Types of Visa

Depending on the purpose of your visit, there are several types of Russian visas:

- tourist visa
- business visa
- student visa
- private visa
- transit visa

Since tourist visas are much easier to obtain, people who come for a short business trip can simply opt for a tourist visa. Visitors who travel frequently to Russia, to visit friends, for work or just because they like the country so much, may prefer to apply for a business (multiple-entry) visa.

Keep in mind that Russian consulates can take 1-25 workdays to process visa applications depending on the consulate fee.

For visa agencies offering visa support and registration services, see below.

For each type of visa there are slightly different regulations regarding the documents you need and who is responsible for your registration.  For tourists and students, things are comparatively straight forward. However, getting the right visa to stay and work in Russia has become quite the famous pain in the neck.

It used to be something you outsourced to your secretary who would then call a travel agency and an invitation would magically appear. The authorities are zooming in on foreigners documents these days, but not providing guidance for exactly how they’re supposed to get them. All this talk of Russian red-tape giving you nightmares? Worry no more, we have the answers.

If you need to come to Russia on a regular basis, you will need a multi-entry. There are two kinds of multi-entry visa: the business/commercial and the work visa. Most business visas are now issued for “90 days within 180 days”. Eh? You say. Well what it means is that you are supposed to leave the country once you have spent 3 months here. And then wait three months before coming back for another three. Sounds impractical? Indeed better to have a work visa. Work visas come in two flavors: for work with a Russian company or for work with an accredited representative office or branch of a foreign company. A Russian company should first get a work permit in order to be able to invite a
foreigner to be employed on a work visa. The whole process is very complex and takes from at the very least two months all the way up to six.

An ‘accredited representative branch of a foreign company’ can invite a small number of foreigners, who are issued a work visa. In this case, a work permit is not required and that is why many companies choose this route. Nevertheless, a work permit is still required when the foreigner will actually start employment on the payroll in Russia, hence many foreigners never leave the comfort of their home country payroll and are made available to Russian companies but not formally employed. This situation has existed for some time and has yet to change. Once a work visa invitation has been obtained, yet another tedious process starts: you have to get a single entry work visa at the Russian Consulate abroad, get into Russia on that one and then convert it into a multi-entry visa inside Russia. This takes about two weeks and during that time the authorities keep your passport - meaning you are essentially trapped
in Russia.

To make things even more complicated, your Russian host is supposed to notify the authorities within 3 days of every arrival and within 2 days of every departure that you make. This notification that states where exactly you are at any given time, must be filled out by your landlord or by your employer. Shockingly if you are registered at your company’s address and “violate” these rules, your company can be fined up to 800,000Rbl – yes, believe your eyes - that’s almost 18,000 Euro! In contrast, if you’re registered at a private address the fine is only 2,000Rbl. Unsurprisingly getting registered at a private address is a lot of work too..

Nobody looks at those papers though right? Wrong! Recently the migration authorities and border patrol service have finally started to combine their files and can actually check whether a foreigner has fulfilled all his reporting requirements. Meaning you also can’t avoid the complicated process of paying Russian tax either – although at 13% it’s hardly crippling.

It all sounds insanely complicated but with time and patience, solutions can always be found to get people in the right places, at the right time and with all the correct documents.

This article was written in collaboration with BVDM tax and legal services. For more detailed information, visit their website www.bvdmlaw.nl or call 495 935 7621.