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Russian visa


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5 minutes ago, DoonTheSlope said:

Naw. The consulate is at Melville Street (Shandwick Place)

However, the Russian visa centre is opposite Easter Road

Apologies. Somebody suggested it was the consulate who weren't charging through the teeth for a visa and presumed that was the place I was at in February. The one next to Easter Road is the one that isn't going to charge you nearly £200 a go.

Edited by Tartan_McCole
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On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 9:15 AM, AlfieMoon said:

I went in 2014 and got my visa through an agency which cut out a lot of the hassle so I'd recommend that for the minimal additional expense. 

Didn't have to submit a fingerprint at that time so that must be new. 

 

Fingerprinting is now a requirement so visa applications have to be done in person.  This means that each applicant has to attend the visa centre.  UK visa centres are in Edinburgh, London and Manchester. 

The reason that fingerprints are required is because that is what the UK requires Russian nationals to do for getting in and Russia decided to do likewise.

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I have put this together. The assistant at the real Russia travel agency said you will only have to list the places you have visited in your passport on the application, not everywhere from the last ten years.

 

Most Scotland fans will be looking for a tourist visa which will be valid for up to 30 days. You’ll need to get a visa before you travel. The Russian Embassy advised in March 2018 that it takes around 20 business days (4 weeks) to process most visa applications.

As part of the visa application process, all applicants based in the UK aged 12 or over will need to visit a visa application centre to submit biometric data (scanned fingerprints). These are located in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. 

Passport validity

Your passport should be valid for a minimum period of 6 months after the expiry date of your visa.

It’s not possible to enter Russia using a visa in an expired passport, even if carried with a new, valid passport. You will need to either apply for a visa transfer or for a new visa. Further details are available from the Russian Embassy.

If you’re travelling on a British passport issued since January 2017, you should make sure you’ve signed your passport before you travel. Some British nationals who haven’t signed their new passports have been denied entry into Russia.

Immigration cards

You must sign an immigration card every time you arrive in Russia. This will be given to you at passport control. The card is in 2 identical parts. One part will be retained by the Immigration Officer. You should keep the other part safe as you’ll need to submit this at passport control when you leave Russia. Should you lose it, your departure from Russia could be delayed. There are also many hotels and hostels that will not accept guests without an immigration card.

Link to online application form http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/online_application_form.html

Address in Edinburgh for the biometric tests

Russia Visa Application Centre
64 Albion Road (back entrance)
Edinburgh 
EH7 5QZ

Submission of Applications: 08:30 - 15:00 Monday to Friday except Declared Holidays.

Passport Collection: 16:30 - 17:30 Monday to Friday except  Declared Holidays.

 

Russia Visa Application Centre in Edinburgh: rvacedinburgh@vfsglobal.com

 

 

 

Address in London for the biometric tests  

Russia Visa Application Centre
15- 27 Gee Street,
Barbican, London
EC1V 3RD 

Submission of Applications: 08:30 - 15:00; VIP premium lounge service: 08:30 – 17:00 Monday to Friday except Declared Holidays.

Passport Collection: 16.00 - 17:30 Monday to Friday except Declared Holidays.

 

Russia Visa Application Centre in London: info.ruuk@vfshelpline.com 

 

Please note that no applications will be accepted after 15:00 (except Manchester), therefore kindly ensure that you have all the required documents and completed application form, especially if you are applying close to your travel date. Otherwise you may be asked to come another day to submit your application.

Please note, if you will come after 14:30 with incorrect documents, that will need an amendment, we can refuse to submit your documents due to disturbance to operational process. You might be asked to come again on the other day. Please make sure you have all documents as per check list at the bottom of this document- “Documents required” 

Upon completion of your application form please print it out, sign it and submit at the Russia Visa Application Centre together with all support documents, payment and passport. Please make sure that the signature of your application for is identical to the one in your passport. We would like to assure you that we take particular care in handling your personal data. 

 

FEES

Visa fees are depending on the Visa Type that you are obtaining and your Nationality.

For UK nationals the price is 

£63 for a single standard

£125 single urgent

Along with the visa fees, there is a service charge applicable per visa application:
Normal applications (5-20 working days service):
£38.40 (inclusive of VAT)

Urgent applications (1-3 working days service):
£45.60 (inclusive of VAT) 

Applicants have the option of paying their visa fees by cash or Credit/Debit card (except American Express) when applying at the Visa Application Centre. Cheques will not be accepted.

Postal Return of Passports: 

You have the option of having your passport returned, once processed by the Embassy of Russian Federation, via DX Secure at a nominal charge of  £13.80 (in addition to the visa fees and service charges) to be paid at the time of submitting your application. The passport will be sent directly to your home/office address as specified by you in a Special Delivery Envelope (SDE). 

 

PASSPORT COLLECTION

 

When submitting a visa application in our London and Edinburgh centres, you may choose either collect your passport or have it sent by post.

Please Note – there is no biometric or passport collection facility in Manchester. Passports will be returned only via recorded delivery post the next working day, after the processed application is received at the application centre. 

You can check the status of your application by entering the tracking number RULN/ on your receipt.

Collection times in London from Monday to Friday between 16:00 and 17:30, in Edinburgh from Monday to Friday between 16:30 and 17:30, except Declared Holidays.

Please note that in order to collect your passport at the Visa Application Centre you will need to present the original receipt given to you during the submission, which will be collected from you and retained as proof of collection of your passport. Please make a copy of the receipt if you require it for your records. If the original receipt was lost, please provide another ID on passport collection to identify you. If you are collecting passport on someone’s behalf, please provide the authorization letter and copy of the original receipt from the person you are collecting for or please provide person’s original receipt.

On receiving your visa you should check the details carefully including the validity dates and passport number to make sure they are correct. You should adhere to the validity and conditions of your visa while you’re in Russia, as the authorities strictly enforce all visa and immigration laws.

UK Emergency Travel Documents

 

If your passport is lost or stolen while you are in Russia, then you will need to obtain a police report from the nearest police station and get a UK Emergency Travel Document (ETD). Once you obtain these, then you will need to apply for an exit visa to leave Russia.

ETDs are accepted for entry, landside transit and exit from Russia only if they contain a valid Russian visa. The Russian authorities will only put a visa for Russia in an ETD in limited circumstances. Contact the nearest Russian embassy or consulate outside Russia or local migration office in Russia to find out if a visa can be issued. You also need to check with the Russian embassy, consulate or migration office on the required length of ETD validity.

 

Documents Required for your Aplication

United Kingdom Tourist Visa 

1.    Current passport which should be valid for a minimum of six months after visa's expiration date and has at least 2 blank pages which do not need to be consecutive. 

2.    Visa application form filled in and printed out from vfs.global website only. Kindly ensure that the dates of your entry and exit, as entered in the application form, match with or fall within the period specified in the supporting documents. 

3.    A 'Tourist voucher' and a 'Tourist confirmation' document stamped and signed by authorized person. They can be obtained through your hotel or an approved travel agent who deals with trips to Russia, and should be valid for the entire duration of your trip. The stamp and all details should be clearly readable. 

4.    One recent passport size photo glued to the indicated space on the application form. 

5.    Tourists on board large cruise Ships have the right to stay in the Russian Federation without a visa for up to 72 hours. They have the right to leave the ship and come back on board the ship only as part of an organized tourist group Tourists who wish to leave the ship on their own or in a group of less than 5 tourists must have a visa. 

6.    Self employed, company directors, working from home or unemployed applicants need to provide bank statements for the last three months which have a current balance of a minimum of £100 per day for the duration of the visit. Please note that if you wish to provide online banking printouts please make sure they will be certified and stamped by your bank. Students, house-wives and retired people are not required to provide bank statements. 

7.    Applicants going for auto tourism should enclose the Registration Certificate of the vehicle they intend to travel by and covering letter mentioning the details of the journey, itinerary and names of the accompanying travellers. 

Notice: Tourist Visa is issued according to the dates specified in the voucher and confirmation and can be for a maximum period of 30 days. Kindly ensure that the dates of your entry and exit, as entered in the application form, match with or fall within the period specified in the supporting documents. 

 

 

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I got a 30 day visa for Russia, pretty much no hassle, I added extra time before and after, as I may do a longer trip to see more of Russia.

  • Filled in the application form online, printed it off.
  • Purchased an invitation, printed it off.
  • Got a photo.
  • Went to the Edinburgh office, gave them the above, along with my passport and just under £120.

Got the passport sent back to me within a week, all very easy really. I used this site as a guide, https://russiable.co.uk/getting-russian-visa-united-kingdom/

It asks for hotels booked, I just picked Novotel is a few cities, without booking any.

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This is great advice thanks,but the  bit I don't understand is when you say 'purchased an invitation' - from where?

Is it from one of the hotels you nominated, but probably will NOT be visiting once we establish where this damned game is to be played?

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I'm stuck on the application form. Not sure if I'm having a senior moment but under the section "Visit Details" there is a question "Which institution you are going to visit?" it says "In the case of a tourist visa select Travel company from the list and give the name and address of the travel company. But I am not travelling with a travel company. So what do I enter?

 
 
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5 hours ago, Ian_86 said:

Regarding the online form and countries visited in last ten years, any ideas on what to do if you've more than 10 stamps in your passport (max you can input seems to be 10)? Annoyingly I've got 11!!!

only enter the one's with staps then, so people advuise

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10 hours ago, Ian_86 said:

Regarding the online form and countries visited in last ten years, any ideas on what to do if you've more than 10 stamps in your passport (max you can input seems to be 10)? Annoyingly I've got 11!!!

I would just go in chronological order, unless the 11th stamp is somewhere the Russians might deem a bit interesting.

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Thanks guys. It is Morocco so I dunno how interested Russia might be (but Israel did ask about it when I was flying back from there). In any case I read somewhere about people writing cover letters regarding there older passport details so might just do something similar and mention when I was there and why etc.

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We now have our Russian visas and I think that too much effort went into the application. I served in the British military for 22 years and had concerns about my application.

Went to the Russian Visa Application Centre on Fountain Street, Manchester last Thursday. It has a grand title, but in reality it is a single office measuring approximately 6m by 3m with 2 Russian gents sitting behind a desk each. There’s seating round the wall to take your turn to see the gents.

The application was tedious and the details they checked was that we had transferred our passport details correctly onto their application form. They also inspected that the letter of invitation was correct. He never looked at the last 10 countries visited or previous employment, family details or much else.

During our 30 minutes in the office we overheard some of the pit falls of other applicants. One guy never put his middle name on the form and was applying for a 31 day visa not a 30 day visa. He was told to go away and amend the form and return at a later date. Another family had passport photos that had no resemblance to their present day looks. They also got invited to return at a later date.

I believe that it’s a money making venture and only certain details have to be correct on your application form.  Our passports were returned yesterday, so it only took a week.

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Visa arrived today after applying for it last week in edinburgh. Chose to get it delivered so took an extra couple of days (7 working days instead of 5 days if you pick up)

Followed the instructions as mentioned else where in this post. 

Couple of things to note that i did :

  • countries visited - i included those where i had stamps in my passport and also other scotland  trips up to the max of 10. I didn’t include any family holidays  as i didn’t have those details easily available as i do for Scotland trips
  • kids details - enter details about kids but not their passports

If you have the details at hand it is relatively straight forward. Also you can save and edit it so you don’t have to fill it in in one go. 

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Filled ours in and going to London office 18th July. Once you've done the legwork it's easy enough to fill in. As previously stated you don't need to be 100% accurate - how would they know. Never got the question about previous employment, only current employment.

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Took my form, passport, invitation and photo in to the Edinburgh place today. There were two folk in front of me but I only waited about 5 mins. Once I was seen I was only in for another 10 mins.

They're getting about a dozen a day she said and about 1 in 10 applications has a mistake that needs taken back and rectified  (dates don't match invitation, no photo etc.)

They couldn't have been more pleasant and helpful.

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