Information on travelling to Russia

Invitation & Visa to Russia
The volunteering as a social phenomenon here it is still very much unknown and we work a lot in order to promote the status of volunteer in Russia, but we have to admit, that the order of things for now is not really advanced.

People of almost all countries of the globe (except CIS-citizens) unfortunately need visa to come to Russia. There are two main types of visas our volunteers receive when they apply for it:
* 30 days TOURIST visa. We provide an invitation letter for a Tourist visa for the overwhelming majority of our volunteers. It is enough for participating in any short term project we organize. But, If you want to take part in 2 or more camps we arrange you an invitation for a business visa:
* 3 months BUSINESS visa. In the case you intend to participate in 2 or more projects we provide you with this kind of invitation. At the same time if you want to take part in only one project and afterwards stay in our beautiful country by your own self, you can pay us the difference between Business and Tourist invitation and stay in Russia up to 3 months.
To arrange your invitation letter we have to apply for it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it takes normally from few days to 2 full weeks, depending on how much work does the Ministry has at the moment. As soon as we receive your invitation we immediately fax or post it to your sending organization and if needed to Russian consulate in your country.

The list of data we need from you in order to arrange your invitation is follows:
1. First name: Russian / Latin
2. Last name: Russian/ Latin
3. Gender
4. Date of birth
5. Place of birth
6. Passport number
7. Citizenship
8. Date of issue
9. Date of expiry
10. Visa (from - to)
11. Cities of visiting
12. Your telephone
13. Your e-mail
14. Your occupation /function
15. Name of the company/institution/organization you work in
16. Company/institution/organization's field of activity
17. Address of company/institution/organization (including postal code)
18. Contact phone of your company/institution/organization
19. Russian consulate where visa will be applied for (city, country)
20. Fax where we should send this invitation

Travelling in Russia
It would be quite a blatant remark, but Russia is a truly vast country. Normal average travel distance here is "one night train", means about 7-9 hours by train in any direction from Moscow, the main railway knot in the west of the country. Therefore almost all our workcamps require that you arrive to MOSCOW at least one day (or more) BEFORE the date of the beginning of your workcamp, and then here we join you together with other arrived volunteers, arrange your train tickets and send you all together to the regional destination where your workcamp is located. Or you can come to the city of the camp directly (writing the letter to the W4U incoming officer and to your camp-leader with this information). The train transportation in Russia is cheap related to Europe, and we'll also make estimation on the travel cost in the travel directions infosheet.

For more information have a look to www.auswaertiges-amt.de/RussischeFoederation