Russia extends e-visa for foreigners, including Indians, to visit Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region

By Ashoke Raj
New Delhi [India], Oct 1 (ANI): Russia on Tuesday introduced a new e-visa scheme for foreign nationals, including those from India, to visit its cultural capital Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
The scheme, which came into effect from October 1, will provide single business, humanitarian and tourist visas in the form of an electronic document.
A similar e-visa facility for visiting Russia's Far East and the Kaliningrad Region was introduced before.
The only requirement to get the e-visa is to fill an electronic application form and to upload a digital photo at least four days before the expected date of arrival in the Russian Federation.
The e-visa will be valid for 30 days from the date of issuance and the maximum period of stay in the Russian Federation should not exceed eight days.
"We would like to make the life of the tourists, businessmen and all other people who are coming to Russia easier. Electronic visas are a good step for making all the processes more comfortable for the people. From today, people would not have to visit the Embassy or visa facilitation centres for the application process. They can directly apply for it from their homes," Andrey V Fedorov, Senior Counsellor at the Russian Embassy here told ANI.
"We are seeing that the number of Indians visiting Russia is gradually increasing. The previous year, the Russian embassy in India had issued 35,000 visas. This year till September we have issues around 46,000 visas for Indian," he added.
Foreign nationals with e-visas are not allowed to enter other regions of the Russian Federation (not covered by e-visa service) with any purpose, including transit, Fedorov said.
The only exception is the case when the name of a foreign national contains more symbols than it is technically possible to type in the application form. (ANI)