Visas for Russia, Mongolia and China

Tazzer

ah thanks for that- thats what i thought, but just wanted to double check.

yep, know the feeling, such a pain filling in these forms!

pobyrne2000

Hi,
I see a few people here seem to have done this trans-mongolian trip. I am doing this trip in september myself, and then continuing through china on to SE asia.
My question is about appying for the visas in the UK. Work is sending me to London untill I finish with them on August 28th.
Can I appy for these visas in embassies in London or do I have to appy in Ireland?
from what i've been reading online I dont have to apply for any of the visas in person I can just send the required documentation via post or courrier or have someone drop it in for me, i.e a friend.

anyone done this before or any ideas on the best approach to get this sorted?

How long do the visas take to get sorted. I dont leave ireland untill Septeber 9th so I woud have some time when I come back, but that would be a last resort obviously.

any help is apprectiated.

Thanks

Tazzer

Hi pobyrne2000

You should be ok if you are getting someone to drop them in for you. I've been doing mine and my partners and have no problems.

Regarding doing them in London, I couldnt tell you if that would be ok - but I would have thought that it wouldnt be a problem. As you can probably see, up until recently you had to send your passport to London for the Mongolian Visa.

Time-wise, I dropped my Russian Forms in on the 25th of June, and they were ready on the 1st of July

I only dropped my Mongolian Forms in today and they said they would ring me during the week to let me know when to collect them.

I havent applied for the Chinese one yet, maybe someone else could let you know?

johnp

The Chinese one was back within the week for us.

For the Russian and Chinese you can send anyone in to drop them in and pick them up. They give you a receipt to collect.
The Mongolian one seemed a little less formal. I just dropped it in, and was told to come back. Think they face checked me when I returned (against the passport), but can't be too sure.

I'd be confident enough that you can apply in another country. I heard of people who only got the Mongolian visas when they were in Russia.
Give the embassys a call to be sure.

Tazzer

Well Johnp - are you back in one piece?

how did you get on? was it all you expected?

johnp

Tazzer wrote: »

Well Johnp - are you back in one piece?

how did you get on? was it all you expected?

Yeah, just got back yesterday. Absolutely superb holiday.

Before I went I thought the train might be boring and I'd be getting tetchy, but it was incredibly relaxing and I wasn't bored at all. Just just have a snooze when you want, play cards, chat to others on the train, drink beer/vodka, hop off at the stops....... the time flew by. I brought 2 book, and only finished 1, and I had to push myself to read it!
One think I'll say is that the train doesn't have much of a view until you get to Siberia-ish. They lined the route with trees, and where there are no trees it's very flat.

But, that said everywhere we stopped had something different from the other places.
Ok, so St Petersburg and Moscow were fairly similar from a architectural point of view, but they were incredible cities.
Lake Baikal (and Olkhon Island) are defo worth a visit. Get a tour around the island too.
Ulan Bator is a crazy city, there doesn't seem to be any road rules, they are just trying to dodge the potholes. But do get out of the city and see the countryside. We went to Terelj NP and it was a beautiful place.
Beijing is an amazing city. So much going on and so much to see.

Some points though.
Be prepared not to have a shower. Even though we were stopping off in places we managed to go 6 days without a shower! That said, the shower at the end of those 6 days was fantastic!
Bring hand/face wipes.
Be prepared to go to the loo in a hole in the ground.
Bring bog roll! Some of the trains have some, but you dont want to be caught out. Oh, and you'll need it for the hole in the ground!
We didn't bother with sleeping bags, just got a sleeping bag liner (for about €15). They give you blankets on the trains, but we didn't need them as it was warm enough.
Did I mention the bog roll?

If yis have any questions, ask away. I'll do my best to answer.

Tazzer

Sounds great....so glad you had a great time.

Thanks for all the tips. We have booked trips to Lake Baikal ,Olkhon Island and Terelj NP, so delighted you say they are great places to see.

One question, regarding spending money. What type of currency and approx how much would you need on the train, and when you stop off at Irkutsk and UlanBator. Did you bring cash and/or credit cards.

Ive heard there isnt that much to spend on the train, as you should bring food and drink with you. Is this correct?

I know people spend diff amounts while away, but I havent a breeze how much stuff costs etc.

johnp

Tazzer wrote: »

Sounds great....so glad you had a great time.

Thanks for all the tips. We have booked trips to Lake Baikal ,Olkhon Island and Terelj NP, so delighted you say they are great places to see.

One question, regarding spending money. What type of currency and approx how much would you need on the train, and when you stop off at Irkutsk and UlanBator. Did you bring cash and/or credit cards.

Ive heard there isnt that much to spend on the train, as you should bring food and drink with you. Is this correct?

I know people spend diff amounts while away, but I havent a breeze how much stuff costs etc.

Are you going with UB Guest House to Terelj? And staying there?

Russia was all Rubles. tbh, I didn't find it particularly cheap, slightly cheaper than Ireland.

For Mongolia, bring US dollars, especially is you are staying in UB Guest House. Mr Kim likes to deal in dollars! You'll want Tugs too for local shops and getting in to see some of the sights. Also, Mongolia didn't seem to like my AIB card, even though its Cirrus. So we had to use credit cards at the ATMs. But it's a fairly cheap place, so the money goes a long way.

China was all Yuans. Also it was the cheapest place. We were getting two courses (of superb food!), 2 beers each for €10 (€5 each).

As to bringing money on the train, as you say it's hard to say. Buying stuff on the trains is defo more expensive than at the train stops. But as an example a beer (Baltika 7 was our tipple of choice) was 35 rubles (about a euro) at the stops. Some of our trains were service included (so we got the meals included), but some others we brought some noodles and stuff, and at times bought the meals on the trains. You can always buy noodles etc at the stops. All the trains have a samovar which gives out hot water, so great for your tea, coffee and noodle type quick meals.

I'd say we always had the equivalent of tops 50 euro in our wallets getting on a train, just to be safe. Some of the stops have ATMs, but don't count on stopping long enough to get cash, sometimes the stops are shorter than you expect.

Tazzer

johnp wrote: »

Are you going with UB Guest House to Terelj? And staying there?

no - we are staying in The Golden Gobi and going with them.

Thanks for that info, it really helps!

I have a few dollars, so might get a bit more just in case

johnp

Tazzer wrote: »

no - we are staying in The Golden Gobi and going with them.

Thanks for that info, it really helps!

I have a few dollars, so might get a bit more just in case

No probs. If you have any other questions, I'll do my best!

When you going? Where you stopping off?

Tazzer

johnp wrote: »

When you going? Where you stopping off?

Not going till Sept. BUT only 8 weeks away!
Heading to Moscow on the 12th, leaving on the 14th to Irkutsk - there for a day and night.
Then 2 days around lake baikal.
Back to Irkutsk for a day/night, then train to Ulan Bator.
Staying in Ulan Bator for one day/night.
Off then to Terelj for 2/3 days, then back to Ulan Bator for another day/night.
Back on the train to Beijing, where we are staying 7 nights.

Phew, when I put it like that, its seems alot in 3 weeks.

johnp

Tazzer wrote: »

Not going till Sept. BUT only 8 weeks away!
Heading to Moscow on the 12th, leaving on the 14th to Irkutsk - there for a day and night.
Then 2 days around lake baikal.
Back to Irkutsk for a day/night, then train to Ulan Bator.
Staying in Ulan Bator for one day/night.
Off then to Terelj for 2/3 days, then back to Ulan Bator for another day/night.
Back on the train to Beijing, where we are staying 7 nights.

Phew, when I put it like that, its seems alot in 3 weeks.

Sounds good! Enjoy!

biZrb

I'm off on the Vodka Train in two and a half weeks, flying into Riga, getting the train to St. Petersburg and starting from there. I'll have a few days to travel around China after it. Really looking forward to it, but I'm so unprepared, only got one visa so far, haven't got a backpack yet or done much research on any of the places I'll be going, but I'm sure it'll all come together!

johnp - thanks for the info about cash and bog roll!

biZrb

I was dreading my trip to the Russian Embassy, but I have nothing but good to say about them now.
I went yesterday morning, had to queue for ages, especially since the guy at the hatch kept disapearing for 5-10 minutes every few minutes, but when it was my turn my form and invite were in order, I wanted my visa to be processed within 3 working days, so i paid €100, i told the guy this, and then he told me to wait for a receipt. 10 minutes later I get my receipt and he tells me to wait when i asked him when could I pick it up. Another 10 minutes later I called up and got given my passport back with my visa in it, so I was pretty happy that I got it there and then. Despite the limited communication from the guy at the hatch I'm pretty impressed with them!

johnp

biZrb wrote: »

I was dreading my trip to the Russian Embassy, but I have nothing but good to say about them now.
I went yesterday morning, had to queue for ages, especially since the guy at the hatch kept disapearing for 5-10 minutes every few minutes, but when it was my turn my form and invite were in order, I wanted my visa to be processed within 3 working days, so i paid €100, i told the guy this, and then he told me to wait for a receipt. 10 minutes later I get my receipt and he tells me to wait when i asked him when could I pick it up. Another 10 minutes later I called up and got given my passport back with my visa in it, so I was pretty happy that I got it there and then. Despite the limited communication from the guy at the hatch I'm pretty impressed with them!

When I was at the the hatch he said I "must wait 5 minutes".
He came back 5 minutes later with a massive cup of tea for himself He then looked at my docs and said everything was ok and gave me the receipt

juanace

I'm off on the Vodka Train in two and a half weeks, flying into Riga, getting the train to St. Petersburg and starting from there. I'll have a few days to travel around China after it. Really looking forward to it, but I'm so unprepared, only got one visa so far, haven't got a backpack yet or done much research on any of the places I'll be going, but I'm sure it'll all come together!

me and a mate are doing something similar. Were getting ferry's and trains to riga then into st.petersburg. Wer a bit worried bout the visa's especially russian one as you have to state the day you enter the country. Was this the case for you? Did you have to show proof of entryt and exit from russia?

Were not 100% sure the day were goonna enter yey, and we plan buying our transiberia in moscow - hoping to wing it as much as we can! Any advice?? Thanks a lot!!!

carlosinto

juanace wrote: »

me and a mate are doing something similar. Were getting ferry's and trains to riga then into st.petersburg. Wer a bit worried bout the visa's especially russian one as you have to state the day you enter the country. Was this the case for you? Did you have to show proof of entryt and exit from russia?

Were not 100% sure the day were goonna enter yey, and we plan buying our transiberia in moscow - hoping to wing it as much as we can! Any advice?? Thanks a lot!!!

I'm doing pretty much the same thing myself - interrail through Europe and then hopefully buying the trans-sib in Moscow. Everthings been left a bit last minute as I'm hoping to leave in about three weeks and have no visas yet. Does anyone know if they're strict on exact date of entry i.e. can you arrive a few days before/after?

biZrb

With the Russian visa, you need an invite from every place you are staying with for every night you will be there, your visa is then issued for these nights only, so its going to be hard to wing it in Russia, unless you find a organisation (maybe on the internet?) that will issue you invites for whatever days you like then you'll be able to get your visa but it'll still be for those days on the invite you just won't need to book accomadation (i think).

I didn't have to show proof of entry or exit from Russia but my invite was for a specific set of days (outlined on my invite form) and my visa was issued for these days only so if I arrive early or leave late I'm in trouble!

So I don't think its going to be easy to wing it in Russia, I think you'll have to plan a bit for it. Definitly get your visas sooner rather than later, it takes awhile to sort out the forms, get the invites etc.

johnp wrote: »

When I was at the the hatch he said I "must wait 5 minutes".
He came back 5 minutes later with a massive cup of tea for himself He then looked at my docs and said everything was ok and gave me the receipt

Haha thats gas, so thats what he was doing everytime he left the hatch, making tea!
At least you got a sentence out of him, when he gave me my receeipt he just told me to 'wait', he wouldn't tell me anything more!

juanace

Were travelling into russia overland and wont be buying the train tickets until we get to moscow to save money!

Will this make it difficult getting the visas in Dublin beforehand, especially regarding proof of exiting countries..like do we need proof of exiting russia, mongolia and china??

tywy

biZrb wrote: »

With the Russian visa, you need an invite from every place you are staying with for every night you will be there, your visa is then issued for these nights only, so its going to be hard to wing it in Russia, unless you find a organisation (maybe on the internet?) that will issue you invites for whatever days you like then you'll be able to get your visa but it'll still be for those days on the invite you just won't need to book accomadation (i think).

I didn't have to show proof of entry or exit from Russia but my invite was for a specific set of days (outlined on my invite form) and my visa was issued for these days only so if I arrive early or leave late I'm in trouble!

So I don't think its going to be easy to wing it in Russia, I think you'll have to plan a bit for it. Definitly get your visas sooner rather than later, it takes awhile to sort out the forms, get the invites etc.

When I did the Transib I bought an invite off waytorussia.net, it was $20 and I didn't need an invite from every place I stayed in the country. I have my visa here and it was valid for a month. I just put in the day I'd be arriving and then left it fairly open ended. I was leaving Russia for Mongolia at the end of August but I still applied for a visa into September in case anything went wrong. Make sure you get your invite for that length of time too I suppose.

It doesn't take long at all to get the invites. You pay the $20 with your credit card and then they email you an invite pretty much the next day. I think the visa takes about 2 weeks to process but you can pay more to get it processed quicker.

If you are planning on travelling through Mongolia, make sure you spend a week there! Well worth it! To get the visa you'll need to send your passport to the embassy in London. That takes about 2 weeks as well. I think the Chinese embassy was the quickest.

Because you need so many visas for the Transiberian you would want to start applying at least 8 weeks before you plan on going to be safe. Although I have to admit, I bought my train tickets at the beginning of July and we left for St Petersburg on the 10th of August, so we only took 6 weeks to get our visas I suppose.

If you want advice on buying train tickets, let me know. You're better buying them off a travel agent in Russia rather than a British travel agent. It's a hell of a lot cheaper!

tywy

juanace wrote: »

Me and a mate are going on the transsiberian and were wondering about visa's..travelling into russia overland and wont be buying the train tickets until we get to moscow to save money!

Will this make it difficult getting the visas in Dublin beforehand? Especially regarding proof of exiting countries..like do we need proof of exiting russia, mongolia and china??

I don't think you need proof that you're exiting. They just want to be sure your visa is correct.

Also if you buy your tickets in Moscow you'll have zero choice. Also don't think that you'll be able to get the cheap seats. They keep those for the Russians. We met people who just booked as they went along. They had to go 2nd class AC... they couldn't go in the open plan cheap beds. The teller wouldn't sell them the tickets. You might be better off booking. It's cheap if you do it with a Russian travel agency.

johnp

tywy wrote: »

When I did the Transib I bought an invite off waytorussia.net, it was $20 and I didn't need an invite from every place I stayed in the country. I have my visa here and it was valid for a month. I just put in the day I'd be arriving and then left it fairly open ended. I was leaving Russia for Mongolia at the end of August but I still applied for a visa into September in case anything went wrong. Make sure you get your invite for that length of time too I suppose.

It doesn't take long at all to get the invites. You pay the $20 with your credit card and then they email you an invite pretty much the next day. I think the visa takes about 2 weeks to process but you can pay more to get it processed quicker.

If you are planning on travelling through Mongolia, make sure you spend a week there! Well worth it! To get the visa you'll need to send your passport to the embassy in London. That takes about 2 weeks as well. I think the Chinese embassy was the quickest.

Because you need so many visas for the Transiberian you would want to start applying at least 8 weeks before you plan on going to be safe. Although I have to admit, I bought my train tickets at the beginning of July and we left for St Petersburg on the 10th of August, so we only took 6 weeks to get our visas I suppose.

If you want advice on buying train tickets, let me know. You're better buying them off a travel agent in Russia rather than a British travel agent. It's a hell of a lot cheaper!

Just to note, you can get the Mongolian visa in Dublin. They have an honorary consulate here now.

Go to the Dublin School of English (http://www.dse.ie/) and they'll sort it out.

juanace

Thanks for the info guys!

Do you know if we need to fill in a form to bring with us to DBS to get the visa or is it all done when you arrive?

We're going in mid November so not expecting transiberian to be too busy..we've read different people saying different things about the cheapest option and we reckon we'll take are chances at the station - the russian travel agencies were quoting 450euro..we think we can shave 150euro off that total at the station - if we get lucky!

tywy

johnp wrote: »

Just to note, you can get the Mongolian visa in Dublin. They have an honorary consulate here now.

Go to the Dublin School of English (http://www.dse.ie/) and they'll sort it out.

Oh wow! That's deadly, we were very hesitant sending our passports off in the post. Good to know too cuz I reckon I'll make it back to Mongolia in the next couple of years, such a great country!

johnp

tywy wrote: »

Oh wow! That's deadly, we were very hesitant sending our passports off in the post. Good to know too cuz I reckon I'll make it back to Mongolia in the next couple of years, such a great country!

Aye, tis dead handy.
When I looked up the Mongolian website in the UK, they said they weren't taking postal applications anymore. It looked liked we'd have to go to London personally to get it sorted.
So, I rang them up to make sure I had everything in order before we organised going over.
They gave us the good news, and I popped into town at lunch and had the visa back in a couple of days :pac:

carlosinto

johnp wrote: »

Aye, tis dead handy.
When I looked up the Mongolian website in the UK, they said they weren't taking postal applications anymore. It looked liked we'd have to go to London personally to get it sorted.
So, I rang them up to make sure I had everything in order before we organised going over.
They gave us the good news, and I popped into town at lunch and had the visa back in a couple of days :pac:

Yeah Mongolian visa is easy to get - i dropped mine in to the dublin school of english at 4 o'clock last thursday and paid the extra €15 for the express service. They rang me at about 11 o'cock the next day to pick it up!! Pity I can't say the same about the Chinese and Russian visas.

carlosinto

juanace wrote: »

Were travelling into russia overland and wont be buying the train tickets until we get to moscow to save money!

Will this make it difficult getting the visas in Dublin beforehand, especially regarding proof of exiting countries..like do we need proof of exiting russia, mongolia and china??

I'm in the middle of sorting all this visa crap out and the as far as I can tell you don't need proof that you're leaving mongolia or russia but you do in china. I'm travelling overland and ran in to problems with the chinese visa, as I had no flights to prove I was leaving the country they needed to see the visa of the next country I'm going to which means I now have to organise a vietnamese visa before leaving (something I was going to do in china), all in all it's set me back about two weeks so highly recommend soting out return flights or an onward visa before you apply for the chinese visa.

ush

Ah, the trans-siberian railway journey. Day and days of birch trees rolling past at a snails pace.

They've got Dunnes Stores in Russia. I remember seeing Dutch tourists boarding the train somewhere around Lake Baikal with fresh supplies in Dunnes Stores plastic bags.

Don't föök with the guards at the border crossings. Even if some of the Mongolian female customs staff had a serious S&M look going on.

Mongolia is the wild west. You need to get out of Ulaan Bator and into the nature reserves. Stay out with the herders. Go horse riding.

gary the great

Great thread, loads of info.

Planning on doing this trip in late March/early April and at the very early planning stage.

We roughly plan on flying to Moscow, spending a couple of days there and then down to Yekaterinberg (we considered flying to save time as were limited to 2.5weeks, but maybe not such a great idea).

We would love to go to Kazachstan for a day or two just to see it...anyone done this?

Then to Irkusk for a day and night, then to Lake Bakial, then back to irtusk and onto Ulaan Batar. Saty there 2 nights and go into the desert for 2 nights.

then down to bejing. Want to see the Great Wall to...

Roughly what are the differences in price of buying the train tickets online now and in stations in Russia/Mongolia/China? We may have a Russian travelling with us which could really help.

Tazzer

Hi Gary,

yeah thread was invaluable to me when I was planning!
We went straight from Moscow to Irkutsk - no stops inbetween. That was a long 4 day! So I cant advise you in those other places.

We did meet a few people who did and they said that they could of done without seeing Yekaterinberg, as their time was also limited and they would have preferred stay longer in other places such as Lake Baikal/Mongolia/Beijing.

Regarding purchasing the tickets - buying them on the way is a great idea. Can save you a bit of money. The only thing would be the language barrier - but if you have someone with you that speaks Russian, then you will be fine.

However I would say if you are on a limited amount of time, you might not get the trains that you want/need. Trains can book up very quickly.

We had 3 weeks, but it still wasnt enough! Would have loved to spend more time in Mongolia. We were only there for 3/4 days. Could have easily spent another day or two!

T