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Obtaining A Russian Invitation

Previous page -  Accommodation In Russia

To go to Russia involves getting a visa but before you can obtain your visa you must have an Invitation to Russia.  The invitation is basically a document that supports your visa application.  It can come from a hotel you are staying at or from a tour agent.  We are travelling quite independently so we searched around the internet for ways to get an invitation.  We found several businesses who specialize in issuing invitations even though you are not staying with them or going on any tours they organise.  This seems to be a normal practice in Russia.  We were intending to use the services of Way to Russia and they advertise they can organise the invitation for $30 USD.  However we failed to get sensible responses back from them regarding enquiries we made about train bookings so we decided to look elsewhere.  We then found a company called Go To Russia.  They charge $20 USD per invitation.

At 8:30 pm we completed their online questionnaire and submitted our credit card details.  Believe it or not, two hours later our invitations were emailed to us.  They advertise quick service but we thought two hours was outstandingly good.  In the questionnaire you need to tell them what stop overs you are having whilst you are in Russia.  You also need to write down what accommodation you have booked, if any.  When the invitation is emailed back to you they use some of the information you give them and they bulk it out with details of other accommodations you "might" have if you chose to.  Russian bureaucracy stipulates that you must tell the government where and when you will be located throughout your time in their country.  What it comes down to is this -  "bookings" are made for you in various cities you are going to by the Invitation Agency but you don't have to validate those bookings by arriving at the hotel or paying for the accommodation.  It still seems strange to us but it is the way things are done and the Russian government seems happy with it.

This is what one of our Invitations looks like:

Now we both have our invitations we can begin the process of getting our visas.

Next page - Obtaining Our Visas

Our trip in the order it all happened: