russian visas
 

i'm planning a motorcycle trip from the UK to South East Asia...

i'm hoping to deal with visas/ vehicle insurance en route, but am aware that russia is notoriously difficult to pass through.

any tips on getting a transit visa (entering through the ukraine and leaving into kazakhstan)? do you have to apply for it in your country of residence, and if so do they ask for an exact date of arrival? how long in advance should i apply?

any info gratefully received :-) i'm well confused

sarah

First it depends on your 'home' citizenship/passport. Different nationalities have different procedures.

Assuming you have a UK passport -

- Business or Tourist Visas can only be applied for in your 'home' country - although some Far East RUS embassies might vary this, but there is no rule.
- Transit visas are usually obtainable at the Embassy of a neighbouring country or a flight origination country, invariably in the Capital city.

Here is the WebSite of the only UK people who handle Visas applications for the RUS embassy. Russia Visa Information - UK - Home Page
Most of your questions can be answered here but if anything is unclear ask here again.

Transit Visas are really intended for changing airports while flying elsewhere or train journeys starting and finishing outside RUS but entering RUS territory. I have heard of them being obtained by road travellers but only for very short periods that are based on a daily distance between your stated entry and exit border. I think it is worked out as something like 500km/daily.

The best/easiest is a Business Visa as it cuts down on paperwork required such as confirmed accomodation.

Ensure you have sufficient time on your Visa as they cannot be extended within Russia and overstaying, for any reason, can cause problems, delay, penalty and costs.

Medical Insurance is not required by UK Passport holders as emergency treatment is covered by recriprocal arrangements with UK.

Road insurance can be bought at borders and it is permitted to drive/ride to nearby towns to obtain it (cheaper!). It is only minimum level insurance to comply with the Law.

Note that Russian has now Green Card agreement, so all European countries part of that do not require any extra insurance for vehicles.

1. The opening poster said she was hoping to "deal with insurance en-route".
2. A Green Card for non EU states is not automatically included under UK Insurance policies - although they have to include minimum insurance within all EU states.
3. To get a Green Card from a UK insurer usually there is a supplementary cost and possibly further conditions.
4. Although Green Cards (suitably endorsed to include Russian Federation) are legal here, news of this has still not reached all ДПС officers yet - particularly far away from Moscow or StPeter where there are fewer EU motorists. I prefer to produce a Russian Insurance Certificate for my UK registered vehicle - it saves time by producing a document they can read and understand, does not cost much and they cannot try to extract bribes with threats of not having valid insurance. But they will!
5. The above points are why I used the words 'can be bought' instead of 'must'.

I'm glad you told me that... my insurance company promotes themselves by offering 'free 90 day EU coverage'. i didn't realise they HAD to include it!

They also won't supply me with a green card- the advisor on the phone said the GC has been 'abolished'.

I've tried a few different websites including the one you recommended. I get the idea that as long as you get a letter of invitation whilst you are still in your own country, you can apply for the visa in the embassy of Kazakhstan or Poland or wherever you happen to be...

How far in advance should you apply for the visa? we are hoping to leave the UK January next year but wont be entering Russia until around June/July as we pass through the Caucasus/central asia etc.

G

For this reason I have usually taken multientry visa which is valid for one year. Makes life much easier.

Applications can be made for Visas for dates up to 3 months in advance.

Make sure Invitations are for the dates you require - not from the present date. A Visa will only be issued, and valid, for dates on the Invitation.

A Green Card is two things - an extention of your full policy terms beyond the territories included in the original policy, and - an Internationally accepted proof of Insurance within the countries endorsed thereupon.

Your comments raise 2 different matters here -

1. A Green Card is not required by Law within the EU as every Member State is controlled by the First Directive on Motor Insurance which dictates that every motor policy MUST include legal minimum legal cover in every other Member State of the EU.
(For practical useage, Insurers usually include non-EU Switzerland and Norway and also the non-EU 'little bits' like Andorra, Lichenstein, Monaco, etc.)
This is automatic and must apply for the entire validity of your 'home' policy - not just the 90 days. But it is only the MINIMUM level required by Law in each member state.
Ones 'home' Certificate of Insurance is also the proof required by other EU Police. Often there is a Statement to this effect in several languages on the reverse.

2. What your insurers are probably offering is automatic, free, FULL policy cover within other Member states of the EU for 90 days during the year.
What they are not saying, but must include, is that the MINIMUM legal cover throughout the EU applies for the rest of the year, once the 90 days expires.

Following implementation of the First Directive most UK insurers decided, or took it as reason, not to get involved with Green Cards any more. Probably because the numbers of UK policyholders going outside the EU are so small it is easier to just say 'no' than maintain the administrative capacity.
However some insurers still issue Green Cards for use in certain non-EU countries - your problem then would be whether the Green Card is accepted within those countries (eg. as ilpo stated above, Russia only recently started accepting them as proof of legal minimum insurance - prior to that one HAD to purchase it locally. I still do!).

Sorry - beyond my knowledge and something I certainly have not heard of before.

The website I mentioned is not a commercial agency - they are just the obligatory handling agent of the RUS Embassy you MUST apply through. They do nothing other than handle applications that you, or commercial agencies, prepare and present. They will tell you the rules but will not arrange Invitations or deal with paperwork for you, other than check what you present.

Thanks Tony,

I had another read around and I found 45 days on 'realrussia' :(

I think Im going to need a 6 month business visa posted out to us on the road!

Also I notice you can only stay for 90 days out of 180.

Do you guys manage ok with this? I think we will be ok. 2 weeks across the Altai then out of Mongolia to Baikal and around for 2 months with 2 weeks to allow for shipping.

How do you explore so much in Siberia with only 90 days in country?

G

I'll look up where I got 3 months from.

Not my problem any more :) I now live here permanently and have a Residency Permit. No Visas, no Work Permits, no time limits (other than be here for a minimum of 183 days per year)!

The 90/180 day was introduced in 2009 to clamp down on the people living here full time apart from an annual 'visa-run'. Border officials were meant to check dates/days manually from the 'passive' list that came up on the computor when they scan/swipe your passport. But they never bothered to count/check if they saw you were 'coming and going' fairly regularly. This won't work any longer as the computor now has an 'active' list that flags up overstay.

The alternative that some ex-pats here do now is get a 90 day visa, and pop across to Riga, Vilnius or Helsinki for a new one every 3 months. But for most UK citizens they must go back to UK to apply (result of a diplomatic tit-for-tat game a while back).

Anyway 90 days is about the limit of reasonable weather conditions in siberia and further east!

You should be OK but take note of dates/days as your trip progresses. This works on actual days here. If you go into Kaz or Mongolia the clock stops counting until you re-enter RUS - until you have a total of 90 days here.
You cannot renew or extend visas within RUS and overstaying a visa is fairly serious, particularly if you want to come back - and you will!!

Thanks Tony, Just confirmed everything I thought. We will make do then.

Not sure where we will be 45 to 90 days from Russia. TJK prehaps? that could be a nightmare with couriers etc.

G

Just take the multi entry visa, it is valid for a year and you don't have to worry about couriers... If you just get it.

We were looking at the multi entry, but only 6 months.

Taking the 12 month would require us to enter Russia earlier than planned to just 'activate' our Visa.

What would be the easiest way to do this?

and IIRC I cannot enter Russia from the Caucasus? we were going to take the ferry from Azer to Turkmenistan and into central asia.

my apologies to the OP, I dont mean to Hijack the thread! :oops2:

G

'activate' visa? What is that? It is valid for period that it is issue to, there is no activation on it. During that period you can enter country as you wish, taken into account how many days you can stay in there.

Here's an example how the visa looks like and how the validity period is there: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink