Russia and foreign Passport policy

[Dont worry]

Hi !
Flying in and out of Russia now for 12 years in the charter business.
Every time I have to fly into Russia for a turn around going out of Russia again, I am asking myself and also the Customs guys why the heck they have to stamp the Passport.
I am not talking about an overnight or a stop where I leave the airport. No, just maybe a 2 hours turn around. What sense does it make that they stamp the passport even I do not leave the aircraft.
Is anyone of you having a document, or an idea where to find the regulation about this. In my opinion it is definately not necessary to do this.
Any hint would be highly appreciated as there is definately no brain involved in the acting of russian customs guys.
Thank you.

[Dan the weegie]

Trying to get sense out of a Russian bureaucratic official is a bit like making sense of Japanese Anime, it is, because reasons, okay? :)

They have to stamp your passport when flying internally as well.... again, reasons.

[Lowmick]

Sounds like a need to have RU visa even when you dont stay in Russia or leave a/c (for quick turnaround). And when you have it - you get stamp.

[390cruise]

Yes indeed you do!
We dropped off at Moscow to return to UK, were made to sign an admission of guilt and fined due lack of visas.This took almost three hours.

[wondering]

Doesn´t the US require ppl to go through immigration and customs on transit flights? What´s the point there?

[Dont worry]

I do agree with all of your posts.
The point is, why do we get stamped and not Lufthansa, Air France and so on.
None of them have Visas for Russia.
I fully understand that in our business it is necessary to have a Visa cause we never now how long we will stay in Russia or if we have a flight within.
But especially just for turn arounds I do not see any sense.
Would be great if one of our russian collegues could shed some light on it and maybe come up with a law or order where this procedure is written.

[Premier1989]

Picked up my Russian Visa about 2 months ago and I heard a rumour at the Embassy that for all future Visa applications, starting end of 2015 / beginning of 2016, all applicants will have their finger prints recorded per application! Seems extreme for a max 1 year allowance visa. Just FYI.

On another note, has any BizAv operator been affected by the prior submission of API/PNR data? There was a statement in January 2014 from Rosaviatsia (via Rusaero) that all operators had to submit full airline style data via SITA message 24hrs before a flight in, out or over Russian airspace. Cant say I have had any flights to / from / over Russia that have been affected, but surly there will be some BizAv operators that don't operate with a traditional SITA system?

[vodka_gorbachev]

I do agree with all of your posts.
The point is, why do we get stamped and not Lufthansa, Air France and so on.
None of them have Visas for Russia.
I fully understand that in our business it is necessary to have a Visa cause we never now how long we will stay in Russia or if we have a flight within.
But especially just for turn arounds I do not see any sense.
Would be great if one of our russian collegues could shed some light on it and maybe come up with a law or order where this procedure is written.

As you saying you are flying to Russia for a long time, you should remember that the rule of "stamping" have been changed little bit more than 2 years ago.
Before, if you was doing turn-around they was not asking you for the visa and they was not putting stamp on it.

For some reason, now they requiring a visa for all non-scheduled crew and that is the reason why they stamping and stamping and stamping.

All Lufthansa, Air France, Air Berlin and all other airlines crew's are not getting customs / stamped passports because airlines having a special agreement with ministry of foreign affairs.

If you are the airline operator and you decided to open new destination, let's say Vienna – Moscow Domodedovo, you need to get approval from both ministries (Russian and Austrian) and in this case, Russian customs / migration authorities not affecting, but it's valid only for a scheduled flights and airlines.

Have a safe flights!

[dcoded]

I flew in and out of VKO twice a couple of weeks ago.
The first was a night stop, so we arranged visas.
THe second was just a quick turn around, less than 3 hrs so we didn't have to leave our passports.

The rule was "Stay less than 3 hours, no need for passport" In russian-english accent :}

[Denti]

All Lufthansa, Air France, Air Berlin and all other airlines crew's are not getting customs / stamped passports because airlines having a special agreement with ministry of foreign affairs.

Not quite correct i believe, we do not need a visa, a gen dec (and a passport) is enough to enter the country. However they usually still stamp our passports, but they try to not use up too much space and can fit quite a few stamps on one page. Sometimes they stamp a piece of paper instead and put that in the passport and remove it on leaving the country. Some of our pilots are not allowed to operate to russia however, apparently non-eu passports are not accepted, especially US ones. If we stay on the aircraft for a return flight (quite rare) we do not have to get our passports stamped though.

[Sirijus]

I think the policies also depend on the airport.

In St. Petersburg I don't get up an inch from my seat and get 2 stamps if we're doing a turnaround, and they actually take away our passports as soon as the doors open! And visa is required for us.. But if that's the procedure, so be it...