Responsible travel agency: All of the travel arrangements for the trips listed above are made by Ab Matka-Niinimäki Oy, Yrittäjäntie 5, FIN — 21870 RIIHIKOSKI, Finland. Matka-Niinimäki is a licensed and bonded travel agency.
Registration Rules and Instructions
Registration for the trips may only be done by e-mail (instructions below), and the registration time will be open from Monday, 8 September 2008. This means that as soon as it is Monday, 8 September in Finland (CET +1), registration for all the trips will be open to all participating universities.
In order to ensure that your registration is successful and that you get a place on the trip of your choice, please make note of the following simple rules for registering.
Rules:
- You may only register for YOURSELF; registration e-mail messages with the registration information of multiple people will not be accepted
- You may NOT register for SOMEONE else; registration messages are individual
- You may only register for one trip during the semester
- You may NOT use any HOTMAIL e-mail address to register for one of the trips
- Please read through the passport requirements for obtaining a Russia tourist visa (below) before sending your registration information so that you make sure that you have the correct documents needed to be granted a Russian tourist visa
- If you do not receive a reply to your registration message within 24 hours, please send your message again
- There are a limited number of places available for each trip – when the trips are full, they will be closed to further participants. If a trip does become fully booked prior to the registration deadline, a waiting list will be made in case there are any cancellations
THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THESE RULES
Instructions:
To register for one of the trips, send an e-mail message to:
With the following information about yourself – include ALL details:
1. your last name(s) as it appears in your passport (NO CAPS)
2. your first name(s) as they appear in your passport (NO CAPS)
3. your gender (male or female)
4. your citizenship (according to your valid passport)
5. your date of birth (dd.mm.yyyy)
6. your place of birth (city and country)
7. your PASSPORT NUMBER
8. your e-mail address for trip information (NO hotmail addresses)
9. your TRIP CHOICE (please mention the trip #)
10. the name of the university that you study at in Sweden
11. your complete postal/mailing address in Sweden
12. your telephone number in Sweden (if you have one)
You may also send the information for points 1-12 as an attachment to your e-mail message. Please use either .doc, .xls, or .pdf format – NO .docx files.
Once your registration message has been received and reviewed, you will receive an e-mail reply that confirms or denies your registration on the trip of your choice. If your registration has been confirmed, your e-mail address will be added to an e-mail list for your trip/university that we maintain, and more details about the trip will be distributed through this list to the registered participants.
The names, personal information and e-mail addresses that are collected will not be given out to anyone, under any circumstances.
Passport Requirements for Russian Tourist Visa
For EU Citizens: a valid passport, allowing for travel outside of the European Union, that is valid for at least six months after the last day of the stay in the Russian Federation. EU Citizens are not required to have a residence permit for Sweden in their passports. These requirements also apply to students from Norway, Iceland, The Faroe Islands, and Switzerland.
For Non-EU Citizens: a passport valid for at least six months after the last day of the stay in the Russian Federation. Furthermore, a Schengen visa, or Swedish residence permit, valid at least three months (from the date of issue), must be in the applicant’s passport.
Further requirements: you must have at least one free page in your passport to accommodate your Russian tourist visa. Passports that are in poor condition, i.e., missing pages, torn or loose pages, or passports that have been in water (washing machine) may result in your visa application being rejected.
If your current passport does not fulfill these requirements, please immediately contact the e-mail address above. We may be able to help you obtain a new passport from your home embassy’s consular section. See the Passport Application Information (below) for more details about this.
Russian Tourist Visa Processing
One of the main components of joining any trip to Russia, is that of obtaining a Russian tourist visa which will allow you to enter and exit the Russian Federation. And an important feature of these trips is that Russian tourist visa processing is part of the trip package – meaning that we get the visas processed for you.
The Russian tourist visa is valid only for the duration of your trip and cannot be extended or used again. This does mean that you may be without your passport for up to 3 weeks (depending on your trip choice) from the date of the registration meeting at your university. Plan your other travels outside of Sweden with this in mind. Passports will be returned on Day One of each trip, at the Viking Line ferry terminal in Stockholm.
Here are the details about Russian tourist visa processing.
Each participant on one of the trips must obtain an individual, single-entry, tourist visa to enter and exit the Russian Federation – the exception to this is citizens of THAILAND. Thai citizens do not need a tourist visa to enter the Russian Federation for a period of up to 90 days.
Applying for a Russian tourist visa for any of the ESN Sweden Road Trips to Russia requires the following paper work:
- A valid passport
- A completed and signed Russian tourist visa questionnaire
- 2 passport pictures
Niinimäki Travels will take care of the remaining required paper work (hotel confirmation, payment voucher and travel insurance certificate) on your behalf.
Important note for students from the USA, Canada, the UK & NI, Ireland and Australia
International students studying in Sweden that are citizens of, 1) The United States of America, 2) The Commonwealth of Canada, 3) The United Kingdom & Northern Ireland, 4) The Republic of Ireland, and, 5) The Commonwealth of Australia, are also required to submit:
- A copy of their acceptance letter to their Swedish University, or a student certificate from the international office of their Swedish University, proving that they are students. This document must be submitted in conjunction with the other required paper work for the visa to be processed.
Important note for students from the following Non-EU countries:
Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, North Korea, Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia
Unfortunately, we are unable to get tourist visas for citizens of the above listed countries. If you have permanent residence in Sweden (meaning that you live in Sweden on a permanent basis) and have a residence permit for Sweden that is valid for at least 12 months, we can provide you with the paper work to apply for the tourist visa on your own. This paper work will include confirmation of your hotel stay(s) in St Petersburg and/or Moscow, as well as a voucher proving that you have paid for your trip from Sweden, through Finland, to Russia – as required by the General Consulate of the Russian Federation to apply for a tourist visa.
There are two Consulates of The Russian Federation located in Sweden: one in Stockholm, and another in Göteborg.
If you are a citizen of any of the above listed countries, you will be required to appear in person to apply for a Russian tourist visa.
To get more information about this, please contact one of the General Consulates of The Russian Federation in Sweden.
Stockholm:
http://stockholm.rusembassy.org/
Göteborg:
http://gothenburg.rusembassy.org/
Passport pictures for the application
You will be required to include two passport pictures with the application. The pictures may be color, or black and white; they may be different pictures, but they must be printed on photographic paper – photocopies of pictures on plain paper will not be accepted **.
Black and white pictures made from an automatic photo booth (that you find at bus/train stations, underground stations, malls, etc.) are perfectly fine.
** Passport pictures printed on plain paper will lead to a rejection of your visa application by the Russian Consulate.
Rejected Russian Tourist Visa Applications
If for whatever reason, the Russian Consulate rejects your visa application, Matka-Niinimäki is in no way responsible. You will not receive your money back if your visa application is rejected.
EARLY Russian Tourist visa processing
In some cases, getting your Russian tourist visa processed before the Paper Work & Payment meeting may be necessary. Especially if you have trips planned before your Road Trip to Russia, outside of Sweden that demands you to have your passport. Early Russian tourist visa processing is an option, and this will require that you send your passport, visa application, passport pictures (and any other paper work) to us by registered mail, express mail, or DHL courier.
Early Russian tourist visa processing may be done between 8 September, and 10 October. If your Russian tourist visa is processed early, you may have your passport sent back to you by registered mail, express mail, or DHL courier at futher expense. The other option is that we return your passport to you at the Paper Work & Payment meeting at your university.
If you wish to use the early Russian tourist visa processing method, please contact russia@matka-niinimaki.fi for more details.
Postal options and approximate costs
You may safely and in some cases, quickly send your documents for the tourist visa processing to us. You may also send documents for more than one person if you wish to save on the postage costs. Therefore, the postal options are:
Registered (requires a signature upon arrival): 3-4 days to Finland, cost is approximately 90-120 SEK depending on the weight, trackable through either posten.se or posti.fi
Express (requires a signature upon arrival): 2-3 days to Finland, cost is approximately 120-180 SEK depending on the weight, trackable through either posten.se or posti.fi
Visit your nearest post office for more information.
DHL document envelope: 1 day, costs is approximately 800 SEK
To get more information about DHL in Sweden, and to find the nearest DHL office to you, please see:
http://www.dhl.se/publish/se/en.high.html
If you would like to send your documents by DHL, you may arrange a pick-up from DHL, or go directly to a DHL office.
Upon your request, we will provide you with the correct postal address (and mobile phone number for the Air Way Bill) to send your documents to Finland.
Russian Tourist Visa Prices
There are two price groups for the Russian tourist visa. The first is a group of European Union countries that reached an agreement with the Russian Federation on visa prices and processing times last year (2007).
European Union (EU) citizens: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
The cost of a single-entry, tourist visa is 40 EUR, and the processing time is 7 working days. An option is Express Visa Processing (3 days), and the cost of this is 80 EUR.
Non-EU Citizens: all others countries including Denmark, the United Kingdom & Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland – these three EU countries did not sign the agreement with the Russian Federation.
The cost of a single-entry, tourist visa varies based on nationality. The costs vary from 30 EUR, up to 120 EUR. The cost of the Non-EU citizen’s tourist visas are updated once every two weeks. Thus, the final cost of your visa will not be exactly clear until your paper work is taken in for processing.
The processing time for Non-EU citizen’s tourist visa is 7 working days, with the exception of students from the United States of America, the United Kingdom & Northen Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth of Australia; the tourist visa processing time for citizens of these four countries is 10 working days. There is no Express Visa Processing option for Non-EU citizens.
Here is a short list of Non-EU tourist visa prices from May 2008 – again, the current costs will be different by October:
Argentina = 60 EUR
Australia = 60 EUR
Brazil = 60 EUR
Canada = 95 EUR
Chile = 80 EUR
Colombia = 85 EUR
Denmark = 60 EUR
Hong Kong/BNO = 50 EUR
Ireland = 90 EUR
Japan = 70 EUR
Malaysia = 60 EUR
Mexico = 70 EUR
New Zealand = 40 EUR
Norway = 60 EUR
Singapore = 60 EUR
South Africa = 70 EUR
South Korea = 80 EUR
Switzerland = 80 EUR
Taiwan = 40 EUR
United Kingdom = 50 EUR
USA = 120 EUR
All of the individual Russian Tourist Visas will be processed at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation, in Turku, Finland.
Niinimäki Travels is NOT responsible for ANY changes made by the Consulate General of the Russian Federation to the prices shown above.
Russian Tourist Visa Application
All Non-US Citizens may download the English language version of the Russian tourist visa application from this web link:
http://www.russianvisas.f9.co.uk/forms/ukvisa.pdf
This is a 64 KB file in .PDF format. You will need Acrobat Reader to view this and print it out.
These are the simple instructions for ensuring that your application is not rejected:
- You will complete the questionnaire questions that are in ENGLISH
- Use a blue or black pen, and clearly print your answers
- You must fill in all of the boxes listed 1-20 in the SAME HANDWRITING
- You must date and sign the questionnaire at the bottom of the page
FAILURE to follow these instructions may lead to the REJECTION of your application
Here are the answers to the questions on this questionnaire:
1. Your present citizenship: the name of the country that issued you your passport
2. Surname: your family last names as they appear in your passport
3. First/second names: all of them as they appear in your passport
4. Previous names: the answer for this is NONE unless you are married
5. Date of birth:
6. Sex: Male or Female
7. Reason for visit to Russia: Tourism
8. Russian Departments to be visited: NONE
9. Route of journey:
Arriving from: FINLAND to RUSSIA
Departing from: RUSSIA to FINLAND
10. Date of Entry: see the ENTRY dates for your trip below
11. Date of Departure: see the DEPARTURE dates for your trip below
12. Your PASSPORT NUMBER:
13. Index and name of tourist company: MATKA-NIINIMAKI, Finland
14. Place of work or study: “STUDENT” and the name of your university in your HOME COUNTRY. Include the address if you know it
15: Do you have medical coverage in Russia: yes, you do – circle the text on the right hand side that says, “OTHER POLICY ATTACHED FOR APROVAL”.
16. Permanent home address: your ADDRESS in your HOME COUNTRY
17. Place of birth: the city and country where you were born
18. Number of previous trips to Russia: if you have never been there, NONE / Date of last visit: if you have never been there, NONE
19. NONE
20. NONE
Then please make sure to sign your SIGNATURE on the bottom of the page, and date it (next to signature).
Entry and Departure Dates for the visa application question #10 and #11
Road Trip #82:
Date of Entry: 5 November 2008
Date of Departure: 11 November 2008
Road Trip #83:
Date of Entry: 13 November 2008
Date of Departure: 16 November 2008
Road Trip #84:
Date of Entry: 19 November 2008
Date of Departure: 25 November 2008
Road Trip #85:
Date of Entry: 27 November 2008
Date of Departure: 2 December 2008
Road Trip #86:
Date of Entry: 4 December 2008
Date of Departure: 9 December 2008
Russian Tourist Visa Application for US Citizens
As of 1 April, 2004, all US Citizens must complete a different tourist visa application. You may download the MS Word document for printing from this web link:
http://www.russianembassy.org/CONSULAT/Anketa04.doc
If you have any problems completing this questionnaire, please contact russia@matka-niinimaki.fi for assistance.
Paper Work & Payment Meeting
For all of the trips, we will hold 30-60 minute long “Paper Work and Payment” meeting at each participating university, as long as there are at least 15 registered participants per university. These meetings are currently planned for 16-20 October 2008, and usually follow this format:
1st meeting day: Uppsala-Örebro-Linköping
2nd meeting day: Jönköping-Skövde-Göteborg
3rd meeting day: Lund-Malmö-Växjö
4th meeting day: Kalmar-Stockholm
During the meetings, all registered participants will submit their passport, two passport pictures and their completed, Russian tourist visa applications. Those participants not using the IBAN payment method, will also make their trip and tourist visa payments in full (please see payment options below for more information).
Detailed information about what is required of all registered participants at each meeting, and the location and timing will be explained by e-mail.
Late passport hand in
If you are unable to hand in your passport at the meeting, you will be required to make other arrangements to send us your passport by registered mail, express mail, or DHL courier. The general deadline for us having your passport is 10 days prior to your trip departure from Stockholm.
Here is a look at your postal options for sending your documents:
Registered (requires a signature upon arrival): 3-4 days to Finland, cost is approximately 90-120 SEK depending on the weight, trackable through either posten.se or posti.fi
Express (requires a signature upon arrival): 2-3 days to Finland, cost is approximately 120-180 SEK depending on the weight, trackable through either posten.se or posti.fi
Visit your nearest post office for more information.
DHL document envelope: 1 day, costs is approximately 800 SEK
To get more information about DHL in Sweden, and to find the nearest DHL office to you, please see:
http://www.dhl.se/publish/se/en.high.html
If you have further questions about this, please contact: russia@matka-niinimaki.fi
Payment Options
There are two options for making your trip and visa payment: full cash payment, in EUROS (only), when the the Paper Work & Payment Meeting is held at your university, or an International Bank Account Number – IBAN – payment prior to the meeting. There are no other payment options.
You may make your trip and visa payment by IBAN at any time before Wednesday, 15 October, 2008. However, before you do that, you must request an individual, personal refence number for your payment by e-mail. Send your request message for your refence number to: russia@matka-niinimaki.fi Please mention your trip # and your Swedish university.
Once you have been given your personal reference number, you may make your IBAN payment using these banking details:
Account owner: Matka-Niinimäki Oy Matkatoimisto
Address: Turuntie 5, FIN – 21870 RIIHIKOSKI, Finland
Bank name: Oripään Osuuspankki
(may also appear as POHJOLA BANK OYJ)
Bank address: Yläneentie 2, FIN – 32500 ORIPÄÄ, Finland
(may also appear as Teollisuuskatu 18 HELSINKI)
Bank account number: 530902-211412
IBAN number: FI7253090220011412
(that is “FI” at the beginning as in F I N L A N D)
SWIFT (BIC) Code: OKOYFIHH
These IBAN details have been exactly the same for the last five years, and used by thousands of students (and their parents) to make the trip and visa payments. If you have problems suceeding in getting your payment to go through, please contact your bank.
The IBAN payment method is only worthwhile if you have a bank account in Sweden, or somewhere else in Europe. Money transfers from banks in North or South America, Asia, or Australia, are expensive and slow.
Please bring your payment receipt or a copy of it to the Paper Work & Payment meeting at your university.
To get more information about IBAN, please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number
