Before applying for your Russian visa choose what kind of visa you need. You can refer to Types of Visa section to choose the visa that'll best suit your needs or just use our Russian Visa Troubleshooter that will guide you through the process.

After you chose visa you need to contact the Russian consulate where you will apply to and ask them about their requirements. You can see a complete list of all Russian consulates in the world (addresses, phone numbers and internet sites) in the Russian Consulates Worldwide section. You might also be interested in Russian Visa Insider's info page. Below we'll consider Russian Tourist visa case.

You can order your invitation online here also.

Russian Tourist Visa requirements

1. A valid passport with at least one blank page (for a visa), the expiration date should be not earlier than 3 months after your visa validity ends. Sometimes you may be required to present two photocopies of your passport (copy all the most important pages of the passport - showing your name, birth date, photo, passport number, expiration date).
2. Russian visa application form completed and signed (it's available in a Russian consulate for free, you can download a sample here - Adobe Acrobat format).
3. Three passport-type photographs (make sure you have no glasses and hats on).
4. For individual travelers: a letter of invitation (also called "visa support" or "tourist voucher and tourist reservation confirmation") issued by a Russian travel agency authorized in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), or directly from a Russian hotel, showing the reference number of the company in the MFA and the confirmation number for the visa (see Types of Visa section).
5. Shengen countries, Estonian, and Israeli citizens need to present an insurance valid in Russia (usually already included on your credit card policy).
6. French citizens sometimes are also required to present bank statements for the last 3 months and a copy of their return tickets (as well as insurance, as above).

Most Russian consulates do not require originals of the invitation papers: a fax or a scanned copy (sent to you via e-mail) is enough. Only the consulates in Switzerland, Sweden and sometimes Germany ask for originals. Also note that a consulate has the right to request the originals of the papers, if they need them. For cruise passengers or group travelers: the Russian visa should be arranged with your cruise organizers. You will be able to leave the port only together with the cruise organizers.

Russian Tourist Visa

This type of visa is issued for the travelers who come to Russia for tourism purposes. This visa is easiest to get and the least expensive of all visas, so it's ideal for tourists. A tourist Russian visa is single-entry or double-entry only and can be valid for the period up to one month. It usually takes the Russian consulate from 1 to 10 days to issue this type of visa and will cost from 50 USD to 150 USD depending on the time of processing.

To obtain the Russian tourist visa you need a tourist invitation. The tourist invitation comprises a tourist voucher and a tourist reservation confirmation, sometimes these two documents may be united in one. These documents can be issued by a Russian travel agency, which is registred as a tourist company in Russia, has a registration in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and has a reference number in MFA. All these data should be stated on the invitation.

Note: effective from 1 Nov 2002, all travel agencies issuing visa support will need to re-authorize in Russian Interior Ministry (RIM). This doesn't affect you, if you apply for a tourist visa, it's just a formality for travel agencies.

The price of a tourist invitation is usually 25 - 40 USD and it takes 1 hour to 1 day to issue it. It is usually sent to the applicant by fax, by e-mail (scanned copy), or by post (if the Russian consulate requires originals).

Your tourist voucher will look like this:

And your reservation confirmation will look like this:

Sometimes you get both tourist voucher and reservation confirmation on one A4 paper, so it is not necessary to have them as two separate documents.

There are many things written on both voucher and confirmation but most of it are some formal stuff required by the outdated Russian bureaucracy - a legacy of the Soviet times. The voucher is basically a receipt from the travel agency confirming you have paid for something and the reservation confirmation is a confirmation for the consulate that Mr. John Smith is indeed invited to Russia for such and such dates and will visit this and that city and the purpose of his trip is tourism. We hope that they (the Russian government) will get rid of all this formal crap soon but for now the most important is whether your data (name, birth date, passport number) and the entry/leaving dates are correct because that's the period for which your visa will be issued. If that is all right your visa shall be fine.

Also make sure you fill in the visa application form after you receive your invitation and submit there the same data as in the invitation: name of the inviting travel agency, purpose of the trip - tourism (or pleasure), visa dates, cities to be visited.

Where can one get a tourist invitation? You can get a tourist invitation from hotels but only for the period you have your room booked and paid there. The most flexible option when you don't need to pay for anything extra and can stay where you want and use the services you want is to order an invitation from a Russian travel agency. Usually travel agencies do not require any additional service to be paid and for the same fee (about 25 to 40 USD) issue the tourist invitation.

Basically the tourist visa support issued by travel agencies is the same tourist voucher and reservation confirmation meaning that technically you have a reservation at a hotel. Practically you don't have to stay in that hotel and may stay where you want. Of course you have better chance of getting visa if you show the consulate that you're going to stick to your "original plans" and if the information you provide in the visa application form is consistent with the information provided in your visa support (especially, the purpose of your trip - tourism, the place of stay - hotel, etc.).

Most consulates accept copies of the tourist invitation. So you can receive it by fax or e-mail (scanned copy) and bring it to the consulate. There are some consulates that may require originals. For the list of those "problematic" consulates see our Russian Visa Insider's Page.

After you come to Russia you need to register your visa in 72 hours (see Registration section). If you stay in a hotel it must register your tourist visa for the whole period of your stay (according to Decree #212 - 26 Apr '91), the hotel registration cost is about $0.5 (16R). If you stay in an apartment or with your friends the landlord (owner of the apartment) has to fill out a special landlord letter and submit it to immigration authorities via the regular mail service. Read more about it in our Russian visa blog.

You can apply for a tourist invitation online through our website and we'll refer your request to our partner travel agency. This agency has a reference number in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other Russian cities, so you can have your visa registred easily when you arrive. The tourist visa support costs $30 US (taxes included, no additional services required) and is ready in 1 working day. If you're interested, please, go to Services / Visa Support.

Special thanks to (we recommend to visit also):

• Way To Russia
• Russian Visa Online
• Russian Visa Requirements