David, Ahhh, but if only life was so simple! In theory, what you say is the way it should be, but this being Russia, in practice, it is not. I had been in Russia "legally" the whole 10 years that I lived there, and I never had the companies I was working for register me.
The powers that be make it so much of a pain in the ass that most companies don't bother. To give you two examples: Work visa: I used to work at a Russian news agency that is not the one you work for and that will stay unnamed (at least in this public e-mail) and even though this is a Russian resident legal entity, they employed their foreigners through a subsidiary registered in the Isle of Man, so there was no way to have the foreign employees registered through the company. Everybody had to do it through their landlord, and this presented tremendous problems for me, since my landlady lives in the U.S. She would visit Russia every so often, but at inopportune times when I was already registered through other channels. Visa agencies wouldn't register my visa since it was a work visa, so I had to resort to some creative means to get myself registered. I was then registered successfully. If you're interested in how I did it, you can e-mail me off list, but the way I did it wouldn't work under the current registration regime. Jouranlist visa: I then decided I'd had enough and went to get a journalist visa through a trade magazine I was writing for, because I'd heard that journalist visas were easier in terms of some things. In terms of some things, they are, e.g. as a U.S. citizen you can still get them at any Russian embassy, not just U.S. ones or select ones with hassles (U.K., Ukraine). In terms of registration, it was easier, however, in order for the company I was working for to register me, i.e. the trade magazine, it had to have a legal presence (registration, an office) in Russia, which this particular trade magazine did not -- I was its sole correspondent in Russia. I had to find all this out piecemeal on my own, as my curator at the foreign ministry press office didn't know jack shit, and I even had to pay a 2000-ruble fine because of him, because he sent me to the migration service foolishly conjecturing that they would register the visa (the foreign ministry press office doesn't register their own bloody visas, go and figure, and now I know that the migration service doesn't either) when they said Op! You're unregistered, pay the fine! I then went to Go to Russia and they registered my visa practically no questions asked, although the last couple of times, they did so "so skripom" as they say in Russian. I don't know if this is still anything like the '90s, but I do know that a good saying about Russia is the more things change, the more they stay the same.The Russian legal environment still unfortunately makes doing many things the legal way excrutiatingly difficult or impossible. All I can say, David, is thank your lucky stars that you never had the hassles. A lot of people did and some still do. Kirill. E-mail: [email protected] Home: +49 (0)30 67 92 58 58 Office: +49 (0)30 28 87 58 72 Mobile: +49 (0)152 23 66 68 96 Skype: kirill.galetski -----Original Message----- From: Бургхардт Дэвид Адам <[email protected]> To: "Kirill Galetski" <[email protected]>,"The Moscow Expat List" <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:48:38 +0400 Subject: RE: Expat List business visa registration > The question always comes to mind...if you're here legally, then you don't > need to go through the hassle. Your company is obliged to register you, not > your landlady. I've lived here for 15 years and have never had to do mad > searches to live here legally. If you're here on business, then just do it > right...it's not the 90s any more folks! > > David Burghardt > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kirill > Galetski > Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 12:35 PM > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Expat List business visa registration > > Hi Sean, > > I used to have the same problem all the time when I lived in Russia. > > I know how it's still a pain in the ass to ask your Russian friends to > register you. > > I've used two different agencies to do registration of a business visa. > > Visa link were usually pretty good for registering business visas that > weren't initiated by them: > > http://www.visalink-russia.com/ > > I also used Go to Russia when my visa was not a business visa, but a > journalist visa initiated through the foreign ministry press office (which > Visalink couldn't register) : > > http://www.gotorussia.com/about_us_directions.htm > > Both agencies were reliable in handling the registration, and the fees were > 1400 rubles and 1800 rubles respectively when I did it. Could be more now, so > check directly with them before you go. > > Hope this helps. > > Kirill. > > Regards, > Kirill Galetski, > Russian-English, German-English translator. > > E-mail: [email protected] > Home: +49 (0)30 67 92 58 58 > Office: +49 (0)30 28 87 58 72 > Mobile: +49 (0)152 23 66 68 96 > Skype: kirill.galetski > > http://kirillgaletski.language123.com/ > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 3 > > Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:02:38 -0700 (PDT) > > From: Sean McMeekin <[email protected]> > > Subject: Expat List business visa registration? > > To: [email protected] > > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > > > > > Does anyone know of an agency which will register a delovaia visa, no > > questions asked? Last time I was in Moscow (2005) there was some quickie > > agency which sprung up in the Tsentralnaia gostinitsa on Tverskaya to do > > this, but apparently this old classic 'hotel' no longer exists. My issuing > > agency is asking for a landlord declaration, etc., which I cannot really > > get. > > > > I can always resort to asking one of several Russian friends to register me > > personally as a guest at the post office or police, but I would rather not > > ask for this sort of favor if I don't have to. All I need is for the V'ezd > > card to be stamped. If anyone knows an agency which will do this, please > > let me know. Thanks. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Expat mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat > http://www.expat.ru/forum/ > _______________________________________________ Expat mailing list [email protected] http://www.lists.ru/mailman/listinfo/expat http://www.expat.ru/forum/
