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Kaliningrad and Russian Visa


Duncan Blackheart

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The good lady and plan on going to Gdansk for a couple of days, then on to Kaliningrad for a couple of days, then back to gdansk and home.

Has anyone out there got any experience of doing this? I've got to get a tourist visa for Russia, and there are any number of dodgy companies wanting to charge me a fortune for this, so any way to keep those costs to a minimum would be welcome.

Additionally, what's the best way of getting there from gdansk? I've seen a few bus trips advertised, but they're in Cyrillic or Polish, so while I think I know what I want, again, any advice welcome.

Finally, any tips on what to do or avoid when I'm in Kaliningrad would be most welcome.

cheers!

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Not being funny, but if you go through bother of getting Russian visa should go to Russia as well 

You used to have visit VFS in Edinburgh, used to have to have a hotel invitation (which could be obtained at a fee without actually booking hotel)

VFS scam you a fee, and send onto Consulate so are only really processing 

sure between the 2 fees you will be around GBP70-GBP 100 per visa

Russia work a reciprocal visa fee matching what their citizens get charged - UK screws them on fee's so they screw UK pack

I was going to go to Russian Consualte in Angola at one time - Angolans get the visa's for around 25% of fee UK pay

Warrender will be along no doubt explainign in better detail than me

Maybe you can get a Transit Visa ? But then again liekly need to go in by plane (this was how Russia operated I think) -

 

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http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/tourist.html

applications through VFS

70 quid visa fee

38 quid VFS fee

9 quid postal fee

+ you are likely 20 quid for hotel invitation although if you genuinely book hotel, they might pass for free 

+ I think you need to go to Edinburgh for Biometrics 

European Cup Final in 2008 in Moscow was visa free travel, but load of guys didnt travel - One of my Scottish workmates got ticket for pretty much face value (he was in Moscow at time on project)  

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Cheers for info. VFS look like complete rip-off merchants, deliberately providing half-answers to questions so that you call their premium rate line for what is essentially a paper shuffling exercise for them.

There's a bit of a longer story about why we're willing to pay for a visa for such a short stay, but I don't mind just this once!

Maybe this thread could act as a reccy for summer next year!

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1 minute ago, Duncan Blackheart said:

Cheers for info. VFS look like complete rip-off merchants, deliberately providing half-answers to questions so that you call their premium rate line for what is essentially a paper shuffling exercise for them.

There's a bit of a longer story about why we're willing to pay for a visa for such a short stay, but I don't mind just this once!

Maybe this thread could act as a reccy for summer next year!

what's your question ?  some of us might know the answers 

VFS just shuffle paper - wife has had to use them in Cape Town for UK Visa - feckers charged me extra 50 GBP when i got appointment time wrong - my fault, but they werent busy anyway, but took opportunity to upsell - would been cheaper reapplying but had to get application in timely

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 Kaliningrad used to be good, as they had special visa status that differed from "mainland russia" where you could pre-book your visa and get it at the border.... but since the EU put sanctions against Russia, the Russian's have scrapped this status and now Kaliningrad gets the same as the "mainland".

Year ago a few of us looked at this route for Lithuania, and there was a few buses that left Gdansk throughout the day to Kaliningrad.

From what I hear Kaliningrad is suppose to be rather nice, but certainly not worth paying what you would pay for a Russian tourist visa, compared ti visiting Moscow or St Petersburg.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 06/09/2017 at 4:28 PM, wanderer said:

Kaliningrad used to be good, as they had special visa status that differed from "mainland russia" where you could pre-book your visa and get it at the border.... but since the EU put sanctions against Russia, the Russian's have scrapped this status and now Kaliningrad gets the same as the "mainland".

Year ago a few of us looked at this route for Lithuania, and there was a few buses that left Gdansk throughout the day to Kaliningrad.

From what I hear Kaliningrad is suppose to be rather nice, but certainly not worth paying what you would pay for a Russian tourist visa, compared ti visiting Moscow or St Petersburg.

That's the route I booked for the game last month, before the visa changes.

As such, I didn't make it to the game.

As an aside Gdansk is rubbish compared to either Warsaw or Krakow.

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