Way to Russia Talk Lounge

adeelitc · Just Starting Joined: 02 Jan 2009 Posts: 1

Thanx 4 shearing with us..
Adeel Khan Sherwani from <a>Atlanta</a>

ssokol91 · Just Starting Joined: 16 Jun 2009 Posts: 7

I have been traveling to Russia over 10 years on Tourist and Private Stay visas. It is not necessary to register with the same host that sponsored your travel visa. I always went to a friendly tourist agency, which is not the same one as my hosting agency just because it was much cheaper.

However, I do have a question if anyone has ever traveled on Tourist Visa, but actually stayed at an apartment and registered through Landlord's Post Office. Technically it shouldn't be a problem, because you are not obligated to stay at the hotel that you are booked for various reasons such as hotel being overbooked, too many cockroaches, or simply because you changed your mind. Therefore, if I never had any problems registering with a different host, I probably shouldn't have any problems registering through a private homestay.

Any thoughts on this one? Very Happy

Gieliovd · Just Starting Joined: 03 Nov 2009 Posts: 2

Hello all,

I've just registered after spending days of research and still having questions! Mainly currently about registering.

I've made up a little scheme because I want to visit a friend of mine in St. Petersburg soon and stay at her place instead of a hotel.

Well, officially that would require a special visa but I don't want to do that. I'll just get a tourist visa.

My plan:
- Use WTR to get an invitation (visa support+cover letter?)
- Travel to StP.
- Stay at her place for about 2 weeks
- Go back home.

Well, I've been working through the obvious problems like health insurance but the problems I face are:

- How do I register? I get a bogus hotel reservation with the WTR service, but will WTR automatically register my stay? Or can I just take my friend to the post office and fill in the form (Anketa?) there to say I'm staying at her place?
- What address do I fill in on the immigrations form? The bogus hotel reservation I presume?

Apart from that is all seems no too hard. Just get the invitation done and talk to the consulate for the visa. The consulate should accept the bogus hotel reservation and give me the visa without hesitation, right?

And whatever I do in StP. is up to me then, would be good!

Thanks for responding although this thread is kind of dead.

romdur · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Posts: 144 Location: USA

To the best of my understanding...

Anyone who is registered at an address, can register someone else at that address. This is subject to the limitation, that immigration authorities may question whether the number of persons registered at an address is greater than the house can accommodate.

As a practical matter, it is not necessary, that your registration address match your invitation address. For example, an invitation can come from a travel agency (for purposes of a tour), and a person on the tour could then register in one or more cities during their trip. The addresses won't match the travel agency address.

For the migration card, I don't have advice about the address. I have no information about these addresses being checked in any way. In a situation like yours, I would probably write my friend's address, but I think the inviting hotel's address would be OK too.

Gieliovd · Just Starting Joined: 03 Nov 2009 Posts: 2

Thanks!

Sounds promising!