Visa Registration
Visa registration is a migration registration of a foreigner at his/her residence address in accordance with the Russian legislation.
If you are planning to stay at your place of residence for less than 7 working days, you are not obliged to register your visa, but the registration after this term requires paying a fine at the police station.
If you are staying at a hotel, the hotel administration will register your visa for the whole period of your stay there. If you are staying at a private accommodation, your visa can be registered only by the owner of this property (apartment/house).
The absence of the registration will not allow you to perform any legal actions and can be the reason for a penalty or arrest by police.
How to register a visa and what for?
Visa should be registered within 7 working days upon arrival to the place of residence in Russia. To get the migration registration, it is required to fill in the “Arrival Notification of Foreign Citizen to the place of Destination”, submit it to the Multifunctional Center for Provision of State and Municipal Services (MFC) or to the Post office and get the detachable part of this Notification back.
Click to download the Arrival Notification form (arrival-notification-2020.xlsx, 93 Kb)
If you are not staying at a hotel, your visa can be registered only by the owner of the property of your residence (apartment or house). To register a visa, your landlord should come in person to the Multifunctional Center or the Post office.
Multifunctional Centers addresses (Russian version only)
The owner of the property should present:- A filled in Arrival Notification form (sometimes 2 copies are required)
- his/her passport copy (or other document confirming the right to possess a property or to live there)
- copies of all your passport pages, visa and migration card
As a result, you should have the detachable part of the Arrival Notification form with a stamp of the issuing authority which confirms the registration of your visa.
Before the foreigner’s leaving the country or moving to another place of stay in Russia, the owner should address to the same authority which processed a visa registration and request the foreigner to be removed from the migration control.
This means that the visa registration must be done every time the person enters Russia or changes the place of stay in the country.
The maximum term of registration is 90 days (except for work, student and other types of visa allowing staying in Russia for 90 days within each 180 days without leaving the country).
Visa registration is required to perform some legal actions (e.g., real estate acquisition, marriage, visa extension, etc.).
Migration Card
Migration card is a special document in the form of a small sheet of paper with a stamp of the border crossing (the same stamp is put on the passport).
As a rule, a migration card is filled in and given to you by the passport control officer.
You must keep the migration card during all your stay in Russia and present it to the passport control upon departure. You will be given a new migration card upon your next entry to the country.
A migration card must be submitted together with the passport copy in order to register your visa in Russia.
Arrival Notification
Arrival Notification is a special document required for the registration of a visa of a foreign national at the address of his/her place of stay in Russia.
You should get the detachable part of the Arrival Notification form with a stamp of the migration registration within 7 working days upon your arrival to the place of residence in Russia. This detachable part confirms the registration of your visa.
If you are staying not at a hotel but at a private accommodation, your visa can be registered only by the owner of this property who should come in person to the Multifunctional Center or the Post office
To get a visa registration, it is necessary to collect the package of the required documents and fill in the Arrival Notification form.
After that the owner of the property should come in person to the Multifunctional Center or the Post office and:
- submit a filled in Arrival Notification form (sometimes 2 copies are required)
- submit his/her passport copy (or other document confirming the right to possess a property or to live there)
- give copies of all your passport pages, visa and migration card
Multifunctional Centers addresses (Russian version only)
The officer of the Multifunctional Center or the Post office verifies the documents, stamps the Arrival Notification form and gives the detachable part of the form which confirms the registration of your visa.
Click to download the Arrival Notification form (arrival-notification-2020.xlsx, 93 Kb)
The Arrival Notification form contains a large number of fields arranged in a special way and must be completed manually with capital print letters.
In addition, officers require to fill in the Arrival Notification form carefully and often refuse to accept the mistaken documents.
According to the practice, a person with no experience requires 45 minutes or more to fill in the Arrival Notification form carefully and accurately.
