should be done by them. Perhaps I try this.

Regards

Christian

PS last time we didn't need the 7 working days to Mongolia, but after reentering in Kjachta, they told us, our clock was already at 5 days, when we entered, so we had to register quickliy in Ulanude.

[Tirpse]

According to Russian immigration law (Федеральный закон о миграционном учете иностранных граждан) , signed by former president Dmitri Medjedev 25.3.2011 all foreigners has to register to Russian authorities (Федеральная миграционная служба) in time of seven working days after border of Russia is crossed. When you register also exit time is entered. Law is involved to both single entry and multientry visa travels.

So currently foreigner can stay in Russia seven working days without registration. Eearlier limit was three days. Hotel guest must give documents in 24 hours after arrival to hotel for registration. Hotel will take copies of passport, visa and immigration card stamped by border officials. Hotel has to give to foreign guests registrigation document stamped by immigration officials and hotel.

All hotels must register their foreign guests to immigration officials and their entry and exit time. If there are missing documents hotel can deny to host guest.

You can also do registration in post. Here is example document. When you registrate in post office you also need to pay to bank registration costs. I think it is 10 rubl per day what you are staying.
http://www.venajaseura.com/sites/def...inti_malli.pdf

When we were 2010 in Barnaul we were told by Immigration officials and they also gave their number to call if there comes any problems that if you are not staying in one place but travel around you dont have to do registration. I didnt had any problems leaving Russia without registration through Finland border. Now this was 2010 and law has been changed 25.3.2011. I am going to drive in Russia around Lake Lagoda next week so i try to ask this in border between Finland-Russia how it is now.

[navalarchitect]

My understanding of the rules based on a trip last year are:

- you need to register at least once for every time you enter the country and,
- you need to register if you are staying more than 7 business days in any town.

I entered via Vladivostok and the cheap hotel there did it automatically (100Rbl fee). I then travelled west towards Mongolia, frequently camping, and only stayed in one other hotel (which also automatically did the registration) over the next few weeks until arriving at the border. At the exit I was not asked about my visa registration at all.

I then left Mongolia by the western tip and re-entered Russia. Again spent several days camping before arriving at Novisibersk, where the hotel automatically did the registration. I then travelled west again either camping or staying in hostels and got no more visa registrations. Again when I left at the border near St Petersburg there were no questions.

So 3 visa registrations over the 3 months and no problems. So my view is get one for at least entry and then after that when you can and as a backup make sure you have a trip log to prove you were not in any town more than 7 days.

The only other comment is I met two other travellers in Vladivostok who weren't staying in a hotel and so tried to do it via the police. This turned into a long run around of " not this office go to". After two or three of these they gave up and simply used a hotel a few days later.

Hope this helps.

[colebatch]

In principle, the immigration guys at the border are no longer concerned with your registration. It was the case in the past, but my understanding is that the rules have changed and they are no longer interested in your registration.

The registration now is something you only have to show to police within Russia if asked for it.

[Tirpse]

Originally Posted by colebatch

In principle, the immigration guys at the border are no longer concerned with your registration. It was the case in the past, but my understanding is that the rules have changed and they are no longer interested in your registration.

The registration now is something you only have to show to police within Russia if asked for it.

Ok. Funny thing though is that police no longer can issue you fine for you if you have overextended registration time. I read it somewhere, I dont remember anymore where.

[bushman_uk]

We had some advice after registering the first time, if you are camping keep all your fuel, food and any other reciepts, so that these reciepts will show your progress around the country. Have never been asked by the police for any registration documents only once for driving licence and passports, nice and friendly and just waved us through.

The price for registration varied from free to 120 rbl and several hotels did refuse us because i believe they just didn't want the hassle of the registration.

In Vladivostok there are plenty of police around checking on documents, but they tend to leave the european looking tourists alone. But we did carry our documents with us at all times, just incase.