RUSSIA | Practical guide & steps to obtain a visa for Russia.

What you will find in this article:
→ List of 5 essential documents to gather for your request
→ The 5 stages of visa application for Russia
→ Practical information (timing, budget, agencies)
→ Our personal experience

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INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTS for your visa application

Five documents are needed for your file. We list them below and have added the details / practical information that we would have liked to have had when creating our own file. However, know that visa regulations may evolve and this list may therefore change*. For more security, you can check the list of these documents on the Official Russian Visa Centres from Paris, Marseille, Nice and Strasbourg or on Successful.com, reference site for trips to Russia, and regularly updated.

* We made our request in July 2018 and the last update of this article was in February 2020.

→ #1 YOUR PASSPORT

Having a valid passport is obviously an essential condition for obtaining a visa for Russia (you will have to entrust the original copy to the Consulate throughout the processing of your file so that the visa is directly affixed to one of the blank pages). But be careful, this is not the only condition:

• Your passport must be valid at least 6 months after the end of your journey in Russia. Make sure to check its expiry date before you start your business.
• Your passport must have 2 consecutive blank pages. If necessary, it should be renewed.

You will also be asked for an A4 photocopy of the 2 main pages (the pages where your identity information, your photo and your signature appear).

Additional advice:
Be careful that your passport is not damaged, or covered, or in its case when you hand it over with the rest of your file. Also, keep in mind that it is the consulate that will hold it throughout the processing of your application: therefore, do not plan to travel outside the Schengen area during this period, because you will not have access to your passport.

→ #2 A PHOTO DISIDENTIZED

You may already know, a visa can only rarely be obtained without this photo where you are asked to « remain neutral ». The Russian visa does not derogate from the rule: you will have to provide the original of a photo of identity less than 6 months of 3.5 x 4.5 cm on a clear background (photocopies not accepted).

→ #3 Visa application form

This form is essential for any visa application. You can fill it up online and you'll find it only on the website of Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. After completing it, simply print it and attach it to the rest of the file.

→ #4 Travel insurance

This is not optional: travel insurance is compulsory if you wish to go to Russia. For our part, as we were leaving for at least one year of travel to various countries, we had subscribed insurance Cap Aventure of the Chapka Insurance.

Once you have subscribed to the insurance formula that best suits you, you just have to send an e-mail to your insurer asking for a certificate. with your dates of entry / exit. Companies like Chapka Insurance are used to such applications and are aware of the steps to be taken to obtain a visa for Russia.

Zoom in on Chapka Insurance
Getting started looking for insurance and engaging with someone you don't know (especially on a journey of several months, years) is not obvious. In all honesty, we chose Chapka after a morning of comparisons and research on the net. This company seemed to us to be the best option given the quality, the price, and the many recommendations on its services. We remember it wasn't enough to silence that little voice that says « I hope you're not mistaken. » at the time of signature. But we have not been deceived, to such an extent that after more than a year of traveling around the planet, Chapka has now become our official adventure partner. They're highly recommended.

→ #5 The invitation or « tourism voucher »

It's the last key. It is a question of « document required to obtain a visa by which a natural person, institution, hotel, or Russian company invites them to visit« . It may be delivered by your hotel or a specialized agency and will include: important information of your stay (dates, cities visited...).

We indicate how to obtain in the following section: « The various stages of visa application » (Step #3).

Attention : invitation or « tourism voucher » must not be confused with a hotel reservation. Proof of a reservation will not be sufficient to obtain the visa: you need a written document from the establishment (or person) where you will be staying.

The various stages of visa application

Before you start, know that there are two ways to apply for a visa:

→ #step 01 Gathering the first documents Keys

Before embarking on the various steps, gather the following four documents, making sure that they meet all the conditions of which we spoke earlier:

→ #step 02 Define route

This step only concerns you if you make a stay more than 13 days in Russia. It caused us to panic slightly when drawing up our file because we had no idea of the length of our stay (except that it would be less than 30 days, since it is the maximum allowed by this visa), or what we were going to do. If this is your case, don't worry: the program you will be asked to provide when you complete the online application form will only have an indicative title. This means that you will not necessarily have to follow the program once you are there. Moreover, no proof of hotel reservation is necessary. And if that changes, you can always make cancelable reservations free of charge via Booking.com.

Important note:
In any case, it is necessary to think about your itinerary before any next step since your entry and exit dates will have to appear on your visa. This requires you to know (or at least have an idea) when you will want to make your trip. Know that you will be able to ask for a longer period than your actual period to have more flexibility, but in any case your entry and exit dates must be made during the period indicated by the visa.

→ #step 03 Get sound « tourism voucher »

We have presented this document in the previous part: now that you have gathered your 4 mandatory personal documents (original passport, photocopy of passport, photo ID, travel insurance certificate) and have considered the development of your itinerary, it is time to take the necessary steps to obtain it. The invitation or « tourism voucher » can be obtained in several ways:

We went through the site ivisa : simple and fast (voucher obtained instantly). We paid 17.90€.

This document must be completed carefully. It is one of the most important documents in the file. Don't forget that the information you will indicate (e.g. entry and exit dates) will have to exactly match the information on your visa application form. Again, if you're not sure about your dates it's better to « see wider » not to have any difficulties at the borders. Once the PDF is in the pocket or rather in the mailbox, it is time to move on to the penultimate step.

→ #Step 04 Fill in the form visa application Russian

More than this online form to complete, and your file will be complete! For this and as we explained to you above, just go on and only on the site of Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. After you fill it out, print it and attach it to the rest of your file.

Filling the form does not present any particular difficulty: just be guided by the different instructions. However, be careful that each information provided is identical to that of your voucher mentioned above: same entry and exit dates, same program, same hotels in the section information about your stay (it is this kind of detail that can cause a visa to be refused or delayed).

Once the document has been fully completed and a standard impression has been made, it is only left to sign in black pen without leaving the frame and paste your photo ID. Your request is ready, so is your file.

→ #Step 05 File folder

You currently have your 4 personal documents (passport, photocopy, identity card, insurance certificate) + your voucher + your printed application form: you only have to file your file. Where to drop him off? Two options are available to you:

Our personal experience:
We had filed our file with VHS, 35 Avenue de Friedland, Paris. These centres do not do on a case-by-case or compassionate basis: « The rules are the rules, and the time is the hour! ». The day we were there, a lady came from a distance to add a missing piece to her file and was presented at 4:04 p.m. while the counter closed at 4:00 p.m. The receptionist with Russian accent cordially forced him to return the next day. For our part, our two files did not contain any errors, however, as our trip exceeded 13 days and the receptionist informed us that a detailed itinerary was normally expected. Exceptionally, she has passed our case through the Strasbourg consulate (a little longer) but apparently does not ask for these routes. Finally, for the withdrawal of our visa, we chose the option of receive at home for the sum of 20€, much more advantageous than a round-trip train from southwestern France.

Practical information

→ Budget

The Russian visa alone at a cost of 35€. This is the minimum amount that must be paid to the consulate. However, several fees are added to this amount:

Our personal experience:
Given that we were already covered by insurance at that time and that we had made up our file alone, our visa came back to us to:€) + delivery of our request to the VHS Paris centre (26€) + compulsory consular fees (35€) + postal delivery option (20€) = 99€.

Note: if you go through an agency like RapidVisa, your visa will cost you 114€ to 174€. The latter amount is understood to include any service and fees (constitution of the file, entry of the online application form, voucher, deposit and recovery from the consulate, embassy fees...). Additional shipping costs may apply, as well as your travel insurance.

→ Timing

The Embassy of Russia recommends that the visa application be filed 3 weeks before the date of departure to avoid possible delays. In general, visa centres will return the visa within 4 to 10 working days. But beware: gathering all documents can take time. Check that your passport is valid even 6 months after your date of release to Russia or includes two blank pages facing each other If so, you will have to re-do your passport before you can apply for a visa.

Ideally, we recommend you start a month and a half before leaving, keeping this in mind: the wider you plan, the quieter you will be! If you are effective in collecting your documents and go straight to a centre, the entire process may not exceed two weeks. An accelerated processing procedure (1 to 3 days in case of an urgent visa) may also be requested at an additional cost.

We had received our visa two weeks later because he had been exceptionally treated by the Russian consulate in Strasbourg when we had deposited him in Paris. This did not cause us any problems as we filed our file in mid-July for early September.

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