Way to Russia Talk Lounge

Firstmate · Frequent Guest Joined: 29 Oct 2004 Posts: 27

Frankly, I was not aware of this new process. As I have been to Russia many times duirng the last several years, I fancy myself as a reasonably seasoned and savvy traveler to and from Russia.
For those who stay at hotels, and register at the hotel, nothing really changes under this new process? It is business as normal? Am I correct on that?
From reading the posts, and so on, I have one question. In the past, the hotel would register me when I checked in. At that time, the hotel would also stamp and vallidate the exit portion of the Immigration Form, and subsequently, the stamped exit portion of the Immigratiion Form was retrieved by the person in Passport Control at the airport.
Is that still the process with this new process? Or, does now in fact, the hotel keep the exit portion of the Immigration Form and be responsible to submit the form.
If someone can clear up this small iota of confusion for me, I would be apprecative.
thank you!

nikir · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:48 am Post subject:

From what I can make out of it the person or organisation who accommodates you during your stay has the responsibility of sending the form within 24 hours of you departure.

How this will work in practise remains to be seen. What is of concern is that if they don't carry out this obligation you could be blacklisted for something that is totally out of your control. Go ponder.

rob2russia · Just Starting Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 6 Location: UK

Well, I came back from st petersburg yesterday.
The hotel said that the law had changed and now they did not do registrations. They also said it wasnt necessay to register.
Nothing was said in the airport when I was leaving (I was not challenged at passport control)

But having read information from the above posts, I never filled in anything at the hotel, I wasnt asked anything, and i don't know if I was supposed to or the hotel are supposed to have done anything. ( i say this, because I have a small piece of paper, a passport recipt, and it had something written in russian on the back that said it wasnt the hotels responsibility any more.... I'll get my girl to translate this for me fully)
I'm hoping to go back in about 10 weeks and now I'm wondering if I'm blacklisted Sad

km4860 · Just Starting Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1

please help, i have a one year multi entry visa and it was issued through an agency while the inviting organisation is the russian center... i was in russia in november and while i was here, i went to the agency from which the visa was issued and they were really rude and told me to pay R6,000 for a single registration! So I left and registered via a hotel which cost me R2,000.

Since I've been back I've been told the laws have changed and I have to get in touch with the organisation that invited me
the russian center), I rang them today and they said that while they invite foreigners they do not provide registration for them, they expect them to register themselves through a hotel, and i told them that the laws have changed etc and they said it was the first they heard of it and again...that they do not provide registration.

I am completely lost, what am I to do? I rent a room in a family apartment, can I get the lady I live with to register me? I tried doing that last time but found out that you have to have a personal visa for that while I have a business one.

Kesha · Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:50 pm Post subject:

danielsprague · Just Starting Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 6 Location: UK

Hi

This all sounds quite straightforward if you fly into Russia, stay in a hotel for two weeks and fly back out, but what if I cross Russia overland. I plan to camp, and so avoid hotels. I am planning to stay in a hotel for the first night in order to register, but what about deregistering? If I register in, say, Rostov when I enter, I'll leave the next day, but not leave Russia fpr another 4 weeks. Should I register again in, say, Barnaul before heading out of the country (and into Kazakhstan)?

Cheers

Dan

Sennaya · Just Starting Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1

As I understand it, all registration can be done at the post office. If the person providign accommodation or the visa invitation cannot help you, you can submit the forms yourself at the post office. And you can return your registration form yourself at the post office.

The American Chamber posted this info:
"The inviting party must present notification about foreign nationals’ arrival to immigration authorities either in person or by mail and then pass to a foreign national a detachable part of a notification blank confirming his arriving and registration in the planned accommodation. If the inviting party is unable to send the information itself – and has a valid reason for not doing so – then the foreign national may send the required documents himself.
http://www.amcham.ru/doing_business/labor/migration_law_2007

alanh · Frequent Guest Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 22

Sounds great, although I agree that they should get rid of the invitation/registration system altogether.

Do yo have to pay a fee at the post office?

Paulus Maximus · Just Starting Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 1

I just come back from Kiev
now i have a new immigration card and want to get myself registrated in Zhukovskiy at my girls place.
She called to OVIR there and they stated that it cant be done with businessvisas.
Where to find the law that they must also accept businessvisas?
and can it stil be done for 6 months or longer?

Paul Verhees

krasatulya · VIP Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 577

Ok, this may be redundant, but I still need more clarification Confused

If I have a tourist visa, which lists these hotels that I will be "staying at", but in reality I am staying at my in-laws, won't we get in trouble for having applied for a tourist visa and then having my in-laws go to the post to register me, since I was supposedly staying in a hotel on tourism?

Rather than having my in-laws go to the Post, should I actually go to the hotel to have them do it?

krasatulya · VIP Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 577

after thinking this over, I guess the only way I could do it is by paying for a night at the hotel and having them register me? Since the company that offered me visa support is not located in the city I'm visiting, and I've heard horror stories about going to the OVIR (some require chest x-rays?!), the hotel is the only option. Does that seem correct? Ack, this is one heck of a system!

WayToRussia · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:25 am Post subject:

First, your visa doesn't list the hotels where you will be staying in, neither it lists the cities, so don't worry about that.

Secondly, the best option for you is if the people you're staying with register you -- they just need to go to the post office. This is the only legal way, actually. Even if the visa company that issued your visa support had an office in that city, then the registration that they'd provided would be a bit dodgy, because some amount of lie would be involved in making it. As we wrote before it's the responsible of accommodating party to register your visa -- either the landlords of the flat you're staying in or the hotel.

If for some reason the people you're staying with can't register you, then yes, go to a hotel and arrange them to register you.

If that doensn't work too, there are some companies that have good connections with hotels: they bring your passport to the hotel, make it as if you're staying there and register your visa there. It's not completely legal, but then you are not the one responsible for that (although it's always better to act like you don't know).

tuller · Talk Show Host Joined: 24 Oct 2004 Posts: 238

This topic seems to be just about everywhere in the internet.
Here's what a friend told me today that's going to Russia for the 3rd trip.
He get a toursit visa for ten business days with an agency here in the US and in Moscow.., will only be in russia for 7 business days and will be staying with is fiance.
He was told, since he won't be in Moscow on a business day until he returns from his fiance's city and can't register his visa with the agency, that once he arrives in her city to go to the post office and register.
Piece a cake if the post office in her city knows about the new registration rules.

tuller

krasatulya · VIP Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 577

Thank you for the tips. I want to make sure I get everything right this time around; I didn't register my visa at all last trip and ran into a little bit of trouble in the airport when I was leaving Rolling Eyes

Thanks!

WayToRussia · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:03 am Post subject:

Check out our blog article about visa registration at http://blogs.waytorussia.net/item/59 -- there's some useful info there.