Russian Migration/Immigration Forms?

[lindi]

My understanding is that these forms are distributed to each cabin, the night

before arriving in St.Petersburg. We are wondering what HAL's Eurodam's practices

are concerning this, and how they handle distribution to non-ship shore

excursion passengers. We will be doing the two day Denrus Value Tour and are hoping

there won't be any glitches concerning HAL re. receiving these forms, and getting off

the ship in the early am to join the Denrus tour. Recent info would be greatly appreciated!

[Lair Bear]

My understanding is that these forms are distributed to each cabin, the night

before arriving in St.Petersburg. We are wondering what HAL's Eurodam's practices

are concerning this, and how they handle distribution to non-ship shore

excursion passengers. We will be doing the two day Denrus Value Tour and are hoping

there won't be any glitches concerning HAL re. receiving these forms, and getting off

the ship in the early am to join the Denrus tour. Recent info would be greatly appreciated!

 

I don't believe HAL or any cruise line has anything to do with you going on a private tour with one of the St. Petersburg tour companies. You should have received an 'invitation' and/or other paperwork from Denrus with their coupons to be handed to the Russian passport control agent. He/she will want to see your passport and have a copy of that along with the 'invitation' slip.

HAL may insist that you wait your turn to disembark, but cannot keep you aboard for any other reason. I am sure the forms you are referring to are only for those passengers who are going on a ship's tour.

[Nghthawke]

I am sure the forms you are referring to are only for those passengers who are going on a ship's tour.

Actually they apply to everyone including those of us who were booked on a private tour.

 

Here is how it was handled on our Eurodam cruise on May 13th... When we did our embarkation in Copenhagen, ALL PASSENGERS had to hand over their passports. Holland America then spent the next day photocopying everyone's passports because Russian immigration apparently needed a copy. When our passports were returned to us (on our first sea day) we had two photocopies of our passports and a Russian immigration form to fill out in duplicate.

 

Russian immigration never did keep a photocopy of our passports. However, they did verify that the immigration form was filled out and they kept the document. They gave our tour ticket (we booked with SPB Tours which I highly recommend) a cursory glance. Stamped our passport and gave us a little red card. Do not lose your passport or this little red card as you need it to re-board the ship.

 

HAL did not attempt to stop us from leaving the ship but they phrased things in their literature that was intimidating and made us feel uneasy. Things like we would not be allowed to leave the ship until after 9 am. Of course this was too late and so even though you know they can't physically stop you it was just not a nice thing for them to put in writing. But if you read between the lines it says something like a valid visa which is what our tour tickets are; they are a valid visa. HAL just doesn't come out and say that, by the way, your private tour tickets are valid visas -- and so you can't help worrying that, gee, maybe they really won't let you off the ship... I did not appreciate HAL's tone but I expected it to happen because of reading about it here on Cruise Critic.

 

Anyways, some kind soul pre-arranged with guest services that all of us who had private tours would be let off the ship before the HAL tours debarked. Needless to say all of us were ready very early and made it off the ship without any hassles on both days.

 

St. Petersburg was every bit as beautiful as I could have imagined. Wonderful two days!!!

 

Would've been a perfect 10 except for HAL's scare tactics.

[suz1607]

Actually my understanding from Denrus and from reading these boards is that Russia does have an additional form that needs to be filled out this year. It is supposed to be distributed to all passengers on-board. Maybe someone who has already cruised to Russia this year could give us more information.

[suz1607]

Thanks for the info. We were posting at the same time!

[Lair Bear]

Actually they apply to everyone including those of us who were booked on a private tour.

 

Then this must be something new this year, because our experience last year did not require this form. I am curious now if it is only HAL that puts out these 'scare tactics' or is it really a new requirement by the Russians.

 

The rest of your explanation about the red tag etc.follows our experience, except that the official did keep the passport copy (which we had brought from home per the advise from Alla) and the slip that in affect was the visa also provided by Alla. Again what I was saying is that the ship had nothing to do with all of this.

[Lair Bear]

I just read the post by Leejnd4 on the same subject. Her points are well taken about these 'scare tactics'. And I again repeat that if you have booked with a private tour operator, one that has done their homework and are then you 'sponsor', you do not need a separate visa or special paperwork that the ship tries to demand. At least not last year.

If indeed that has changed, I am sure the private tour company would inform you of this.

[davejohn]

I just read the post by Leejnd4 on the same subject. Her points are well taken about these 'scare tactics'. And I again repeat that if you have booked with a private tour operator, one that has done their homework and are then you 'sponsor', you do not need a separate visa or special paperwork that the ship tries to demand. At least not last year.

If indeed that has changed, I am sure the private tour company would inform you of this.

 

That was last year. Now there are immigration form(s) that need to be filled out. On NCL's May 10th cruise the forms were given out to those on NCL tours, but not private tours, causing a lot of confusion and delays. The May 22nd cruise NCL passed then out to everyone.

[DebbieS732]

Anyways, some kind soul pre-arranged with guest services that all of us who had private tours would be let off the ship before the HAL tours debarked. Needless to say all of us were ready very early and made it off the ship without any hassles on both days.

 

A group of us here from CC are taking a SPB tour the week after next. We're not trying to 'bust' our way off of the ship or any of that nonsense but we are wondering what time to leave. Our tour tickets say meet the SPB tour 7-7:30am. We were thinking of getting to the gangplank by 6:15-6:30am. Would this allow us enough time to meet our tour guide? We're a little worry because, like many other people on tours, we have a pretty aggressive tour schedule and don't want to start running behind from the very first hour. I think we are going to try to meet as a group before leaving the ship so we meet up with the tour guide at the same time.

 

Also, who was that kind soul??? Was it someone from your tour group? How were you alerted to the fact that you were going to be let off before the HAL tours debarked? That doesn't seem to be the norm. I did notice that none of the HAL tours start before 8am. I'm wondering if we told them we needed to meet our tour guide earlier if they would let us off first. Thanks.

[lindi]

Yes, the Russian migration form requirement was apparently started May 2009, according to Denrus' website. Thank you, Nghthawke, for HAL's procedure concerning this on the Eurodam. We were not aware that the ship would be picking up the passports in preparation for the stop in St. Petersburg. Makes sense. Thanks to all who took time to give your thoughts.

[lindi]

debbie S732? You wouldn't happen to be on the same Eurodam cruise as us would you? Leaving from Copenhagen on June 22? If so, we're also part of the CC group on that itinerary and will be meeting on the first sea day. Although we're with a different tour group perhaps we could discuss St.Petersburg private tours, as a group. We too, do not intend to "rush the gangplank" however we know we cannot be held back due to the fact we're with Denrus. We too, have a very busy couple of days of touring planned!

[DebbieS732]

debbie S732? You wouldn't happen to be on the same Eurodam cruise as us would you? Leaving from Copenhagen on June 22? If so, we're also part of the CC group on that itinerary and will be meeting on the first sea day. Although we're with a different tour group perhaps we could discuss St.Petersburg private tours, as a group. We too, do not intend to "rush the gangplank" however we know we cannot be held back due to the fact we're with Denrus. We too, have a very busy couple of days of touring planned!

 

 

No, sorry, we are the week before, June 12th. If I get a few minutes after stopping in St. Petersburg, I will get on the internet and try to post to this forum about our experience.

[lindi]

Thanks Debbie, Have a great holiday !

[mdlady]

We have booked for our July cruise with Denrus, so I got on their site and they have information on the new form:

 

http://www.denrus.ru/migrationcard.html

[Lair Bear]

We have booked for our July cruise with Denrus, so I got on their site and they have information on the new form:

 

http://www.denrus.ru/migrationcard.html

 

Thank you for this post. It looks like this form is new and very similar to the one you need to fill out when you enter or come back to the US. And it is nice that the ship will hand these out to all passengers. It is just a new policy for all.

 

Notice line 8:

Visa Number, if you have an individual visa insert that number which is in the upper right corner of the Visa. For all other using Visa Free entry, write only "Cruise Passenger".

 

However, to repeat my comments, the form has nothing to do with going on a private tour, visa requirements, etc. and the ship cannot make deceiving statements that you need a personnel visa unless you go with their tours. The equivalent of a visa is taken care of by the tour operator.