Best visa for Russia Travel

Best visa for Russia Travel

Hi

Hopefully I can get some suggestions about traveling across Russia.
I would like to do is this -- enter Russia from Mongolia, about August 15, 2012, and go to Irkutsk Russia. Then Travel West on the trans-Siberian Railroad most of the time an end up in St. Petersburg about October 1, 2012, and return back to America. I would also like to stop off at two different adjoining countries to Russia, Kazakhstan and Kiev,, for five days each on my total journey from Mongolia to St. Petersburg. So, I would be in Russia roughly 45 days, with bout 10 days in the two adjoining countries.
I most likely would travel as a tourist, however if possible, without too much hassle I would like to visit, with a business visit, two or three cultural/national things of interest. Comparables to this might be -- visiting aborigine’s people in Australia or the maules people in New Zealand and learning about their culture, bringing the highlights of the culture here to America for possible commercial usage.
This is my ideal travel plan, but I know to accomplish all this may be a problem.
Questions-can I travel as I like, as a single person, when in Russia or due I have to go around Russia as sort of a single person group tour, with a pre-determined plan? Or let me say, due I have to decide exactly before I enter Russia- , know when I want to stop-figure out the time and costs before I enter Russia an also have all travel and lodging costs and reservations completed before I go into Russia -- or just sort of be myself and set my own pace had any given moment and only be tied down to the beginning date I can go into Russia which would be say August 15, 2012 and the ending date that I must leave Russia by which would be say August 1 of 2012?
It appears that the business visa and the invitation letter might cost up to $950, which would allow for multiple entries and 3/6 months travel in Russia, and the a less inexpensive tourist visa would only cost $350, but only allowed two entries into Russia and 30 days of travel in Russia.
So, could some of you pros who know about traveling in Russia give me two different scenarios about traveling there.
I would appreciate any information

Your proposal will not be easy.

You could apply for a double entry tourist visa, which would allow you to enter Russia, exit, and re-enter Russia on the one visa, within a probable time limit of 30 days. You could apply for a multiple entry business visa which would allow you to enter and exit Russia multiple times, and stay in the country for a maximum total of 90 consecutive days per visit per visa year, totaling not more than 180 days in a visa year.

Most tourists to Russia apply for a single entry tourist visa, which usually comes with a 30 day limit, and allows entry into Russia only once.

(Russian visas are extremely difficult.)

In order to acquire ANY Russian visa you will need to include with your visa application a Letter of Invitation. These LOI may be issued by an inviting business, a travel agency, a hotel, a university, etc.

Considering that your travel plans are by and large ~out of the ordinary~ for a tourist to Russia, I would recommend that you use a Russian travel/visa agency to assist you. The expense of the agency and the LOI and the visa will be very very pricey.

And since you mentioned that you will "return back to America" I'm going to assume you are American. For Americans only, there is a unique Russian visa application which goes on for pages and pages and is a real POS.

To simplify things and save a lot of money and headaches, my recommendation to you would be to apply for the more usual single entry 30 day Russian tourist visa and be happy.

P.S.

You must understand that these difficult and complex Russian visa issues are intentionally designed[i][/i] to prevent tourists from wandering around Russia at will and doing as they please. The Russians DO NOT WANT this and they have installed a convoluted visa regime to prevent random tourists from random vagabonding. Especially Americans.[b][/b]

If you think you can find a way to circumvent their carefully crafted laws and regulations to have a capricious expedition, you are destined to be disappointed.

I have a quick question about russian visas, my sister and I are thinking about heading to russia for a total of 3 days on our way to the netherlands, and I've been reading a bit (haven't gotten into too much detail) but correct me if I'm wrong, but do you have to hand in your passport to the russian embassy during the visa getting process? Because the website kind of has contradictory statments about mailing and not mailing things. TIA

you don't give your country but Canadians do, the same for India & Mongolia

Hi,
Its not easy as you explain. try to talk with embassy that is much better and safest option for all.

traveloworld wrote:Hi,
Its not easy as you explain. try to talk with embassy that is much better and safest option for all.

Good advise for most countries but for Russia a knowledgeable travel agent was my choice, everything handled for a reasonable fee & NO hassle.