Work Visas

Work visa is issued to foreigners who wish to enter Russia temporarily for working purposes.

To enter the Russian Federation, foreigners must have valid visas. These can be obtained by submitting completed visa application form. Please, carefully fill in the visa information in the application form and follow all other requirements when submitting your papers. When applying, please, be advised that the permission to enter the Russian Federation is a courtesy of the State. Consular officer reserves the right to invite the applicant to be interviewed in person.

Visa can be denied if the Consulate has serious reasons to believe that the applicant's visit to the Russian Federation is not desirable, and the disclosure of the reason for the denial can be withheld.

Every holder of a valid National Passport abiding by the International and Russian laws, can enter Russia after obtaining a visa.

The validity and type of visa should be strictly connected to the purpose of visit. When in Russia, you cannot change your visa status (i.e. from tourist to business or from business to guest and vice versa). To do that, you have to leave the country and re-enter on different visa.

Children apply for separate visas if they travel on their own passports. Non-traveling parents must confirm in an affidavit their consent for their children's travel.

You can apply for visa personally or by post. Our postal address: Embassy of the Russian Federation, c/o Karori Post Shop, Wellington. When mailing your application along with all required documents a self-addressed pre-paid return envelope should be enclosed. Otherwise, your visa will not be processed. To avoid your correspondence being lost in mail, we recommend using Courier Post Services. Please note that we forward back prepaid Courier Post and NZ Couriers envelopes only.

The Consulate will not be responsible for any loss or mishandling of the mail by the Postal Service or any other delivery agent.

To obtain work visa you should submit to the Consular section:

1. A completed application form, one per person.

2. National passport (original) valid for at least 18 months after the intended date of departure from Russia. At least two pages (side by side) of the passport should be free from notes (additional pages inserted in your passport do not match the size of a Russian visa because they are smaller than standard pages of a foreigh passport).��

3. One professional passport sized (3x4 cm) photo on a white background. The picture should be done on black-and-white or color matt paper only. Please write your name in capital letters on the back of the photo. The photo should be stapled to the specially marked place of the application form.

4. Document proving the purpose of the visit: original letter of invitation issued by an appropriate Russian Federal Migration Service branch or regional office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation only. The copies of the invitations are not accepted.

5. Official hospital HIV (AIDS) Test Certificate taken in last three months.

Should the Consulate wish to contact you, please state clearly your contact telephone number (office and after hours) in the application form.

Apart from business visa, you may be required to present at the border check point your invitation from a Russian host organization, as well as evidence of your ability to support yourself during the travel.

ATTENTION! Please follow the above requirements when submitting your papers. Otherwise, the documents will be returned. All documents must be submitted at once. Uncompleted sets will be returned to the applicants without processing.

Single-entry visa(Однократная) is valid for one visit to Russia with the specified dates of arrival and departure. (work visa may be prolonged in Russia)

CONSULAR SERVICE FEES (IN NZ DOLLARS) PER PERSON

Work Visa is issued for a period no longer than 90 days and is valid for single entry only.

ATTENTION!  Note that according to the Russian law the date of entry cannot be earlier than 5 working days after the date of issue of the visa. Please have it in mind when applying for an urgent-processing visa.

We will charge a full payment (subject to the visa type) for re-issuing a visa, if we are not responsible for the mistakes in it, otherwise the visa will be re-issued free of charge.

Visa processing fees received from the applicant are not subject for reimbursement in case of subsequent refusal.

A visa does not guarantee entry into the Russian Federation. As in other countries, the decision to allow entry is taken by the immigration officials. Therefore, the visa holder should carry with him/her, for possible presentation, the same evidence that was submitted to the consular officer in support of the visa.

Payments are to be made in cash, NZ Post money order or by bank cheque written out in the name of the Embassy of the Russian Federation (please note that we don't accept cash sent by post or personal cheques).  Visa documents are accepted until 12.30 p.m. only.

Visa processing time starts only after the Consulate has received all necessary documents. Please note, that drop-off day is not counted as a working day. If you apply by mail, please enclose a return self-addressed Courier envelope and add one more day for processing. After you receive your visa, please check it for possible mistakes (passport number, date of birth, term of validity etc.) and, if necessary, return it to us for corrections. The Consulate will not be responsible for the mistakes, which were not brought to its attention before your departure from New Zealand.

ATTENTION! There are additional requirements for non-New Zealand citizens (permit to study, work in NZ for more than 90 days, residentship, etc.)

Citizens of the Russian Federation regardless of any other citizenship they have must travel to Russia on valid Russian documents only.
We do NOT issue visas for the other States of the former USSR.

Our main task is to process the visa applications. We are not always able to answer your individual requests by phone. Therefore, you are kindly advised to send your enquires to the Consulate by email mailto:wltvisa@clear.net.nz or fax (04) 476-38-43