Russian visa for a former USSR citizen
 

My husband has a sister in St Pete, so I thought it would be nice to take a N. European cruise with a stop there.

To get off the ship, we'd need a visa. Sure, we don't want a tour, ship-provided or local, just to meet her.

In order to do that, we need a visa. We are the US citizens, both have passports... simple? NO!!

As we both have USSR as a place of birth in our passports, we need first of all a proof we don't have russian citizenship.

I vagely remember signing something like "we don't have any financial claims" and this is how we were stripped of the citizenship.

Anybody knows if or how we can prove we are not double spy... err... citizens? To ask them for a proof takes up to 6 months, it says on the website. Even if we wait that long, can't find if we need to surrender the passports for that long (not for 6 days to get visa), anybody had done it?

I have a feeling I should forget the whole idea! We'll walk the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia :))

Hi Faina :)

Sorry, I can't help with the answer.

But I will be following this thread very closely for help in the future.

You have to actually go to a consulate and renounce your citizenship (there is a fee - I think it's around six hundred dollars). There is no other proof of renunciation of citizenship.

They will take your U.S. passport (you will probably see it again but be prepared to reapply). If you pay $300 and go to the consulate, you do not have to surrender your passport.

Otherwise, it is $100 and they do not guarantee how long before your passport is returned - up to six weeks (unless they lose it).

Then...there's getting out agai.

Perhaps it would be easier for you to meet your sister-in-law in Finland or one of the Baltic states? Their policy on visiting Russians may be easier to deal with than the Russian embassy.

Rick

Would you not have had to renounce Russian citizenship in order to become a USA citizen? Is this then a case of formally recording with Russia that you have renounced Russian citizenship? I would have thought that the ex-Russian community in the US would be better able to answer your question, there must be lawyers who specialise in this just as there are for getting green cards for west Europeans.

Don't forget that visa provisions are normally reciprocal including the charge for a visa, so if you want to succeed you have to follow the rules however annoying.

Meeting at one of the other stopping points in the Baltic might be easier if there is little time to organise this.