Visas for Russia and Belarus

Ronan3345

Going to St. Petersburg for a few days, then on to Minsk. I havent a clue about visas and stuff . Can anyone advise me?

BuffyBot

Search this forum for "russian visa" and you'll find quite a few threads on this already

For Belarus, check out the information here http://www.belembassy.org/uk/cons-visainfo.html

tywy

Got a Russian visa last summer.

Just go to waytorussia.net, get one of there "invitations" bring it, your passport, the application form, photos and whatever it costs (check on the russian embassy in ireland website). It takes 2 weeks. We had no problem with it. The embassy is in Rathgar and has very limited opening hours.

jonny68

Why does Russia still request that people get visas to visit their country,is this a money making exercise or what's the story i mean the Soviet Union is gone and all this secrecy about Russia that used to exist is gone (or is it),must countries thesedays you can come and go without a Visa if your an from an EC country.

cailinoBAC

Well, Russians need to pay for visas to Ireland. It would be nice if we didn't have to get a visa and it didn't cost so much, but that's just the way it is.

Anyway, waytorussia is good for Russian visas, as was already mentioned, I've written about Russian visas in other threads.
Are you staying for long in Minsk, maybe you can do with just a transit visa? I've been to Minsk countless times and have every form of visa going, so if you want to ask me any questions just send a pm.
If you are staying in a hotel, then you get a tourist visa (actually I've never had one of those, my parents have though). The tourist agency will send you a tourist voucher which you will send with your application. I can't remember which agency my parents went with. I found three on the internet and we went with the one that got back to us the quickest. The tourist voucher has to come from the agency, not the hotel.
If you are staying privately, you apply for a visitor's visa (it's more expensive but you should be saving money on accommodation). You don't need an invitation, just fill out the name, address and contact details of the person you're staying with.
When you get around to applying for the visa, you have to pay an extra £5 for postage as you can't send a prepaid envelope from Ireland.

BuffyBot

jonny68 wrote: »

Why does Russia still request that people get visas to visit their country,is this a money making exercise or what's the story i mean the Soviet Union is gone and all this secrecy about Russia that used to exist is gone (or is it),must countries thesedays you can come and go without a Visa if your an from an EC country.

Generally these things are reciprocal deals. If the EU lets Russians in without visas, then EU nationals could enter Russia witrhout a visa.,

jonny68

BuffyBot wrote: »

Generally these things are reciprocal deals. If the EU lets Russians in without visas, then EU nationals could enter Russia witrhout a visa.,

Fair enough i suppose.