USA to Saint Petersburg, Russia

[Richard5]

I suspect you know, that you are having a joke. He left under great duress. He was a white Russian, a medical Dr and did teach at a facility which we would call a university (I hesitate to say he taught at a uni because I do not know, I only know that he taught advanced studies). The few pictures we have of him and his family show a high net worth man with a stupendous household including staff and all that entails. By the time he reached the USA he was almost penniless and several of his children had died.

[chuckr]

One more point that seems to be missed. You do need a visa that is good for only 29 days and you need an invitation to get a visa. We are working through all those issues right now.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Richard5

I suspect you know, that you are having a joke. He left under great duress. He was a white Russian, a medical Dr and did teach at a facility which we would call a university (I hesitate to say he taught at a uni because I do not know, I only know that he taught advanced studies). The few pictures we have of him and his family show a high net worth man with a stupendous household including staff and all that entails. By the time he reached the USA he was almost penniless and several of his children had died.

I was not having a joke. If the dates you quoted are correct, then your grandfather moved at the perfect times, before the worst of it started there. 1917 was the February and October Revolutions, which did not affect the civilian population too much -- they only starting killing people in large numbers when the Civil War really got going the next year. Likewise, Estonia was still independent and at peace in 1931; nine years later first the Soviets, then a couple years later, the Nazis invaded, and there was mass slaughter of civilians.

Getting out penniless but alive was an absolutely great result; those who stayed, particularly intelligentsia and/or bourgeois people, were slaughtered by the millions. He dodged the bullet TWICE -- smart grandfather indeed!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by chuckr

One more point that seems to be missed. You do need a visa that is good for only 29 days and you need an invitation to get a visa. We are working through all those issues right now.

I did mention visas.

Normally you just need a hotel reservation for a tourist visa. You make a hotel reservation and cancel it later -- Russian hotels don't mind; they charge you separately for the document you need for the visa.

But I wouldn't do it that way. You can also do it with an invitation from a yacht club where you will be berthed. If you make your berthing arrangements ahead of time, you can do this directly, but by far the easiest way to deal with this and all other bureaucratic issues in Russia is to join the Cruising Association, then get in touch with the CA's excellent representative in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ivankiv, who will cheerfully arrange everything for you.


A couple of further tips about Russian visas:

* The Russian consular people and immigration people are all extremely friendly (unlike ours). HOWEVER, they are very thorough and entirely punctilious. So don't even think about overstaying a visa, or trying to enter before a visa is valid. Don't lose the landing card or any other documents.

* If you are cruising Russian waters, you might very well need to cross the border more than once. By all means, get a multiple entry visa. I don't know about today, but recently they were giving even 3 year multiple entry tourist visas to Americans without any problems. If that's available, just go for that -- you will want to come again and again anyway, once you've been once.


A non-visa related tip for cruising in Russia -- if you don't speak Russian, why not take Russian-speaking crew for the last leg and entry into Russian waters? Language skills will really lubricate the process.

[chuckr]

[QUOTE=Dockhead;2024614]I did mention visas.

But I wouldn't do it that way. You can also do it with an invitation from a yacht club where you will be berthed. If you make your berthing arrangements ahead of time, you can do this directly, but by far the easiest way to deal with this and all other bureaucratic issues in Russia is to join the Cruising Association, then get in touch with the CA's excellent representative in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ivankiv, who will cheerfully arrange everything for you.


We are working through the issues with Vladimir right now. We put together a schedule for a 40+ day sail in Russian waters but with the 29 days we are reworking our plan which will makes us make a couple of longer 2 days sails and a couple of overnight sails instead of normal day hops - but that is ok -

29 days is 29 days and we will work within the laws and requirements.

[Dockhead]

[QUOTE=chuckr;2025478]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I did mention visas.

But I wouldn't do it that way. You can also do it with an invitation from a yacht club where you will be berthed. If you make your berthing arrangements ahead of time, you can do this directly, but by far the easiest way to deal with this and all other bureaucratic issues in Russia is to join the Cruising Association, then get in touch with the CA's excellent representative in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ivankiv, who will cheerfully arrange everything for you.


We are working through the issues with Vladimir right now. We put together a schedule for a 40+ day sail in Russian waters but with the 29 days we are reworking our plan which will makes us make a couple of longer 2 days sails and a couple of overnight sails instead of normal day hops - but that is ok -

29 days is 29 days and we will work within the laws and requirements.

That's the longest visa they will give you? That sounds odd to me -- they used to freely give 90 day multiple entry tourist visas, and even one- and three-year tourist visas. The policies do change from time to time.

[kandlekid]

[QUOTE=Dockhead;2025491]

Originally Posted by chuckr

That's the longest visa they will give you? That sounds odd to me -- they used to freely give 90 day multiple entry tourist visas, and even one- and three-year tourist visas. The policies do change from time to time.

Russia has a relatively new 3 year multi-entry tourist visa. They are not hard to get (at least not when I got mine in 2014). You can get it from these folks ... Russian National Tourist Office ... a quasi-governmental agency, located in NYC ... Russian Visa | Russian Visa NYC | Russian Travel Trips