St. Petersburg VISA question

I will be in St. Petersburg for 3 days in 2016 as part of an Azamara cruise. I am a US citizen. Questions (1) can I get off the ship unescorted if I have not secured a visa while in the US? (2) do I need to get a visa in the US if I want to take a non ship related tour in St. Petersburg? (3) is it true that if I sign up for the ship tours of St. Petersburg, I do not need to obtain a visa on my own? (4) if I want to obtain a visa while still in the US, how do I do it (everything I read requires a personal appearance and I live hundreds of miles from visa office?

1) no 2) no, you can take a private tour from one of 100s of authorized tour providers 3) yes, but see answer to #2 4) no, you can do it via mail (best advice is to read the instructions carefully and if you still have questions, search on trip advisor or cruise critic). Hope this helps.

1 - No

2/3- You do not need a visa to take a tour. Your tour ticket/receipt serves as your visa. It does not have to be a ship tour but it has to be a tour. Look at other threads you will see the tour operators that people used. We used SPB and were very happy.

4 - no idea

Cruiselines like to scare the cruisers with the "you can't leave the ship without booking one of OUR tours" warning. And many travel agents think the same.:rolleyes:

But you can book your tour online with one of many companies ( alla and SPB as the largest and who offer discounts if you do other cities with them too). They will ask for all your passport info and send you the ticket you need to enter Russia. With that ticket and your passport you are welcomed to St. P.

By the way, the savings and the small groups will give a much nicer value and experience than booking with the ship.;) And you don't prepay.

I would recommend that you either obtain a visa or sign up with one of the large, reputable private tours companies. If you sign up with a private tour company, you will email them your information, and they will apply for a visa on your behalf. They will email you a copy of your visa which you will need to present to the Russian customs agents, and technically you are not allowed to wander around Russia except when you are with your tour guide. The ships tours are more expensive than the private tour companies, and have larger groups so I really wouldn't recommend it.

If you can afford it, you should consider booking a private tour for just your family. You don't have much time in St. Petersburg relative to the size of the city, and a private tour limited to just your family will allow you to design a tour that maximizes what you want to do (we skipped all souvenir shops and were able to adjust the time of the tour since the weather was perfect on the first day). But people in the 16 group tours with the private tour companies are generally very happy with their tours, so if you can't afford a private tour that is also a really good option.

If you want to explore independently you will have to arrange a visa in advance of your cruise.

Application is quite detailed & complicated, so do it in good time for your application to be rejected & re-submitted due to some footling little error. Or, although for most countries using a visa agent is a waste of money, it just might be worth the extra cost of using a visa expert for a Russian visa.

Only a very few cruisers go down that path - the vast majority take advantage of the visa-free concession for cruisers taking a tour with an accredited tour operator.

Ships of course use accredited tour operators for their ship-sponsored tours, but heed eandj's words - they try to give the impression that only ship-sponsored tours are visa-free.

A glance through threads about independently-booked tours, and checking the websites & independent reviews of the many local operators, will show that those tours are also visa-free. And all the operators have excellent reputations.

You do have to pre-book - a print-off of the tour tickets e-mailed to you get you thro' immigration without a visa - but you don't pre-pay, and most (all?) don't even ask for a credit card number. You pay during your visit by cash (incl USD) or plastic.

Those tours are in 16-seat vans, rather than the large coaches used by ships. So - smaller groups, more interaction with the guide, no delays while 50 people alight & re-board at each stop, often closer parking, certainly quicker through traffic, and a degree of flexibility. And most include a (optional) trip on the metro, and Peterhof at least one way by hydrofoil rather than road - all impossible with larger groups. Pre-public admission to the Hermitage, beat-the-lines at Catherine Palace & elsewhere.

We used Alla & were very happy - but other folk using other tour operators have been equally happy with their choice.

And though I'd strongly recommend using a local operator, those taking ships tours were also happy.

A tour ticket (ship's or local operator's) gets you thro immigration without a visa - but only for that tour. So you can't use a Monday tour ticket to go thro immigration on Tuesday - or even Monday evening. You need an appropriate tour ticket for each disembarkation. And you can't wander off at the end of a tour & make your own way back to the ship.

Different tour operators have different policies on how much you can wander away during a tour, from allowing you to wander into a different part of a venue to giving you an hour or so of free-time in the shopping centre - I guess that's their different interpretations of the visa-free rules.

JB :)

I will be in St. Petersburg for 3 days in 2016 as part of an Azamara cruise. I am a US citizen. Questions (1) can I get off the ship unescorted if I have not secured a visa while in the US? (2) do I need to get a visa in the US if I want to take a non ship related tour in St. Petersburg? (3) is it true that if I sign up for the ship tours of St. Petersburg, I do not need to obtain a visa on my own? (4) if I want to obtain a visa while still in the US, how do I do it (everything I read requires a personal appearance and I live hundreds of miles from visa office?

A lot of time has passed since this original post, so I don't know if you're still considering getting your own visa for independent travel, but here are some specifics.

Ten years ago, US visitors to Russia used to be able to use the service of a visa company. These companies would serve as a collection point for all paperwork and walk it to the consulate. There have been huge changes in the visa regulations over the past 10 years so I don't know if this service is available.

Furthermore, Russia itself appears to have set up its own visa service. If you go to the web site for the Embassy of the Russian Federation, you'll find information about this Visa Center. Here is a useful excerpt from that web page:

Russian Visa Center in the United States

Under the agreement between the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States of America and the company «Invisa Logistics Services LLC», in improving visa services, US citizens, foreign nationals and stateless persons may apply for all Russian visa types at the above-mentioned company's Visa Center. The company is nationwide, with five offices: Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Seattle.

Please be advised that the current Visa Center service fee is $ 33.00 per visa.

Consular visa tariffs remain the same.

For more information visit http://www.ils-usa.com.

For your convenience, you may reach Call-Center Representatives at:

(202) 827-0880 or e-mail your inquiries to: info-washington@ils-usa.com

Monday-Friday (Eastern Time)

9.00 a.m. - 1 p.m.

2.00 p.m. - 9.00 p.m.

Technical break: 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Call-Center Representatives are standing by to answer any questions you may have regarding the visa process or general consular inquiries.

III. Foreign applicants for Russian visas can apply directly to the Consular Division of the Embassy of the Russian Federation.

Prior to submitting your visa application to Russian consulate you must make an appointment on the following web-site. For applying directly you are required to appear in person for a visa interview at the Consular Division from 9 a.m. till 12.15 p.m. Please, comply with the general visa obtaining procedure and have available all the documents concerning your trip. Tourist\visa processing agencies have to submit applications to the ILS only.

IV. All applications for Russian visas submitted in the United States must be prepared using the electronic visa application form at the website http://visa.kdmid.ru.

It appears you'll be able to phone this Visa Center and get your questions answered from a reliable source. (I've highlighted the contact information.)

I will be in St. Petersburg for 3 days in 2016 as part of an Azamara cruise. I am a US citizen. Questions (1) can I get off the ship unescorted if I have not secured a visa while in the US? (2) do I need to get a visa in the US if I want to take a non ship related tour in St. Petersburg? (3) is it true that if I sign up for the ship tours of St. Petersburg, I do not need to obtain a visa on my own? (4) if I want to obtain a visa while still in the US, how do I do it (everything I read requires a personal appearance and I live hundreds of miles from visa office?

As far as I understand you do not necessarily have to book the ship tours, but you do have to be as you say escorted, which I understand as to be on a guided tour with a company which is able to provide blanket visas along with the tour. It is not only the ship. There are many. You can browse this forum for their names. We were with Best Guides on and there groups are 12 people, but in our case it was 8 - a nice little friendly group.

But we did have to get visas when we traveled to StPeters on-land for Christmas. We did it through a TA who prepared all the documents for us, but we still had to go to the visa center personally. This was several yeas ago, so maybe things have changed since. But it was also quite costly. The sum we paid for the visa was comparable to the cost of the guided tour in StPb. I would not bother for just a two day tour.