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Information on visa support from GBT to foreign volunteers (invitations and visa registration in Russia)

 

Information on visa support from GBT to foreign volunteers (invitations and visa registration in Russia)

 
Invitations

To enter Russia, you need a visa, and to receive a visa you usually need an official invitation.

As a foreign volunteer, you may receive your invitation from our Russian GBT offices.  You may also, if you prefer, use one of various commercial firms that provide such services, some over the internet.

Our GBT can provide 2 types of invitations – good for either a tourist or a business visa.

Tourist invitations -  with a tourist invitation you can enter Russian territory for a period of not more than 30 days. In order for the GBT to issue you with a tourist invitation, we need the following information:

  1. Your full name;

  2. Date of birth;

  3. Passport number;

  4. Citizenship;

  5. Country where you are going to receive your Russian visa;

  6. Date of entry to and departure from Russia;

  7. Route of your trip in Russia;

  8. Regular mail address;

  9. E-mail address;

  10. Do you know if your local Russian Embassy/Consulate will accept copies (i.e., not originals) of invitations?  If so, we can fax or e-mail the scanned invitation to you and you will get it faster.

You should apply for invitation some 2 months before your entry to Russia, if possible. We’ll send you your invitation as soon as we receive your projects fee deposit of $250. (By the way, the cost of processing and officially registering this invitation is included in this projects fee.)

If your Russian Consulate does not accept copies of invitations, we can send you the invitation via regular mail (at no cost to you--- but please note, this might take up to a month to be delivered through our Russian post).  Or we can send it by express mail (which will take no more than 10 days to be delivered via express mail).  The approximate express mail costs for you to the: USA, Canada - $ to European countries - $ and to Mongolia, China, Asia - $65.

    
Business invitations – with a business invitation in hand you can enter Russia for a period of not more than 90 days.

It takes  35 days for GBT to officially register this kind of invitation with our local authorities.  In order to do this, we need the following information:

  1. Your full name;

  2. Date of birth;

  3. Place of birth (country and city);

  4. Passport number;

  5. Passport expiration date;

  6. Citizenship;

  7. Country and city where you are going to receive your Russian visa;

  8. Date of entry to and departure from Russia;

  9. Route of your trip in Russia;

  10. Place of work (name of organization, organization address, your position at work);

  11. Regular mail address;

  12. E-mail address;

  13. Scanned passport copy (please, make it readable).

You should try to apply for this invitation from us some 3 months before your entry to Russia. Cost of this type of invitation is $90 extra – this is NOT included in your projects fee. This money is what the GBT must pay to the Russian Government to have them approve this business.

 If you apply later than 3 months before your entry to Russia, than we’ll need to use express mail to send it to you.  Once again, the. approximate express mail costs: to the USA, Canada - $ to European countries - $ and to Mongolia, China, Asia - $65. It takes up to 10 days to deliver your invitation by express mail.

Please, send your applications for visa invitations to Yulya Vologzhina at

      Attention!!!

      Before you send us information for your visa invitation, could you, please, double check the accuracy of all information which you have provided to us. If there are any mistakes in the information provided by you, such as in the spelling of your name in your passport, or your passport number, date of birth, etc, then we would have to start all over again.
 

 Visas

After you receive your visa, please, look at it and pay attention to the dates of travel. Please be aware that you cannot enter Russia before entry date and cannot leave Russia even one day later than expiration date! The fine for violating the visa departure date can be $000 or more! Please also note: YOU CANNOT EXTEND YOUR RUSSIAN VISA IN RUSSIA!!!
 

 Registration

All foreign citizens, upon entering Russia, need to register their stay in each settlement or city if their stay there is for 3 days or more. Russian officials register foreigners by stamping their immigration form (a document that is given to you in the airplane or in the airport in Russia when you arrive)  Please note:  This IMIGRATION PAPER IS NOT ATTACHED TO YOUR PASSPORT!!! PLEASE, DON’T LOSE IT!!!

If before a project or after a project you choose to stay at a hotel, then the hotel administration will stamp you registration for you.  Otherwise, your registration could be stamped in the Russian Ministry of Interior, in the department of visas and registrations (abbreviated as OVIR in Russian).

In Irkutsk, Ulan Ude and Severobaikalsk (where our GBT offices are located), our GBT staff will help you with registration for the time of project. In order to do so, we ask that you arrive in Ulan Ude and Irkutsk 2 weekdays (working days) in advance of the project, if possible. In Severobaikalsk, you could arrive 1 day in advance to have your visa registered. Be prepared for the fact that GBT staff will ask to take your passport for 2 days for this registration process.

The registration fees charged by OVIR is included in your $250 volunteer fee.

Note: if you receive your invitation through a commercial firm, then you need to take a letter (copy of letter) with the stamp and signature of an official from that firm.   A sample letter form could be sent to you if you write us at  If you do not get this letter from the firm, there may be problems with registering your visa in OVIR.

 Please, take all visa related issues seriously. Be prepared!

 If you have any questions regarding visas and registration, please, write to
 

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