From January 1, 2021, foreigners of 52 countries will be able to enter Russia on an electronic visa, which will be issued online and free of charge.
Waltzing through Saint Petersburg museums, snapping photos of the Kremlin and Red Square in Moscow, or taking nature strolls in mountainous Sochi — Russia has enough adventure and discovery in store for all your travel bug needs this upcoming year.
The best part? You can now enter the country with a single e-visa for the entire territory of Russia and with longer periods of validity of 60 days and stay in the country for up to 16 days.
This updated E-Visa will replace the current e-visa which only allowed travelers to visit one region per e-visa, and is only limited to the Far Eastern District, Kaliningrad and Leningrad regions.
Also, the current electronic visa is only valid for 30 days and allows you to stay in the selected region for up to 8 days, and can only be obtained through certain checkpoints in the according three regions.
Talk about an upgrade! All you have to do is fill out a form on the Foreign Ministry website, which is completely free of charge, and doesn’t require any hotel reservation or flight tickets. Once the application is complete, the visa is issued in 4 calendar days.
Russia is currently ranked as the 73rd most welcoming country, and with travel being hindered around the globe in 2020; one can only hope that these changes will inaugurate 2021 with many more travels plans, both in Russia, and beyond.
List of countries who will benefit from the upgraded eVisa system:
Austria, Andorra, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Vatican, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, China (including Taiwan), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Philippines, Finland, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Estonia, Japan.