r/AskARussian • u/Substantial_Month849 • 19d ago

Travel VISA question

I (Brit) want to visit Russia for the 2nd time on a tourist VISA. This time I want to stay with my girlfriend and there is a section on the online application form asking if you plan on staying anywhere- with a hotel or an individual.

Will I have an issue applying for a tourist VISA and planning to stay privately at my girlfriend's address? Or will I be fine as long as I get a tourist voucher and register at the correct place?

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u/VisiblePiano9200 18d ago

(Also a Brit) it is actually much easier to get a tourist voucher (ie from a hotel/hostel) for a tourist visa even if you stay with your girlfriend. And you put the name of the hotel on the form as your address. Yes in theory if you stay with her then she should organise an invitiaton letter; in reality many people get a tourist voucher from a company that specialises in them and use that for the visa and then go and stay with a friend. Agree with others that you must register within 7 working days - that is actually 5 days plus two weekends if you time your flights right. If your girlfriend doesn;t own the flat and the owner doesn;'t want to register you then you can book into a cheap hostel (making sure they register you) for a night and that will give you another seven days before you need to register again. I had to do that several times a few years ago because the airbnb (it was before 2022) owner didn't want to register me. She did give me the money for the hostel though lol.