Russian visa regulations make Russian visas ones very hard-to-get. We try to simplify the travellers' lives provding some information about it in the Visa section of our site and Russian visa service. But that's not the half of the story. Among other formalities to do and documents to fill there is a migration card you should fill and keep it till the moment you leave the country.

If you arrive by air or by water, crew members hand you the blank of immigration card

If you arrive by train, train stuff hands you the blank

If you arrive by bus, it will be the driver who should hand you the blank of immigration card

If you arrive by your private transport, it will be border control officer, who gives it to you.

You should fill it out, if you are going to stay in Russia more then 72 hours. The immigration cards exist in two variations, in English and in Russian. It happens rather often, that your card is in Russian, nevertheless it is possible to figure it out.You do not need to use Cyrillic alphabet, filling the blank out. The card consists of 2 parts A and B, the both should be filled the same way. One part, A, you should give when you arrive, the second one, B, - when you leave Russia. You'll see a few boxes you should fill. In case you won't see the Russian letters in the text below, look at the picture.

We follow the list.


The first line is for you Surname
The second one is for your your Name
The third line is for patronymic (the latter one is not required) it is tied with specifics of Russian names.
Under patronymic stands: date of birth (dd/mm/yyyy/)
To the right of date of birth in the same line stays: sex (M/F)
Long phrase under birthdate box means kind of your travel document (your passport number)
To the right of your passport number and just under sex stands nationality
Under your passport number you will see a list titled: The purpose of your visit to Russia (please underline the applicable) . You should choose from the possibilities, forming thу following list.






business visit
tourism
commerce
education
employment
private
transit

After you have chosen one, look to the right and write required information in the lines below the title. You should share information about inviting organisation (name of the privite person, address). After you've written who has invited you and where does he/she live, you write
visa ID
the number of your official invitation for entering the country
dates of your stay in Russia
And finally, your signature. The two very last boxes are for official use only.

After you have signed your card, try not to loose or spoil it until you leave the country, because in this case you will have to address to local Department of the Federal Migration Service. If you haven't any card leaving Russia, you will be offered to fill one on the border control, the B side only.