Ukraine Visa in Moscow

Dear TT World,

Has any one recently succeeded in obtaining a Ukraine Visa from their embassy in Moscow???

I'm currently in Moscow, and would like to apply for mine, except I cant find much information on it and the website it completely in Russian.

I will be here until mid-Feb and hope thats enough time.

Australian Passport. Yes I need a Visa.

Any relevant info anyone could give me would be great.

Thanks,
Matt

Check the website of the Ukrainian embassy in another country and see what is required.

Whether of not it is possible is another matter. Most people using this forum do not need a visa for Ukraine and so there would be very little experience of people applying for it, particularly in Russia.

Ruth

Hi Matt,

How did it go? I'm a New Zealand citizen and will be trying to do the same thing in Petersburg later on this summer, so would be grateful for anything you may have found out.

Cheers
Joy

I believe that an invitation is required. The Hostel in Lviv, Kosmonaut, used to provide these for free.

Ruth

Hi all,
I succeeded in getting my Ukraine Visa in Moscow, however it would have been extreeeemly difficult without the help of a Russian friend translating nearly the whole process for me, filling out forms, and making phone calls.

As far as the invitation goes, the Ukraine embassy in Moscow will only deal with certain Travel Operators, and visatorussia.com (who I normally use) was not one of these operators, they however advised me to contact:

ACCENT. Phone +7 495 698 47 37. Contact: Elena

Who were incredibly helpful, but again, the whole process was in Russian and it was basically my friend dealing with them.
Im sorry I dont remember the exact address, but it was near Trevskaya somewhere (as is the Ukraine embassy).

Once I had the Invitation, it was just a matter of taking that and the applications forms (which the agency filled out for me) to the embassy and initiating the process.
The consulate at the embassy seemed rather kind (maybe because they rarely need to issue visa's?), then gave me a bank slip thing that I needed to pay at a bank down the road.
I think cost was approx $100US, and the Invitation cost was approx $50.
I should have wrote these down to share more accurately but it skipped my mind at the time.

Invitation for free?
Once in Kiev, I spent a bit of time at: One Step Independence Hostel
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/One-Step-Independence-Square-Hostel/Kiev/38741
Upon the owner/manager 'Artur' seeing my Ukraine Visa, he asked how I went about the process then went on to say that they will do the invitation for free.
To anyone else going through the process it might be worth contacting them to see if that an actual viable option.

Hope this info helps someone,

check the blog for photos and more info
www.leavemehere.wordpress.com

Cheers,
Matt

I wrote this post in expat.ru forums as well, about getting a Ukranian visa from Moscow, Russia.

I wanted to share my experience getting a visa to Ukraine, because some friends and I wanted to visit Kiev while studying abroad in Moscow last year. I am not an American citizen and it was a pain in the ass, the number of times I visited the Ukrainian embassy. I navigated the process by myself, with broken and very elementary russian.

Step one is to get an invitation from a friend or family member in Ukraine, or a travel agency/hostel. I lucked out on this front and went to my own country's embassy, which certified me with a TPN that basically stated that they'd take responsibility for my behavior for the period of my stay and promised that I would not burn Ukraine to the ground. There are services charging to provide this invitation on the internet that I wanted to avoid.

Step two, processing your visa. If you want to save time, prepare the traveller's cheque beforehand, the compulsory fee that the consulate will ask you to pay; and to fill in your form. You can do this in two ways.

A) Go to the Ukrainian consulate (125009, Москва, Леонтьевский переулок, 18
т. (495) 629 47 04, ф. (495) 629 46 81)
Don't get fooled by the lines, I've found that the hordes of people outside are usually waiting for some passport help or other, and that visa-seekers can go right in- at particular hours:
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, 0900-1300.
Going at any other time will be a waste of your time.
When you first turn up, you can get a form to fill in, and a little slip of paper telling you how to get the traveller's cheque from the Masterbank right outside on the road.

B) If you want to cut down on numbers of trips to the embassy, you can figure out whether you need a visa and how much you need to pay (depending on single, double, multiple entry; normal or express) here, replace '' with '/':
triple-w dot ukremb dot ruquestionsvizovye_voprosy
You can feed it through google translate.

If you go to the Masterbank right outside along Tverskaya Ulitsa, the staff are used to entertaining visa-seekers and have the forms at hand for you to fill in the necessary details. I think they open at 9am on weekdays.

The form can be found in Rus/Eng/Esp here, replace '' with '/'
triple-w dot mfa dot gov dot uarussiarupublicationcontent10598 dot htm
In english:
triple-w dot mfa dot gov dot uadatauploadpublicationrussiaru10598*eng dot pdf

Make sure, before your visit to the embassy, that you have all the information needed like the address of where you're staying, and whatever else needed to fill in the document. You will also need a passport-sized color photograph, ideally accompanied with photocopies of your passport, your Russian visa, your Russian certification etc. The lady at the counter helped me make some copies that I didn't have though, so as long as you bring the originals things should be alright.

The normal processing time is said to be 10 working days, but I was told to and managed to collect my passport with my freshly stamped Ukrainian visa in it after 5 working days. The express costs double and gets you your visa in 3 working days, including the day of submission.

Step three, collection. The collection times are also very specific:
Mon, Tues, Thurs 1630-1700
Fri 1600-1630

Follow this advice and avoid my mistakes. 1) first visit, I went in the afternoon after the visa hours. 2) second visit, I didn't have all the information I needed but at least I grabbed the form and the slip of paper 3) third visit, I got the cheque and handed in all my info 4) fourth visit I collected my passport. Because it was early, I actually assumed for a while that the passport and visa were separate and I was to return 5 days later to get the visa. Thank goodness I flipped through my passport and found the visa sitting merrily there, and confirmed via a Russian-speaking friend that I didn't need to go back to the embassy after all.

We took a sleeper train to Kiev and back for a quick 3 day holiday. It was comfortable and Kiev is majestic and beautiful, but the weather in mid-December was grey and rainy. Hope this information is useful to someone, safe travels!