Visa Experiences

A Friend asked me what it was like being in Putin’s Russia. Rather than go through everything I experienced while over there I will use getting a Russian Visa and having all the Correct Documents with you at all times to sum everything up.

No Russian Visa can be issued, then or now, without a Russian Sponsor (note the US did away with American Sponsors in 1965.)

Here is what I had to go through every time I wanted a Russian Visa (I had to get 2 Student Visas and 3 Homestay Visas):

Each time you want to get a Russian Visa you have to send your Original Passport to whomever will be your Russian Sponsor (for Tourists it is usually the 1st Hotel in Russia you will stay at unless you are going with a Tour Company.)

The Would-Be Russian Sponsor then goes to their Local Branch of Ministry of Internal Affairs (it was OVIR when I first went to Russia and then changed) and apply for an Official Invitation and pay a Fee.

If the Official Invitation is approved your Russian Sponsor then mails you your Invitation and Passport back to you (if your Official Invitation isn’t approved then you just get your Passport back.)

I then had to go to the Russian Embassy in Washington DC in-person and turn in my: Application, Fee, Passport and HIV Negative Test – when I was going to study. I then had to go back to the Embassy and pick everything up when it was ready.

Today you then have to send in your Official Invitation, your Visa Application, the Fee and your Passport to the Russian Visa Center in Houston, New York City or Washington DC – depending on where you live in the US  – and not a Russian Consulate or Embassy.

When entering Russia (by Plane, Train, Car or On Foot) every Foreigner has to fill-out a Migration Card (Миграционная карта.) The first 3 times I went to Russia they didn’t use Migration Cards, but the last 2 times, and now, they do.

The Migration Card is only available in Russian and one part if kept by the Russian Passport Control when you enter Russia. You have to keep the other part with your Passport and Russian Visa and carry all your documents with you at all times.

I had 3  Russian Visa Booklets (2 for a Homestay Visa and 1 for a Student Visa.)

Russia switched to Visa Stickers inside the Passport for my last two Visas (another Homestay Visa and another Student Visa) and they were then in English and in Russian.

By law, any Russian of any authority can stop any Russian Citizen or Foreigner on the street or in a building and demand your Documents: for Russian Citizens that is their Internal Passport with the Resident Registration Stamp in it and for Foreigners that is their Foreign Passport, their Russian Visa Stamp, their Resident Registration Stamp and their Migration Card.

Yes, I was stopped many times and asked for my documents (which reminded me of all those old Black-and-White movies where the Nazis did the same thing during World War 2.)

Legally I had to Register in every Russian Town and City that I stayed 3 business days or more in and only your Russian Sponsor can Register you – even if they aren’t in the same Town or City as you are (those rules haven’t change for Foreigners even today.)

Russian Citizens also had to Register in every Russian Town and City they stayed 3 business days or more in (today it is 90 days for Russian Citizens and you can Register yourself online.)

If you don’t have any of these documents with you or your Resident Residence Stamp is questioned then you can be held in Russian jail for and indefinite amount of time.

Unless you have a Tourist Visa (I never did) you also have to get an Exit Visa when I wanted to leave Russia. Your Russian Sponsor has to apply no sooner than 1 month before you want to leave Russia for permission for you to leave.

(I wasn't able to get one in time so missed my Grandmother's funeral in 2002.)

Men (Russian and Foreign) also have to prove they either served in the Russian Military or have a document stating they don’t need to serve in the Russian Military.

Even with my American Passport and my Russian Visa I still had to prove that I, as an American Citizen, did not have to serve in the Russian Military (if you are a Dual Russian Citizen and the Citizen of another Country and are Male Russian Law still says you have to serve in the Russian Military.)

My 2nd time in Russia, but the first time I studied in Russia, I was going to my University for my Classes. There were Russian Military Police at all the doors checking all the Men’s Documents (it was during the Second Russo-Chechen War and during one of their 2 Yearly Drafts: Fall and Spring.)

I didn’t speak or understand much Russian at that time and so didn’t know what was going on. I showed my Passport and Visa and started being screamed out by the Military Police. I told them in Russian and English that I was an American Citizen – a Student.

They kept screaming at me so I brushed past them, ran pass the Coat Check (it is Mandatory to check in your coats and large bags in most places in Russia) and ran up 2 flights of stairs with the Military Officials chasing after me. I made it to my Classroom (I studied alone) and told the Head of the Russian Department – they only one who understood English – that I was being chased. She spoke to the Military Police for a long time and then came and explained that they could legally have arrested me for Draft Evading and sent me to the Frontline in Chechnya  - since I didn’t have a document proving my Draft Exemption as an American Citizen.

The Department Head got me that Exemption Card later that day (I also made sure to get one when I studied in Russia the 2nd and last time.)

Things in Russia have only gotten worse, not better, since I was last there – especially with Russia’s War in Ukraine (note: a Foreigner or Russian Citizen will be sent to a Forced Labor Penal Colony -  a Gulag – for 15 years if they even call it a “War” in Ukraine and not a “Special Military Operation.”)

Today, because of the War in Ukraine - any Official can stop any Russian Citizen or Foreigner at any time and demand keep your Cell Phone, Laptop, etc. with your Passwords given to them (they are checking to see what websites you look up, who your Friends are, if you are pro-Ukraine, if you are anti-Putin, etc.

I was in Russia for the beginning part of Putin’s Dictatorship and hope to one day go back after his Dictatorship is over with.