Route advice - advice getting or trying to avoid getting a multi-entry Russian Visa
 

Let me preface this post by saying thank-you for everyone's advice so far... this trip is (soft of) shaping up. However, I hit a big hurdle this week when it came to get a Russian visa as I had assumed I'd be able to get a multi-entry visa based on other's trip reports.

I'm a Canadian citizen planning a trip for June, July, and August this year. The goal of my trip is to drive my own vehicle from Europe (Norway) to Vladivostok, Russia (or the reverse direction if it is easier) and passing through the 'Stans (my goal here is Kyrgyzstan) and Mongolia. (Crazy? probably.... )

My ideal route involves entering and exiting Russia 3 times over the course of 3 months. The three crossings would be (if going from europe to vladivostok) once from northern Norway through Russia to get to Kazakhstan, from Kazakhstan through Russia to get to Mongolia, and from Mongolia through Russia to get to Vladivostok where I can ship the car home and fly home.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find an agency that can help me get a multi-entry visa. I was wondering if a) anybody can recommend an agency that might help me or b)if anyone has any suggestions how how I can do this same trip with a double-entry visa.

Here are some alternate plans I have been suggested:

1) Try for a 30 day double-entry visa and then apply for a transit visa in Ulan Batar to get to my plane in Vlad - but the uncertainty of not being able to get this visa and thus having to abandon my car (the port to ship home is in Vladivostok) makes me nervous.

2) Try for a double-entry visa and start in Vladivostok instead of Europe. Then find a way to get to Europe from the 'Stans without needing to pass through Russia a 3rd time. The issue with this is that customs clearance for my vehicle might eat up a lot of the 30 days allotted for the tourist visa. - I've emailed Yuri about this process...

3) Try for a double-entry visa and start in Europe, but find a a way to the 'Stans without passing through Russia. Then use the 2 entries to get to Mongolia and Vladivostok. If I can (magically) stay on track with timing... this would give me almost 30 days to see Russia and Mongolia. Perhaps this is a good option.

Thank-you in advance for any advice you might have :).

-Michael

We have pretty much the same issue. At home I can only get double entry 3 months. I've seen that abroad you can sometimes get multiple entry without being to Russia before. But that had some "ifs", like the invitation would already take 4 weeks, and for our kids we would need to get a translation of birth certificate (not the normal international one) and would mean doing everything via France. Basically, it would mean this process would be too long and uncertain. It could've been done perhaps if we started way earlier.
So we have decided to get double entry 3 months locally, of which the process is very clear and quick. So that means we have to get a second visa in Ulaanbatar.

According to this long-term registration rule, our nationalities are exempted from it. This means you should be able to get another tourist visa there.
Most recent is a guy from Czech who is also exempt and got a tourist visa.

Otherwise, I'm sure you can get at least a transit visa there. But those are limited in time.

However, it is annoying that you cannot be 100% sure when you leave.

Which part of Canada are you in? The nearest big city should have a Russian diaspora of some kind, and a specialized travel agency that can arrange the right kind of invitation.

Essentially, the travel agency pays a registered Russian company to issue an official invitation to you to have a series of business meetings. And then you can get a multi-entry business visa with that. More expensive, but fairly common. Russians themselves go through a lot of hoops with getting visas to go abroad, so being creative with invitations is par for the course. ;)

@AnTyx, there is a simple rule: if you haven't been to Russia before, then you can only get 3 months double entry.

There are just some exceptions. That not every embassy is following this rule.
Or that you can get a special inivitation (through a Russian Ministry (of foreign affairs?)), which is expensive and time consuming.

This is exactly what I was saying. If you go through a travel agency who knows how to get the right invitation (not from the ministry), you can get it.

Here an annual multiple-entry business visa is 125 euros, and if you had a previous visa you can get it in 10 days. If not, you can get it in 3,5 weeks.

In Russia, the strictness of laws is compensated by their optionality.

I am a US citizen and just got a multi year from gotorussia.com It was pretty painless.

There is a special program in place for US citizens which actually gives preference to applications for multiple entry, multiple year visas. I don't know if this is available to any other nationalities, but I'll guess that OP (and others) would have taken advantage if it were.

Whether this will still be true at any point in the future, and whether it's true at all Russian consulates, is an open question.

Mark

Yes for US citizens it is different.

@AnTyx, in my country I could only find one party doing an invitation and total visa request which made the invitation 500 euro, and then adding another 250 euro costs, quite expensive. We are with 4 so it adds up quickly...
But if on a long trip for a year being on my own, then I would do it.
I was looking abroad to find that it could be done cheaper for a visa longer than 3 months. But the process was unclear and very slow, with a high chance of having some issue.
So for me, as a nationality that is not on the list that needs long-term registration, but also not getting more than 3 months easily; It is easier and cheaper for us to get another visa on the road. It just seems to most practical for our trip.
And it may be the case for MichealAngelo as well.