Russia Visa query
 

We are off to Russia in October and the Visa can take 4 weeks and the requirement for a personnel visit to the Visa Office in London and Fingerprints I understand
However my query is under Documents Required is point 4
4. A 'Tourist voucher' and a 'Tourist confirmation' document stamped and signed by authorized person. They can be obtained through your hotel or an approved travel agent who deals with trips to Russia, and should be valid for the entire duration of your trip. The stamp and all details should be clearly readable.

Now they recommend not making bookings till you get the visa, so
Q what is this Tourist Voucher? how do I get this? Can I just go in to Thomas Cook travel agency (etc) and while not booking with them get this Voucher?

Thanks in advance
K

It's around 10 years since I went to Russia so I might be out of date and the brain cells weren't what they were but as I recall you need to book, or reserve, your accommodation(s) from the date you arrive and until the date you leave RU and that accommodation, whether it be a hotel or an apartment, will issue you with a voucher.

If in doubt, just google for an apartment in the city where you're going and use them to source information of what you need to do, this is their bread and butter.

Wouldn't they get more tourists and earn more money if they simplified things ?

I looked at a stop over in Moscow last year and decided the bother and expense wasn't worth it for a couple of days. China is far easier.

We went to St Peterberg for a couple of weeks in 2012 - beautiful (if expensive) city.

You have to book your hotel first. They then issue you with your Tourist Voucher and you use that to get your visa. The visa application is done on-line and can be done directly with the embassy. If you google russian visa application you will get several million hits on people who claim to do things for you for extera money - these are ALL scammers who add no value.

When you fill in the on-line form be prepared to spend a lot of time doing it. From memory it starts out being just three pages, but as soon as you select "British" as a nationality this jumps to around 12*, and some selections on some of the pages (especially employment and some travel stuff) spawn yet more pages. And IIRC you need one for each person (even the kids). The process was simple, but time consuming.

PDR

* I was told that this is simply Russia mirroring the visa questions your own country asks of a russian visitor

I went to SPb during a February and it was bl**dy cold.

It was even more difficult when I went to Tashkent, Uzbekistan in circa 2000, we would be staying in an apartment but the apartment owners/agencies couldn't issue the voucher, it needed a third party agency that wanted jumping thru hoops and $$$.

To hell with it, I just booked a fully flexible room at the Sheraton Hotel, they issued me a voucher, I got my visa and once the dust had settled I cancelled the Sheraton and stayed in an apartment.

You will need to go in person to the visa centre in London to get fingerprinted for a first Russian visa. PITA. If you use Real Russia for visa services at least you don't have to go back to actually collect your passport and they don't charge all that much. I used them for a lengthy rail journey (Poitiers to Mandalay) and they sorted out all the visas that had to be done in advance then couriered my passport back to me. It was cheaper than multiple trips to London.

The reason it's so hard for Brits to get a Russian Visa is because the Brits really toughened up the requirements for Russians over the last 5 years

Do unto other's etc etc etc