St. Petersburgh : visa

J

jph

Registered User
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Hi.,
Hoping to plan a trip to take in Tallinn, Helsinki, and st petersburgh - anyone done this trip and in what order and also is it easy to secure a visa from the embassy in Dublin? - I was in Moscow 3 years ago and had quite a hassle to get a visa as had to get confirmation from hotel of booking etc first so I,m guessing this trip would need to be well thought out in advance - appreciate any advice - hoping to go either February or Easter next year.


Thanks j
 
We are going to Moscow and St Petersburg next week and the process for getting the visa is still the same- need to receive an invite from your hotel or travel agent and then apply to the russian embassy in Dublin for the visa. That said - when we sent in our visa application to the embassy (via post) we had passports returned with visa within a week so it was pretty quick process
 
Apparently for short stays if you arrive by ship in St. Petersburg you don't need a visa (to encourage cruise passengers)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2177240/Russia-visa-A-cruise-St-Petersburg.html has some details

Avoiding the hassle and expense of applying for a visa in advance is obviously desirable and this seems to be a way of avoiding it.

St. Petersburg is a lovely city .. I'd advise Easter rather than February ... it can be seriously cold and the days would be very short in Feb. (also the cruise above may not work in mid winter with ice etc.)
 
Hi. Maybe I was just unlucky but for me this visa was a nightmare. From memory you can only apply maximum a month before you want to enter. This is difficult if on a longer trip and Russia is not your first country. For me I applied in person in Dublin (3 years ago), paid 100 Euro for a three day turn around. It was to be sent back by my enclosed registered self addressed envelope. A week later it hadn't arrived. Phone calls to the embassy got 'no speak English' and hung up on. I went to the embassy and was told they didn't have it and it was posted to me already. When a politician rang up it appeared within 20 minutes. The office is a tiny room with massive queues and people trying to discuss private matters like adoptions with a room packed with people around them.
My reccomendation is apply as early as possible. I used realrussia.co.uk for the visa support. They just give you a letter saying your staying at particular hotels in Russia. You do not need to stay at these hotels. Technically when in Russia if staying in a certain place over three days you need to register your visa with the police. I didn't when I was in Russia for a month. This info is all 3 years old.
And yes St Petersburg is beautiful and well worth it.
 
That certainly wasnt my experience of visa application - I got the forms off the russian embassy website and posted it all to them in Dublin - they posted passports back with visas a week later - no need to go to the embassy and certainly no need to be paying these 'visa' assistance people to do it for you - such a rip off
 
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