Ioffe Institute International Conference
Physics of Neutron Stars – 2014
commemorating the 100th birthday of Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich

July 28 — August 1, 2014, St. Petersburg, Russia


Visa support

To visit Russia, foreign citizens should get a Russian visa. Visa-free option is only possible for the citizens of several countries. List of such countries you may find on the following web page: http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/visa_free_regime.html.

In order to get the Russian visa, the first thing you need is an invitation (visa support letter). Important: a standard official invitation will be sent to every participant of the conference by the Organizing Committee; however, due to Russian consular regulations, the invitation from the Organizing Committee, in general (but see below), cannot be considered as a visa support letter and will not be suitable for visa purposes.


The service agent "AIS Ltd" (E-mail: askopenko@ctogroup.ru) provides the delegates with visa support documents (visa support letter and tourist voucher) necessary for obtaining an aim or a specific tourism visa. This kind of visa is a tourism visa for specific purposes such as attending conferences, congresses, exhibitions, and meetings.
Visa will be issued by the Russian Consulate for a period indicated in visa support documents.
Visa support documents will contain delegates' personal and travel details submitted.

Aim tourism invitation

(less than 30 days of stay in Russia)

"AIS Ltd." offers a single entry invitation for the dates of stay in a hotel.
The issuing period: 1—2 working days.
Necessary documents: Price: 1030 rubles plus cost of delivery of the invitation to participant in some cases*.
*In most cases a copy of invitation is sufficient for applying for a tourist visa. Please clarify at the Russian Embassy or Consulate directly whether you need the original copy of invitation or not.
Deadline for request: 1 month prior to event date

Bonus! Aim tourism visa support is free, if guest makes the hotel booking via CTO Congress.

Step-by-step Russian visa application guide below:

Step 1: Get the Invitation from AIS Ltd. Agency visa department or any other Visa Support agency Step 2: Apply for a Russian visa

Once you have your invitation from "AIS Ltd." visa support department, you need to take this invitation along with the following documents:

and visit Russian Consulate. You can apply for the visa at a Russian consulate either by yourself or through a local travel agent (for an extra fee).

For more details on required documents please contact the Russian Consulate in your country.


Attention. All foreign citizens arriving to Russia have to fill in a migration card while passing through customs. Migration cards will be given to foreigner guests before crossing the border (in airplanes, trains, buses, ships, etc.). Please be careful while filling in this migration card and keep this card secure until your departure from Russia.
According to Russian legislation all foreign citizens should be registered within 7 working days of their arrival at a hotel. In general the hotel takes care of this registration and guests should not be worried about this issue.

If you have any further visa-related questions, please contact the LOC at ns@astro.ioffe.ru at your earliest convenience.


Page created on February 28, 2014,
last updated on July 18, 2014.