What is а Russian Tourist Visa?
Tourist visa is a document required to enter Russian Federation for the citizens of those countries, which don’t have visa-free regime with Russia. Validity of tourist visa may be from 1 to 30 days.
Tourist visa is being issued under a tourist invitation, issued by a travel agency, accredited at Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism). Such a visa is apparently the cheapest and easiest to get.
Brief look at tourist visa:
| Validity: | From 1 to 30 days * |
|---|---|
| Average cost: | ≈85$ (≈75€) ** |
| Number of entries: | Single, double |
| Visa processing time: | From 1 to 10 calendar days *** |
* – In some cases ,up to 6 months and up to 3 years
** – Only for the EU nationals. 125$ (≈111€) (What it consists of?) for others
*** – Only for EU nationals. It is from 1 to 20 business days for others
Don’t you want to delve into it? This step-by-step guide will help you:
Using this guide, you could collect all the necessary documents in 1 hour, and then you will only have to wait a visa issuance. So, what do you need to do?
- Bear a valid passport
- Get the tourist invitation to Russia
- Get a medical insurance
- Complete a visa application form on visa.kdmid.ru and print it
- Glue a picture 3,5х4,5 cm of you on a form
- Pay a consular (visa) fee
- Submit or send documents to the Russian diplomatic authority (passport, invitation, insurance, application form, receipt)
- Wait from 1 to 10 calendar days * and get a passport with a visa inside
Step-by-step guide to get a Russian Visa
* — Only for the EU citizens. It is from 1 to 20 business days for others
Read more about Russian tourist visa:
Introduction
Tourist visa to Russia is the easiest visa, which can be obtained for the least money and time. It is suitable for most people, who want to visit Russia. Such a visa is suitable for tourists, who are going on tour organized by a travel agency, for individual tourists and also for those who want to visit Russia to meet their friends or colleagues. It is not necessary to delegate obtaining of a tourist visa, as well as any visa type, to a travel agency. Their services will cost you 100-200$, meanwhile you can do everything to get a visa by yourself. Read my blog and you could save your money and time.
Nationals of some countries can enter Russia for tourism without visa. Find out if you a citizen of such a country via the following link Who needs a visa to Russia?
I recommend you to watch a video with a quick review of a tourist visa:
Validity of the Russian Tourist Visa
Validity of tourist visa is from 1 to 30 days according to the Russian law. Tourist visa can be for a single or double entries. If there is bilateral agreements between countries, visa possible validity can differ.
At this very moment, there are 2 agreements:
- The EU citizens can obtain multiple entry visa for 6 months.
- The USA citizens can obtain multiple entry visa for 3 years.
Average cost of a Russian Tourist Visa
Typical tourist visa to Russia for the EU nationals costs from ≈68$ to ≈150$ (from ≈60€ to ≈135€). Price for other countries is a little higher. Visa price consists of the cost of paperwork, fees and services required to obtain it. First I will give an example of calculating of typical visa cost, then I will give detailed explanation.
Example of single tourist visa cost for 14 days (2 weeks) for one citizen of the European Union:
| Invitation to Russia | ≈15$ (≈14€) |
|---|---|
| Health insurance for a visa | 1.5$ per day * 14 days ≈ 17$ (≈15€) |
| Photo 3,5х4,5 cm | ≈8$ (≈7€) |
| Consular fee | 40$ (≈35€) |
| Post services (optional) | ≈5$ (≈4€) |
| Total: | 85$ (≈75€) |
Cost of Russian tourist visa consists of:
- Invitation to Russia
- Insurance for a visa
- Photo
- Consular fee (bulk of cost)
- Post services (optional)
Price of a Russian Tourist Invitation
Invitation to Russia costs ≈15$ (≈13€), depending on a company which issues an invitation. Usually, a number of entries or the length of stay doesn’t affect the price. It means that single or double entry invitation has the same price as well as 1 day and 30 days invitation.
Where to get a tourist invitation?
Price of medical insurance for a tourist visa
Insurance for a tourist visa costs ≈1.5$ (≈1€) per day. Insurance pricing is complicated and depends on your age. Price range depending on age is from ≈1.5$ to ≈8$ (from ≈1€ to ≈7€) per day.
So, depending on the length of your stay (from 1 to 30 days), insurance will cost from 1.5$ to 45$ for an ordinary adult.
Where to get health insurance for a visa?
Price of a photo for a tourist visa
Professional photo costs ≈8$ (≈7€). Photo must be taken in high quality, without head covering and glasses. Photo size: 3,5х4,5 cm.
Consular fee for a tourist visa
(bulk of cost)
Consular fee is fixed and depends only on a visa multiplicity.
Consular fee amount for a visa to Russia:
| Single | Double | Multiple | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU countries | 40$ (35€) | 40$ (35€) | 40$ (35€) |
| USA | 160$ (140€) | 160$ (140€) | 160$ (140€) |
| Other countries | 80$ (70€) | 128$ (115€) | 240$ (215€) |
In case of expedited visa processing fees doubles (except the USA, there is the same tariff):
| Single | Double | Multiple | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU countries | 80$ (70€) | 80$ (70€) | 80$ (70€) |
| USA | 160$ (140€) | 160$ (140€) | 160$ (140€) |
| Other countries | 160$ (140€) | 256$ (228€) | 480$ (425€) |
Consular fee amount can increase or decrease due to reciprocity principle. Good example of this is visa facilitation agreement between the European Union and the Russian Federation.
Precise amount of a consular fee you can find on the Consulate website and if there is no website, then you should call.
List of Russian diplomatic authorities
Post services (optional)
In case when you go to the consulate personally, there will be no additional expenses. If a consular office is far from youm you don’t have to visit it on your own. It will be enough to send a pack of documents by post. Such service will add from ≈10$ to ≈20$ (from ≈9€ to ≈18€) (depending on your country) to your visa cost.
In some cases, if you live in a migration risk country, you may be required to submit the original of a tourist invitation. In this case, additional costs are added to receive such invitation from a tourist company. Courier fee would be from ≈70$ to ≈100$ (from ≈62€ to ≈90€), depending on a country. I would like to say that some invitations have a protection against counterfeiting and Consulates trust them more. Such invitations aren’t required the original. Look for the companies which issue invitations with a verification code.
It’s not so difficult, as you can see!
How to get a tourist visa to Russia?
In order to apply for a tourist visa to Russia you must:
- Bear a valid passport
- Get the tourist invitation to Russia
- Get a health insurance
- Complete visa application form on visa.kdmid.ru and print it
- Glue a photo 3,5х4,5cm in a form
- Pay a consular (visa) fee
- Submit or send documents to the Russian Consulate (passport, invitation, insurance, application form, receipt)
- Wait from 1 to 10 calendar days * and receive a passport with your visa
Step-by-step guide to get a Russian Visa
* — Only for the EU citizens. It is from 1 to 20 business days for others
Detailed information and nuances of obtaining a tourist visa to Russia:
- Which documents do you need?
- Where to get an invitation?
- Where to get insurance?
- Where submit documents to?
- Visa processing time
Which documents are required for a Russian Visa?
- Valid international passport
- Tourist invitation to Russia
- Medical insurance policy covering the whole territory of the Russian Federation
- Completed on this website visa.kdmid.ru and printed visa application form with a photo
Where to get a Russian Tourist Invitation?
Tourist invitation to Russia is a document required to issue a visa to Russia. Travel agencies from unified registry of Russian tour operators have a right to issue such invitations.
Invitation is a tourist service agreement on the Russian territory.
Read more: Russian Tourist Visa Invitation
There are many organizations, which have a right to issue these invitations. While a price of an invitation is low, you should primarily pay attention on a way of receiving an invitation. Modern and well developed companies have this process fully automated and presented as a web service. You receive an invitation in 5 minutes after your payment.
I’ve made a detailed guide to use one of these Online Services:
There are other companies as well. Read more: Tourist invitation to Russia
How to avoid fraud?
WARNING! Implementation of tour operator activity is allowed only in the presence of financial security of the tour operator responsibility [4]. It is prohibited to carry out tour operator activities by legal entities, information about which is not available in the unified Federal register of tour operators. That’s why you should check, if an organization providing a service of obtaining necessary documents for a tourist visa has been registered at Rostourism.
If a company of your choice is in the unified registry, then you can find information about it on the official website of the authorized Federal executive. It will help to avoid fraud. Such a company can issue an invitation and confirmation of tourist information with all necessary data, signatures and seals just in 1 hour. You will receive all the documents in electronic version by e-mail, by courier or post.
All companies mentioned in this blog are verified!
Where to get insurance for a visa to Russia?
You should contact an insurance company in order to get an insurance required to obtain a visa to Russia.
The price of such insurance depends on you age, insurance program, amount of coverage, fame of the insurance company. Usually it costs up to 1 euro per day.
Important detail: Minimum insurance amounts of coverage are determined on a reciprocity basis. For example, if some state demands Russian citizens to get an insurance with 30 thousands euro coverage, then citizens of that state will be demanded the same amount of coverage in order to visit Russia. Contact a Consulate of your country to know the minimum coverage amount.
Where submit documents for a Russian visa to?
In order to obtain a tourist visa, you need to apply for it to the Russian diplomatic authority, situated in your country of residence. It is impossible to obtain such a visa in Russia! In the beginning, you should find out at the Consulate which documents do you need for a tourist visa. Then you should collect a pack of necessary documents and complete a visa application form. After that, you need to submit documents and application form to the Consulate office in person or by post.
List of Russian diplomatic authorities
Processing time of a tourist visa to Russia
Standard tourist visa processing term depends on workload of a consular office and can’t be more than 20 business days by the law. However, if there is a visa facilitation agreement, this term can be reduced. For example, it is only 10 calendar days for the EU citizens[5] for 35€ and 1-3 days for the 70€ consular fee.
Multiplicity of the Russian Tourist Visa
Due to a general rule, tourist visa can be for a single or double entry.
- Single entry visa allows you to cross the Russian border once during arrival and once during departure.
- Double entry visa gives you a right to cross the border of Russia twice.
Most tourist visas are for a single entry. If you plan to visit neighbouring countries during your trip to Russia and then return to Russia, then for such trip a double entry tourist visa is issued.
If there are bilateral visa facilitation agreements, it is possible to obtain multiple entry visa.
There are 2 such agreements, which gives a possibility to obtain the following tourist multiple visas:
Visit purposes for a Russian Tourist Visa
In accordance with a list of “Trip purposes” [3], ordinary tourist visas (ОТ, code 004) are being issued to a foreigners, who have the following travel purposes:
- tourism;
- road tourism;
- targeted tourism;
- hunting tourism;
- 72-hours tourism.
Usually a visa with tourism purpose is issued. In some cases a visa with targeted tourism is issued. Targeted tourism is a specific kind of a tourism, which is a specialized tour to solve commercial issues with Russian partners (participation in auctions, exhibitions, negotiations) and also to visit medical institutions for medical examination.
Tour group
If you go to Russia as a part of organised tourist group, you obtain an ordinary tourist group visa, in which “tour group” purpose is indicated.
Although a required amount of tourists to register as a tourist group is 5 people, usually, it is not register even for more people. Such registration leads to additional problems for an inviting company. Such visas are being used only by near-border companies, for example to travel from Finland to Saint Petersburg and backwards.
72-hours tourism
Passengers of cruise ships don’t need a visa, if vessel’s time of stay in port is no more than 72 hours (passengers can leave a ship for an organized tour) and passengers spend the night on board. Also, Russian visa is not needed, if Saint Petersburg is the only place of stay in Russia on the cruise route. If you want to come to Russia on a cruise liner and leave port individually, then you need to obtain a visa in advance at Russian embassy (you can’t get a visa at the port).
How does the Russian Tourist Visa look like?
Russian visa is a machine-readable form 120х80 mm in size with a self-adhesive layer on the reverse side for pasting into a passport.
Visa contains the following information: [2]
- if a tourist visa is for a single entry, then it is indicated «однократная “1”», if it is for a double entry, then «двукратная “2”»;
- further is a code, which indicates visa category and type;
- date of issue;
- dates of visa validity;
- period of stay;
- your citizenship;
- visa identification number – alphanumeric code indicating the place of issue of a visa and its serial number;
- name and surname (in latin and cyrillic);
- passport number;
- date of birth;
- sex;
- code of authority, which issued an invitation and its number (for tourist visas remains empty);
- visit purpose;
- name of an inviting tourist organization and its ID, then there is a number of a tourist invitation confirmation after «-» and date of your arrival to Russia after another «-».
No corrections in the machine-readable form are not allowed!
Special topics
Visa processing requires your cooperation with insurance company and tour operator, which engages their activity in Russia. There are a lot of companies providing such services in the Russian Federation and competing for customers. Sometimes, such companies use unfair methods misleading their customers, which may lead not only to the money loss but to visa issuance refusal because of documents they have issued. That is why you should be careful while choosing an organization to issue a tourist invitation and health insurance policy.
- How to get a visa for free?
- Multivisa for the EU citizens for 6 months
- Multivisa for the USA citizens for 3 years
How to get a Russian Visa for free?
In order to save your money on obtaining a tourist visa, you can buy the cheapest health insurance policy, which meets the requirements of diplomatic authorities. Also you can get a free tourist invitation by booking a hotel room. However, not all the hotels can issue such documents. As it was mentioned above, only tour operators can issue tourist invitations. Hotels mostly don’t want to become a tour operator because it requires some expenses to get a license..
It is impossible to save money on the consular fee of tourist visa processing. Bear in mind, that even if for some reason you will be refused to obtain a tourist visa, consular fee is not refundable.
Russian Multiple-entry Tourist Visa for the EU citizens for 6 months
Ordinary tourist visa is issued for the period up to 1 month or for 6 months due to bilateral agreements. [1]. It issues if you have a confirmation of tourist invitations from an organization registered at the Federal registry of tour operators.
There is the visa facilitation agreement between Russian Federation and the European Union.
This agreement works for all countries of the European Union except Denmark, Ireland and United Kingdom.
Among other things there are the following good ones for the recipients of tourist visas to Russia:
- Decreased consular fee: it is 35 Euro for any multiplicity of a visa (expedited visa processing costs 70 Euro)
- Decreased visa processing time: from 1 to 10 calendar days instead of 1-20 business days
- Increased visa validity: You can obtain a visa for 6 months for 35 Euro with an ordinary tourist invitation
Proceed to get multivisa for 6 months
WARNING! If you get a visa for 6 months, you should remember about “90 out of 180 days per year” restriction.
Russian Multiple-entry Tourist Visa for the USA citizens
There is a possibility to issue multiple visas (including tourist) between the United States and Russia with a validity of up to 36 months and a period of stay of not more than 6 months from a date of each entry. [6].
It is possible because of Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the United States on visa facilitation for citizens of the two countries.
Such visas are issued on the reciprocity basis. In order to obtain such a visa, you should get an ordinary tourist invitation for 1 month and apply to the Consulate for a 3-year visa.
Proceed to multivisa processing for 3 years
Warning! If you get a visa for 6 months, you should remember about “90 out of 180 days per year” restriction.
Summary
The main steps of obtaining tourist visa to Russia are described in this article, as well as required documents and necessary costs are mentioned. Besides, there are references to the Russian laws, which contains important nuances of obtaining tourist visas and an image of real tourist visa.
Also you found out the nuances of multivisa processing.
If you have questions, look for the answers bellow. Maybe, your question have been answered already. Some important comments from the answers to this article get bellow.
Legislation
There are legal acts, which have been used to write this article:
- Federal law of 15.08.1996 N 114-ФЗ (ред. от 11.10.2018) – О порядке выезда из Российской Федерации и въезда в Российскую Федерацию.
- Russian government decree of 09.06.2003 N 335 (ред. от 20.11.2017) – Об утверждении Положения об установлении формы визы, порядка и условий ее оформления и выдачи, продления срока ее действия, восстановления ее в случае утраты, а также порядка аннулирования визы.
- Приложение совместному Приказу МИД России, МВД России и ФСБ России от 27 декабря 2003 г. N 19723А/1048/922.
- Federal law of 24.11.1996 N 132-ФЗ (ред. от 04.06.2018) – Об основах туристской деятельности в Российской Федерации.
- Соглашение между Российской Федерацией и Европейским Сообществом об упрощении выдачи виз гражданам Российской Федерации и Европейского Союза (Сочи, 25 мая 2006 года).
- Соглашение между Правительством Российской Федерации и США об упрощении визовых формальностей для граждан двух стран (Нота МИД от 08.11.2011 №46197/кд).
Q&A
If you have any questions ask them in the comments to this article. I will try to answer them all.
Subhan says:
I need an invitation letter for Russia visa.
Anyone will come to receive me on the airport?
I am 21 years old Pakistani citizen.