Register Your Russian Visa at any Post Office

Yesterday I registered a Russian visa for my friend from Germany at a Russian post office, so below is the first-hand step-by-step explanation of the whole process, which is quite new (fully working since this summer).

According to the new rules any Russian citizen with "propiska" (registration) can register a foreigner at his/her apartment at a local police station or any post office. The whole procedure takes about an hour (because of the forms you need to fill out and queues) and costs about €5.

Another alternative is to contact your travel agency and they will be able to do it for a fee (usually $20 to $50 US). If you're staying in a hotel, they'll usually do it for free.

If you don't have a registration, the border officials will not bother you anymore, as it's not their responsibility to check the registration -- they'd only need the migration card back. However, if you get stopped by police without registration you may be fined 2000 to 5000 Rubles ($75 to $200 US). They don't usually stop people often on the street (hasn't happened yet with my friend), but if you go to the main touristic spots the chances to be stopped for a routine check are quite high.

So here's what we did...



My friend got his invitation from Way to Russia and even though the visa sponsor warned us that he might not get the visa with such a long validity period without a hotel confirmation (we wanted him to have it for the whole month - from 20 Aug till 18 Sep 2007), the Russian consulate in Berlin gave him a double entry tourist visa for the whole month on time and without any problems (he only needed to get a health insurance for €9 at some travel agency).

Once he entered Russia, he was given a migration card, which he had to fill in and leave one part of it with the passport control officials at the border. The other one should be kept with the passport and given back when he leaves Russia.

He had 3 working days to register his visa, and as he arrived on Saturday, 25th August, we did it yesterday, on the 29th of August. We went to the central post office as it was just next to our flat, located just next to metro Chistye Prudy (on the intersection of Boulevard Ring and Myasnitskaya st.)

Here's what we had to do:

The Russian person who's registering a foreigner at his/her address should go to any post office or the local police station. The foreigner doesn't have to be present.

1) Get the copies of the traveller's first passport page, Russian visa, and migration card. These can be done at the post office on the 2nd floor (or at any other post office). The copies costed 24 R (€0.70).

2) Go to the department of the post office, which deals with "recorded" delivery. In our case, it's another entrance a bit further along Myasnitskaya st. to the left under the arch and then to the right.

3) Ask them to give you the foreigner registration form ("migratsionnaya forma"). You need to fill out two copies ALL in Russian.

4) Get a special paper, which lists all the documents you'll be sending off (called "Opis").

5) Find the address of the Local Migration Office, which is responsible for the area where the landlord is registered. There's a list of them at the central post office UFMS (Federal Migration Service). For example, my apartment where I have registration is in Izmailovo (east Moscow), so I had to write the address of Izmailovo Migration Service on the envelope. You can see a list of all Moscow UFMS here: http://www.fmsmoscow.ru/otdelenija.php

6) Once that is done, the landlord should present all the forms to the post office clerk. They will check everything and give you back a part of the migration form stamped. It's a proof that it's been sent and can be shown to police when they check for the registration. We had to pay 150 R (€4 to send everything off to the migration service).


The whole procedure took about 1 hour -- too many forms and queueing but perhaps you can find a post office that's less busy. Also, below is the migration form which you can use to fill out so it'll save you some time.


The registration can also be done directly at your local UFMS (police station), but the post office option is somehow better, cause you can use any post office in the country and also because the queues at UFMS are usually much longer.




Download the latest Registration Form in PDF format


If you have any questions / comments please post them here.

If you need to know more about this topic and registration laws, please, read our Russian visa registration guide.