Visa policy of Russia

The Government of the Russian Federation allows citizens or residents of specific countries/territories to enter Russia without having to obtain a visa, based on bilateral or multilateral agreements. Citizens of other countries must obtain a visa from a Russian embassy.

General Rules

The principal law pertaining to the visa policy or Russia is the Federal Law No.114-FZ On the Order of Exit from the Russian Federation and Entry to the Russian Federation. The law establishes that as a general rule all foreign citizens and stateless persons need visas for entry and exit from the territory of Russia. It also establishes a number of exceptions addressing certain groups of travelers.

According to the Russian Constitution, international treaties of Russia override the domestic legislation. Russia has concluded a number of bilateral or multilateral treaties on visa abolishing or simplification and is seeking to negotiate new such treaties.

Visa policy map

Visa policy of Russia

  Russian Federation

  Visa-free entry (unlimited stay)

  Visa-free entry (90 days)

  Visa-free for non-commercial purposes (90 days)

  Visa-free for non-commercial purposes (60 days)

  Visa-free for non-commercial purposes (30 days)

  Visa-free for non-commercial purposes (14 days)

Visa

Russian visa

The Russian visa is a machine-readable document, which is placed in the passport. It contains a transcription of the name in the Cyrillic script and all fields are indicated in Russian and English. The indication of nationality and entry requirements however is only written in Russian. The machine-readable strip contains the name based on romanization of the Cyrillic name, and does not necessarily reflect the name as it was written in the Roman script (example in the figure: Christoph --> (Cyrillic) Kpиcтoф --> (transcription; roman) Kristof). Contrary to guidelines for machine-readable documents, the issuing country abbreviation (RUS) not is shown at the positions 2-4 (e.g. starting V>RUS), and the surname starts immediately in the second field: VSURNAME>>GIVENNAME. Photo must necessarily be in the Russian visa.

Types of visa

There are several types of Russian Visas:

1. Tourist Visa - for people who want to visit Russia for tourism. This type of visa is valid for up to 30 days and can be for one or two entries.
2. Business Visa - for people who plan to travel to Russia for a business trip. This type of visa can be valid for 30, 90, 180 or 360 days but the total stay during each 180 day-period cannot exceed 90 days. Business visas can be for single, double or multiple entries. (This visa is also often used by tourists who wish to travel around Russia for longer or to have multiple entries).
3. Work Visa - for people who are invited and employed by a company based in Russia and issued along with a work permit. This type of visa has no limits such as those which apply for a business visa and are generally valid for a year but in some circumstances even longer. They are usually multi-entry and can be renewed without leaving the country.
4. Private (Guest) Visa - for people who are visiting relatives or friends. To apply for this type of visa an invitation from a Russian citizen or a petition from a Russian legal entity is needed. The duration of stay is limited to 90 days. The visa can be single or double entry.
5. Transit Visa - for people crossing the territory of the Russian Federation to travel to a third country. The duration of this visa is 72 hours.
6. Student visa - for students studying in Russia. This type of visa can be only issued upon an invitation from an accredited Russian institute or university for people who intend to study or take a course in Russia. This type of visa can be valid for up to 360 days (with a duration of stay of 360 days).

Applying for visa

All types of Russian entry visas are received through Russian embassies and consulates. Provided all the documents are ready, the process usually takes no more than 3-10 workdays for Russian travel visa.

Russian Tourist Visa requirements:

• Original passport
• One photo (colour, passport size photo)
• Tourist invitation
• Russian Consulate Application Form

The Russian Consulate requires the visa application form to be printed on A4 paper with right and bottom margins of 5mm. A failure to meet these requirements invalidates the form.

Costs for visa

Some Russian embassies and consulates, but not all, require visa applications to be submitted in person to visa processing centres instead of directly to the consular section. Costs differ per administration center.

Visa-free Entry

The citizens of the following 37 countries and territories are eligible to visit Russia with a valid passport and without obtaining a visa in advance. These rules generally apply to holders of ordinary passports, rules for holders of diplomatic passports and other travel documents may differ.

As of 2014, citizens of the countries, except Belarus, who have the right to a visa-free entry to Russia must not stay longer than 90 days per every 180 days. Resetting the allowed period by leaving and re-entering the country is no longer allowed. Overstaying is punishable by a three year entry ban. The rule of "90 days per every 180 days" canceled for citizens of Ukraine until 1 Aug 2015.

In parentheses are given the date of entry into force of the current agreement.

Unlimited period

• Belarus¹

90 days

Abkhazia1 (26 Apr 2011) Armenia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan1 Kyrgyzstan1

Moldova South Ossetia1 (25 Apr 2011) Tajikistan Ukraine1 Uzbekistan

_{1 – internal passport/national identification card accepted.}

Stateless persons

Stateless persons who were citizens of the Soviet Union and now reside in the following countries are visa-exempt:

• Estonia (holders of an alien passport) (17 Jun 2008)
• Latvia (holders of a non-citizen passport) (17 Jun 2008)

Non-commercial purposes

Argentina (29 Jun 2009) Brazil (07 Jun 2010) Chile (18 Jan 2011) Colombia (13 Mar 2011) Ecuador (24 Nov 2012)

Fiji (29 Jul 2013) Guatemala (29 Feb 2012) Israel (20 Sep 2008) Honduras (5 Jan 2015) Nicaragua (03 Jun 2010)

Panama (08 Feb 2015) Paraguay (20 Oct 2014) Peru (21 Jun 2011) Uruguay (27 Dec 2011) Venezuela (06 Mar 2009)

Visa-free agreement was signed with El Salvador in March 2015 but it is yet to be ratified.

60 days for non-commercial purposes

• South Korea (01 Jan 2014)

30 days for non-commercial purposes

Bosnia and Herzegovina (20 Oct 2013) Cuba (29 Jul 1994) Macau (30 Sep 2012) Macedonia 1 (31 Oct 2008) Mongolia (14 Nov 2014)

Montenegro (21 Nov 2008) Serbia (10 Jun 2009) Thailand (24 Mar 2007) Turkey (16 Apr 2011)

_{1 – if holding a letter of invitation or a tourist voucher.}

15 days for tourist groups

• China (Only for group tourism (from 5 to 50 persons) organized by accredited Chinese travel agencies) (09 Nov 2000)

14 days for non-commercial purposes

• Hong Kong (01 July 2009)

Visa-free agreement allowing stays of up to 14 days was signed with Nauru in September 2014, but it is yet to be ratified.

Recent Developments

Russian government has instructed the Foreign Ministry to sign an agreement on visa-free regime with Mauritius.

Diplomatic and service/official passports

  Russian Federation

  Diplomatic and service/official passports

  Diplomatic passports only

Holders of diplomatic and service/official passports of the following countries may enter Russia without a visa:

Abkhazia Albania Angola Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Benin Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cape Verde Cambodia Chile China Colombia

Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Ethiopia Fiji Gabon Guatemala Guinea Guyana Honduras Hong Kong India Indonesia Iran Jamaica

Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Laos Macao Macedonia Mali Mexico Moldova Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Nicaragua North Korea Pakistan Panama Paraguay Peru

Philippines Romania Schengen area countries * Serbia South Africa South Korea South Ossetia Syria Tajikistan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine United Arab Emirates * Uruguay Uzbekistan Venezuela Vietnam Zimbabwe

_{* - diplomatic passports only (excluding Hungary and Slovakia)}

Agreement signed with Congo and Nauru, but it is yet to be ratified.
Russian government has instructed the Foreign Ministry to sign an agreement on visa-free regime with Bangladesh, Kuwait, Mauritius, Oman, Senegal, Sri Lanka.

Visa on arrival

3 days for Kaliningrad visits

Citizens of Schengen states, United Kingdom and Japan may visit the Kaliningrad region as tourists and obtain a 3-day visa at the border check points of Bagrationovsk, Mamonovo and Khrabrovo Airport if travelling through one of the approved travel agencies. This policy is effective until 31 December 2015.

Cruise ship passengers

Since May 2009 international tourists have been able to stay in Russia visa-free up to 72 hours when entering Russia through the ports of Anadyr, Kaliningrad, Korsakov, Novorossiysk, Sevastopol, Sochi, St.Petersburg, Vladivostok, Vyborg by ferry. This applies only to persons who travel within an organised group and do not intend to explore the cities on their own. In 2014 it was proposed to extend the policy to tourists arriving by train.

Visa-free transit

Direct airside transit

Passengers travelling through international airports do not need a visa for a transit of less than 24 hours, provided a confirmed onward ticket is held and the traveller remains in the international transit area (without clearing passport control).

Only five Russian airports have an international transit area:

• Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) - terminals D, E and F
• Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport (DME)
• Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) - terminal A
• Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport (LED) - new terminal 1, opened on February 14, 2014
• Yekaterinburg's Koltsovo International Airport (SVX) - international terminal.

Saimaa canal

In accordance with a treaty between Russia and Finland, though there are passport controls at borders, a visa is not required for just passing through the Russian part of the Saimaa canal without leaving the vessel.

Visa-free zones

• Latvia — in the area within a radius of 50 kilometers on both sides of the border residents may travel to the other country without a visa.
• Norway — in the area within a radius of 30 kilometers on both sides of the border residents may travel to the other country without a visa. A certificate of the border resident are issued for three years, and give the right to stay for 15 days.
• Poland — there is a visa-free regime between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast.

There are talks on establishing a border area visa-free zone with Estonia.

Closed cities

Several closed cities and regions in Russia require special authorization.

Crimea

As of 2014 the disputed territory of Crimea is under Russian control and Russia enforces its visa policy there. However, Ukraine requires that foreigners should comply with Ukrainian visa regime including obtaining a Ukrainian visa if one is necessary. Otherwise, it may entail sanctions for "support of the temporary occupation of the Ukrainian territory".

In April 2014 Crimea’s Tourism Minister proposed a visa-free regime for foreign tourists staying at Crimean resorts for up to 12 days and a 72-hour visa-free stay for cruise passengers. Visa-free access for Chinese citizens was proposed in June 2014.

2018 World Cup

Russia plans to allow 2018 FIFA World Cup participants and fans to visit Russia without a visa right before and during the competition.

Fingerprinting

From January 2015 visa applicants from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Myanmar and Namibia will be obliged to provide fingerprint scans. After a trial period it will be decided whether to expand this to other countries as well.

See also

• Visa requirements for Russian citizens

External links

• "List of countries with visa-free entry to Russia" (PDF). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (in Russian). 23 August 2014.
• "Federal Law No.115-FZ On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation" (DOC). 25 July 2002.