How to obtain Russian visa

Hello everyone,

I have a dilema and my hope is that perhaps you will be able to enlighten me.

I am a Romanian citizen, planning to spend an extended weekend in Moscow seeing some friends. I have already bought my planeticket (actually for miles) and now I am trying to figure out how to obtain a visa??

I intend to spend less than 3 days (Friday to Sunday), have the return ticket and do not need to stay in a hotel cause I am staying with friends.

However, apparently hotel reservation/ voucher is needed for the visa application which I find rather strange. My question is how can I obtain a visa without paying for hotel - so far nobody from the embassy or from travel agencies was able to explain this to me? Should I ask for an official invitation from my friends - if yes, what should that include: stating that I am visiting them and staying over at their place? Any ideas how should I proceed

Thanks a lot.
Szabolcs

PS. I am supposed to travel in approx 1 month time.

Please take a look at the New Russia Sticky. This thread explains that it is possible to purchase an invitation and fake accommodations voucher from companies and travel agencies in Russia over the internet. You will have to pay a fee that is about 30 USD for this. You need to determine whether the consulate in Romania requires original documents as having those sent to you will add to the costs as the documents are usually sent via courier to assure their safe arrival.

If you have additional questions, let me know.

I will be interested to hear of your experience getting the visa in Romania.

Ruth

Hi

I'm also visiting a friend in Moscow next Friday. I just left my Visa application to a travel office and had no hotels. I think that some travel offices at least here in Helsinki/Finland can arrange this kind of VISAs. It would be strange if you dont have a same system in Romania.

Good luck.

Joedar

einari - there are travel agencies that act as visa services but they generally charge much more than doing it yourself. As Romania is not adjacent to Russia, I suspect that there are less travelers between the 2 countries and thus it is less likely that there are too many travel agencies which specialize in getting invitations for independent travel to Russia.

OP - it would be great to hear about your experience getting a visa and what you decided to do about the official invitation and accommodations voucher that are required.

Ruth