The world’s biggest country with a whopping land area of 17 million square kilometers, Russia welcomes millions of visitors every year. Having sharing borders with 16 sovereign nations, Russia is a pathway to east, west, and north for many people. Many western movies always depicted the country as evil, therefore affecting their perception of Russia. Due to the political issues, Russia gained a somewhat bad reputation. However, in reality, it is not true at all if you throw away all your prejudgment. You will see a country with beautiful nature and hospitable people. Being an economical hub for central Asian and Caucasus countries, it got this eastern hospitality towards guests. With a combination of tourist, historical and natural places with this hospitality, you get a perfect tourist destination. Russia is an exceptional country for the number of millionaires engaging in business activities. It is estimated that more than 268 000 millionaires live in Russia. Furthermore, it attracts many businessmen around the neighboring countries, as the country is a kind of regional base for their business operations. Thus, the country is perfect for businessmen to operate their work, meetings, and conferences. Because of that, every year many visit country. Some of them are not even bothered to deal with visa procedures as they are from countries that visa applications are not required or in other words, they are from visa-free countries. While others have to undergo visa procedures to be entitled to visit the country for business purposes. If you have a similar purpose and intend to visit Russia, you are in luck because for this article we will mainly focus on Russian business visa. We will cover requirements for Russian business visa, Russian business visa invitation, cost of Russian business visa, documents required for Russian business visa, Russian business visa fees, invitation letter for Russian business visa, Russian business visa application, Russian business visa rules, etc. Most importantly, we will try to answer the question of how to get a Russian business visa. Before going into details, we need to have a look at the Russian visa policy.
Visa policy of Russia
Mutual relations among countries define the regulations on Russia’s visa policy. To be more explicit, it can change depending on the relation Russia has with a particular country. In this regard, we can categorize world countries in two groups. They are visa-free and visa-required countries. The list of visa-free countries is given below: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macao, Maldives, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Samoa, Serbia, Seychelles, South Africa, South Korea, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tajikistan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela. Countries that you can not see in this list are visa-required countries. You might be wondering “what about visa types?”. Many visa types are set depending on the purposes of the travels. To be more exact, we can list them as Tourist Visa, Humanitarian Visa, Business Visa, Student Visa, Transit Visa, Work Visa, Private Visa. Although they have specific requirements, the documents required approximately are similar. Some of the visas are short-term visas and others are long-term visas. In this article, we will look at what are the requirements requested for a business visa. However, what is Russian business visa exactly? One might confuse the business visa with the work visa. Let’s set the differences apart before looking at business visas. The main difference between these two is that a work visa allows you to work in Russia while a business visa only gives you the right to execute your business operations and engage in business activities. By business activities, we mean business-related conferences, meetings, trainings, negotiations, exhibitions, scientific or research activities, etc. Another distinct difference between them is that a work visa entitles you to stay in Russia for a long time while a business visa only gives you limited time such as 30 or 90 days. The allowed time can change depending on entry types. If it is single-entry then 30 days period can be granted to applicants but if it is multiple entries then it can increase to 90 days. For both visas, applicants should be invited by a company or organization, etc. Visa fees and processing time can change depending on your application country. Now it is time to go into details of business visa.
Business visa for Russia
As we mentioned before, this is the visa granted for engaging in business activities for the short term. What about requirements for Russian business visa, cost of Russian business visa, and Russian business visa rules? To start with requirements for a business visa, To be eligible to apply for a business visa you need to have Russian business visa invitation and invitation letter for Russian business visa which should be written by an organization or company in Russia. You should be healthy to travel. Therefore, You must perform a medical test before travelling to the country and provide relevant documentary proof. Furthermore, you need to collect documents required for Russian business visa which are given below: • Invitation letter provided by a company or organization in Russia. • A Decision made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stating Issuance of a Visa or Host Organization or Institutions’ written Letter • The foreign passport should remain valid for 6 months after you depart from Russia. Besides, in the passport, there should be two blank pages to be processed. • In the case that your citizenship and the country you reside and apply for a visa from differs, then a resident permit is needed. • Russian business visa application form duly completed and filled out, signed by the applicant. You can find the Russian tourist visa application form on the website visa.kdmid.ru. • A photo that is taken recently or not older than 6 months. It should be in the size equal to 3,5x4,5 cm and the background should be light-coloured preferably white to distinguish the features. The photo should be high quality and printed on normal photographic paper. The photo should cover the full face of the applicant, no hat, cap, sunglasses, headcover unless they are essential due to religious beliefs. • Travel insurance. The insurance should cover the expenses during the days spent in the Russian federation. In the medical insurance, the date of the agreement signed should be indicated. The policy number of insurance should be given. Full name, contact details of the insurer and the person insured. A list of medical services provided should be indicated. The insurance should be worth of minimum 30 000 euros. Russian business visa fees can vary from country to country. The minimum fee is 30 euros and it can rise up to 300 euros. The cost and visa processing time are dependent on several factors. It takes around 10-20 days to process a visa. How to get a Russian business visa? First, locate the local Russian embassy or consulate. If there is none in your country, find the nearest embassy to your country. Once you identified the embassy, make an appointment. Attend the embassy at the scheduled time and present the required documents and pay the fees. There are some important things that you should be aware of before your travels. You have to fill out a migration card upon your arrival. Although Russian authorities do not always point this out, it is essential for your travel. According to the resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation № 413 of 16 August 2014 "On a migration card" when entering the Russian Federation a foreign citizen must submit a migration card to a border control officer, who after checking the information in the migration card against the data in the passenger's visa and passport puts a border crossing stamp in the card. The migration card is comprised of two parts. One will be processed by immigration authorities on arrival and the other part is for your entire travel. You will need this card to register in hotels. Note that you will hand it to the authorities when you leave the country. If you are going to stay in Russia for more than three days then you will need to register the card with your sponsor. Please make sure the migration card contain these: • Applicant’s passport information, the purpose of visit, registration stamp. • a serial number. If the traveler loses or damages the card, he or she should report the loss to the administrative unit of the Russian MIA at the place of residence within 3 days.
