Russian Visa Question.. conflicting info

Been researching this and like the title says, I am finding conflicting information.

I am starting to plan for a milestone vacation (either a 50th Bday or a wedding anniversary...)... my goal is to tell my wife "we are going away tomorrow.. you have 4 hours to pack"...

I am leaning towards a Baltic cruise. Wife has always wanted to go to St. Petersburg.

My initial research found that cruise ship px don't need a visa to get off the ship in SPB if they are on a ship excursion.

I have subsequently read that it can either be a ship excursion or an excursion arranged by a "Russian Travel Excursion Company". If this is the case, then that is awesome, because the prices for Russian excursions through the cruiseline's seem to be absurdly high. I saw one excursion company which offered excursions for 4 or 5 ports (incl 2 days in SPB) for around $600pp. Yet a cruiseline excursion for just SPB was about $300/day pp.

Can anyone "in the know" give me the low down on the current rules.

I don't think it makes any difference, but I am Canadian.....

Thanks

Just have one thing to say: if you want to make it to 51, you'd better give her more than four hours to pack!! :eek:

No, seriously, you can still spring the surprise but give her at least a few weeks; she may want to buy some new clothes, certainly some comfortable walking shoes, etc. :)

Been researching this and like the title says, I am finding conflicting information.

 

I am starting to plan for a milestone vacation (either a 50th Bday or a wedding anniversary...)... my goal is to tell my wife "we are going away tomorrow.. you have 4 hours to pack"...

 

I am leaning towards a Baltic cruise. Wife has always wanted to go to St. Petersburg.

 

My initial research found that cruise ship px don't need a visa to get off the ship in SPB if they are on a ship excursion.

 

I have subsequently read that it can either be a ship excursion or an excursion arranged by a "Russian Travel Excursion Company". If this is the case, then that is awesome, because the prices for Russian excursions through the cruiseline's seem to be absurdly high. I saw one excursion company which offered excursions for 4 or 5 ports (incl 2 days in SPB) for around $600pp. Yet a cruiseline excursion for just SPB was about $300/day pp.

 

Can anyone "in the know" give me the low down on the current rules.

 

I don't think it makes any difference, but I am Canadian.....

 

Thanks

To go into SPB you need to be on an excursion with a licensed Tour company. This can be on a ships excursion or on one arranged with one of the companies you will see frequently mentioned on this site. What you cannot do is walk off the ship and wander into town on your own as you may have done virtually anywhere else in the world unless you have gone to the trouble of obtaining a Visa. For most cruisers it is simply easier to go the tour company route. Depending on your cruise you generally book a multi day tour of the highlights.

Do not know the penalties for murder in Canada but if I gave my DW 4hrs to pack she would probably kill me. Good luck

What a wonderful milestone event idea! We did a Baltic cruise for my 60th – my birthday fell on the day of our excursion to Moscow, which was truly fabulous in every way. As long as you arrive by cruise ship, stay no longer than 72 hours and are either with a ship's tour or an official Russian guide, you will not need a visa.

Here are links to the blog posts I recently wrote on St. Petersburg. They may give you some ideas on what you'll want to see.

http://www.themodernpostcard.com/?p=727

http://www.themodernpostcard.com/?p=770

Good luck with your planning and the surprise!

Mary

Travel Blog: http://www.themodernpostcard.com

"As long as you arrive by cruise ship, stay no longer than 72 hours and are either with a ship's tour or an official Russian guide, you will not need a visa."

To be accurate, you WILL need a visa, but the tour company or cruise ship will process the paperwork for you.

We booked group tours with SPB Tours; my sister-N-law went on several baltic tours with them last year, including SPB, and highly recommends them. We selected and reserved our tours on their website.

Have a great time!

PhDiva, Good catch in the wording! Yes, the tour company will take care of getting visas for people on its tours.

Mary

I'll hazard a guess that the conflicting information you're getting is from the cruise lines.:rolleyes:

In the main this is down to deliberately ambiguous or incomplete information.

Wording like "If you wish to go ashore unaccompanied you will need a Russian visa, but you don't need a visa if you take a ship-sponsored tour"

Both assertions are correct.

What they fail to mention is that tours arranged through authorised local tour operators have the same visa-free status as ship's tours.

But telling people that doesn't help to sell over-priced ships' tours. ;)

Princess go a step further - their assertion that you need a visa or a ship's tour is a downright lie. :mad:

Although tours booked through local operators such as Alla Tours, SPB Tours, TJ Travel, Best Guides, DenRus etc are generally cheaper than ships' tours the real advantage is that they're way better. Small groups (max 16) in vans, more personal & more flexible.

Pedantic point, which makes no difference to the passengers. The tours (both ship's and local operators') are actually visa-free rather than visa-included.

JB :)

PS. Four hours notice to the wife???

No need for that long - 90 minutes is plenty. :)

Kingston

You have already gotten the low down from several 'in the know' people. Being Canadian has nothing to do with anything in St Petersburg regarding a visa. As John said, some cruise lines, like Princess still try and scare people into thinking that they can only go ashore with THEIR tours, but that is so far from the truth.

What I will say is if you book with a private tour company, try and stay with the well known ones. Some companies offer cheaper prices, but most have never heard of them, and for a trip like this, you want to make sure things go the way they are supposed to go. We used SPB Tours and they were fantastic. Companies like this do offer several other tours in other ports at a much more reasonable price. Just be aware, almost all the other ports are very easy to do on your own if you wish.

Just contact several private companies, see which one you feel most comfortable with and check your roll call to see what your fellow travelers are doing before you decide on one.

Cheers

Len

I'll hazard a guess that the conflicting information you're getting is from the cruise lines.:rolleyes:

In the main this is down to deliberately ambiguous or incomplete information.

Wording like "If you wish to go ashore unaccompanied you will need a Russian visa, but you don't need a visa if you take a ship-sponsored tour"

Both assertions are correct.

What they fail to mention is that tours arranged through authorised local tour operators have the same visa-free status as ship's tours...

 

Pedantic point, which makes no difference to the passengers. The tours (both ship's and local operators') are actually visa-free rather than visa-included.

 

JB :)

 

Continuing in pedantic mode...

SPB uses the phrase "blanket visa" in their text answering the question "Do you provide visas for Russia?"

Here's their exact answer: "YES! To those people arriving to St. Petersburg on a cruise ship who are booking shore excursions with us, we take care of your visa for Russia for the duration of your ship’s stay.

As a fully licensed tour operator, we are legally authorized to provide you with a document called a Tour Ticket which acts as your blanket visa for the duration of your stay in St. Petersburg. This document will allow you to enter Russia to take your tour with us. This has been an integral part of our business for the 7 years we have been in operation and we have never had a problem with our guests getting through Russian immigration. Tour Tickets are only required for St. Petersburg.

When you disembark the ship, all you need from us is your tour-ticket (along with your physical passport [not a copy]) and you are good to go!

We toured with White Nights Travel. The manager, Irina, wrote the following in response to my question about visas, "I do not know why they call it blanket visa. But we do take your information to the Russian Immigration to get their approval. But in Russian it is called visa-free regime." In a later email, the tour company wrote, "I need this information [name on passports, birth date, passport number, date of passport expiration] for the Russian Immigration."

So we have two difference licensed Russian tour agencies using two different terms for the same process. The second tour company goes farther in its explanation to say that the tour company notifies Russian Immigration. We can all be confident that the Russian government isn't ignoring the information they receive! To some degree, we are all being checked out before the tour company gets permission to issue us a Tour Ticket, easy enough to do in the modern technological age.

Over a decade ago, my husband and I made our first trip to Russia, a land trip to Moscow coupled with a river cruise. That type of trip would still require a visitor to get an individually obtained visa. When we filled out the visa application -- 14 pages worth of questions since US/Russian relations on visa matters were particularly frosty at the time -- we were asked for the information I've already listed along with goofy questions like magazine subscriptions and club/organization affiliation. Everyone understood that Russia didn't really care whether we subscribed to Gourmet or Field and Streammagazines. That was just padding to make the application process unpleasant since the US was doing the same thing to Russian citizens coming to the US. Even ten years ago, when data banks weren't as large and interconnected as they are now, I suspect all the Russian government needed to check out applicants was the same information we provide today to a private tour company.

Bottom line: It's really not productive to discuss the correct terminology since licensed tour agencies don't use consistent terminology. What is consistent and accurate is that a visitor who tours accompanied by a guide from a licensed company does not need to get a visa from a Russian consulate no matter what nonsense the cruise line tells them.

There are, I think, exemptions for the VISA/tour requirement if you arrive at StPB with S:t Peter line although that does not affect the OP.

Continuing in pedantic mode...

 

SPB uses the phrase "blanket visa" in their text answering the question "Do you provide visas for Russia?"

 

Here's their exact answer: "YES! To those people arriving to St. Petersburg on a cruise ship who are booking shore excursions with us, we take care of your visa for Russia for the duration of your ship’s stay.

 

As a fully licensed tour operator, we are legally authorized to provide you with a document called a Tour Ticket which acts as your blanket visa for the duration of your stay in St. Petersburg. This document will allow you to enter Russia to take your tour with us. This has been an integral part of our business for the 7 years we have been in operation and we have never had a problem with our guests getting through Russian immigration. Tour Tickets are only required for St. Petersburg.

 

When you disembark the ship, all you need from us is your tour-ticket (along with your physical passport [not a copy]) and you are good to go!

 

We toured with White Nights Travel. The manager, Irina, wrote the following in response to my question about visas, "I do not know why they call it blanket visa. But we do take your information to the Russian Immigration to get their approval. But in Russian it is called visa-free regime." In a later email, the tour company wrote, "I need this information [name on passports, birth date, passport number, date of passport expiration] for the Russian Immigration."

 

So we have two difference licensed Russian tour agencies using two different terms for the same process. The second tour company goes farther in its explanation to say that the tour company notifies Russian Immigration. We can all be confident that the Russian government isn't ignoring the information they receive! To some degree, we are all being checked out before the tour company gets permission to issue us a Tour Ticket, easy enough to do in the modern technological age.

 

Over a decade ago, my husband and I made our first trip to Russia, a land trip to Moscow coupled with a river cruise. That type of trip would still require a visitor to get an individually obtained visa. When we filled out the visa application -- 14 pages worth of questions since US/Russian relations on visa matters were particularly frosty at the time -- we were asked for the information I've already listed along with goofy questions like magazine subscriptions and club/organization affiliation. Everyone understood that Russia didn't really care whether we subscribed to Gourmet or Field and Streammagazines. That was just padding to make the application process unpleasant since the US was doing the same thing to Russian citizens coming to the US. Even ten years ago, when data banks weren't as large and interconnected as they are now, I suspect all the Russian government needed to check out applicants was the same information we provide today to a private tour company.

 

Bottom line: It's really not productive to discuss the correct terminology since licensed tour agencies don't use consistent terminology. What is consistent and accurate is that a visitor who tours accompanied by a guide from a licensed company does not need to get a visa from a Russian consulate no matter what nonsense the cruise line tells them.

Hi,

We've had this discussion before ;)

And I'd not have mentioned it if PhD-iva hadn't :D

So anyone who's going to quickly get bored with the detail need look no further than your "bottom line" :)

Yes I'm aware that SPB infer a "blanket visa".

And there's at least one other local operator which actually says they arrange your visa for you.

But the majority of operators, and all Russian govt websites refer to "visa - free".

I get the impression that your experience applying for a tourist visa 10+ years ago isn't a lot different now.

And to get a tourist visa we Brits now have to present ourselves in person at the embassy in London or Edinburgh to supply biometrics. Not Americans, Canadians, etc - just us Brits. I guess somebody in Whitehall must've wound-up Vlad. :D

No wonder virtually every cruiser takes advantage of visa-free tours.

JB :)

There are, I think, exemptions for the VISA/tour requirement if you arrive at StPB with S:t Peter line although that does not affect the OP.

Actually no. St. Peter Line lies under the same visa waiver rule as cruise ships. As far as I recall the rule is that you have to arrive and leave Russia on a ship through the same port, take part in a licensed sightseeing program, and spend no more than 72 hours in Russia. You are allowed to stay in a hotel and actually use different ship to leave and enter. As a Russian cruise ferry company, St. Peter Line takes the interpretation of a sightseeing program to its limit with their simplest option being practically a ship's shuttle to downtown or your hotel.

I think the distinction between the visa requirement being waived or you being under a blanket/group visa is important only in some extraordinary circumstances. For example, if you were to miss your ship, under the visa waiver program you have to go through some bureaucracy to be able to leave Russia. If you were covered by an actual visa of some sort you could just head to the airport or train station.

For Canadian applicants there is visa service now where personal appointment is still required http://www.canada-ils.com/ Visa fee including ILS fee is $150C$ so I think organized excursions make prefect financial sense.

Thank you all for your input.

You have provided me with the answers I need... and the results are positive.

For those that say my wife will kill me if I only give her a few hours to pack... well.... she may get stressed out, but I think I will be forgiven. Besides.. we have a standard list of travel supplies, so it really shouldn't be that hard to pack for 2 weeks in a few hours.....

And really... She turns 45 tomorrow... and I was thinking of this being a trip for her 50th..... so I am starting to plan REALLY early.... I may end up just packing for her and leave after going for a birthday dinner. (haha.. THAT may not go over well....).

thanks for all the good info on russian visas. I will be in SPB for 3 days this summer on a cruise. We are thinking of doing a 2 day tour with SPB or TJ travel. I know the tour companies arrange for the visa but was wondering if we would be able to leave the ship on our own on the third day to wander around with the visa already arranged from the 2 day tour or if it "expires".

Any input is appreciated.

thanks for all the good info on russian visas. I will be in SPB for 3 days this summer on a cruise. We are thinking of doing a 2 day tour with SPB or TJ travel. I know the tour companies arrange for the visa but was wondering if we would be able to leave the ship on our own on the third day to wander around with the visa already arranged from the 2 day tour or if it "expires".

Any input is appreciated.

No, you have to have a tour ticket that covers all of your time ashore unless you have an actual Russian visa. Just do a 3 day tour or you will be sitting on the ship for the third day.

No, you have to have a tour ticket that covers all of your time ashore unless you have an actual Russian visa. Just do a 3 day tour or you will be sitting on the ship for the third day.

Posting to confirm pjs's info.

To get thro immigration without a tourist visa you will need an appropriate tour ticket.

For that third day You could ask SPB & PJ whether it's possible to fix up an informal private "tour" that provides transport from the ship to the centre, free time in the city, and transport back. Different tour operators interpret the regulations differently, they'll be as helpful as they can & they'll know what they're comfortable with.

JB :)

thanks for all the good info on russian visas. I will be in SPB for 3 days this summer on a cruise. We are thinking of doing a 2 day tour with SPB or TJ travel. I know the tour companies arrange for the visa but was wondering if we would be able to leave the ship on our own on the third day to wander around with the visa already arranged from the 2 day tour or if it "expires".

Any input is appreciated.

Looking at our tour tickets from 2015, there are two entries, one for each of the days we'd booked an excursion with a tour company. For each day, there's a column with the word "date" in Cyrillic and in English, a column with the phrase "excursion begins at" in both Cyrillic and English, and a final column with the phrase "excursion ends at" in both Cyrillic and English. Although there is a Cyrillic numeral system, the ticket uses the familiar 1,2, 3, etc. for dates/times.

The length of our tour on Day 1 was longer than our tour on Day 2 and that fact is reflected in the information on the ticket. This level of precision on our ticket ought to tell you that your plan to simply wander around is a non-starter.

All the licensed tour companies will be very specific about your time with them in St. Petersburg. They have nothing to gain -- and everything to lose -- by writing a tour ticket for three days in port when they're only going to accompany you for two of those days. As others have said, without booking a three-day excursion, your plans will come to a halt at the Passport control kiosks.