Praxis International

(formerly The Center for the Study of Russia and the Soviet Union)

Independent Research Travel to Russia

Praxis International, a nonprofit foundation, has been sending graduate students and faculty to Russia for research for more than ten years, and we are proud of the success of our colleagues and alumni. Our past participants have traditionally accomplished a great deal of research during their short-term stays. Praxis' programs are non-profit. Proceeds fund administrative costs, support for our Russian personnel, grants to needy Russian scholars, and non-profit academic publishing efforts in Russia.


PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION CAREFULLY.  IT CONTAINS DETAILED INFORMATION ON OUR PROGRAMS AND ON SECURING YOUR RUSSIAN VISA.

Our arrangements for independent scholars are quite flexible. The basic package includes a visa invitation, affiliation as a visiting scholar and ongoing local help from our staff as needed.

The fee for this service is $250. If you want a one year, multi-entry visa, add $50 for the visa invitation. (and expect to pay more to the consulate here when you actually apply).  See IMPORTANT NOTES below for more on one year visas.  We can arrange visas for spouses/partners and accompanying family members. Each of them must submit a separate application.

This is a bit more expensive than existing alternatives because:

1. We have permanent Moscow staff with specialized knowledge of archives and experience dealing with problems of daily life in Moscow. Only a phone call away, they are available 24 hours a day and ready to assist quickly with archival information, housing issues, visa problems, and any emergency;

2. Upon your arrival, we are able to register your visa as quickly (and legally) as possible. You need not stand in visa registration lines or surrender your passport for long.  (We recommend making a xerox of the information and visa pages of your passport for use when your original is being registered.)

3. In addition, we can arrange housing and airport transportation (in Moscow only) according to your needs.

Housing is becoming expensive in Moscow and our access to reasonably priced apartments is now sharply limited. Decent small apartments in good areas are now $1500-$1800 per month or more, when they are available. We can no longer guarantee a private apartment.

On the other hand, we have a good list of reliable and tested private rooms in secure apartments which Moscow khoziaiki are willing to rent out. These rooms are in good neighborhoods, with friendly and helpful families, most of whom are friends of our Moscow staff. Rents for these rooms are much cheaper, averaging about $500 per month. Many of our scholars prefer this arrangement and maintain relationships with their host families for years.  Flexibility and choice are much greater for rooms than for apartments. Please consider this option and let us know if it is acceptable for you. Our colleagues in Moscow ask a $100 "finder's fee" for locating housing, to be paid when you move in. After that you pay the landlord (who establishes the renting price) directly.

Because of the tight Moscow housing market, we are not able to arrange housing for a full academic year except in rare circumstances. We can arrange short-term lodging while you search for long-term solutions with a real estate agent.

4. If you want airport pickup, please advise us of your arrival day, time, and flight number AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Airport transport payment is made directly to your driver: $50 arrival (Sheremetego) $60 (Domodedovo); $40 departure Sheremetego, $50 Domodedovo, payable to the driver when you arrive in Moscow. This is with dependable friends. If you have your own transport and apartment, please call Elena Sergeevna Drozdova: 499-148-69-82. cell: 916 617 21 28 when you get settled.

The application is quite simple, and consists of the following steps:

1. Complete an application-data sheet on-line.

Note: If you will be arranging your own housing in Moscow, please provide that address and telephone number in the "special needs or important housing preferences" box on the form. See Important Notes, below.

2. Scan a copy of the information page of your passport (the pages with your picture, information, and signature) and send it to us (rusarchive[at]verizon.net) as an email attachment.

Special note: Non-US citizens resident in the US must also send us the US residency stamp/visa/green card from their passports.

If you have trouble getting through, email us (rusarchive[at]verizon.net) and let us know.

3. At the present time, payment must be by bank transfer/wire. Send a bank wire for $250 ($300 for one-year multi-entry) for each family member to:

Beneficiary:
GETTY John Arch

Account number:
42601840401000706945

Beneficiary Bank:
Raiffeisenbank ZAO
Troitskaya str. 17/1
Moscow 129090 Russian Federation
SWIFT RZBMRUMM

Intermediary Bank (ONLY IF NECESSARY FOR YOUR BANK):
AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK, LTD.
AMERICAN EXPRESS TOWER FLOOR 23 3 WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER,200 VESEY STREET
NEW YORK,NY 10285-2200, UNITED STATES
SWIFT: AEIBUS33
Account no 000739565

(Sorry: because of past experience, we are unable to initiate the visa invitation process until we receive your payment.)

Currently, only the Russian consulate in Washington DC accepts faxed invitations. If you do not have a fax number where you can receive the invitation, or if you use a consulate other than Washington DC, we must ask you to share with us the cost of DHL Express from Moscow. In this case, please include and additional $80.

4. Our Moscow colleagues will make application for your visa at the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (UVIR MVD). Upon approval, MVD will provide the invitation to our people in Moscow. They will then send it directly to you.

5. You then apply directly to a Russian consulate for your visa. You must do this in person or through a visa agent. The Russian embassy is no longer accepting mail applications. The price you pay them depends on how quickly you need your visa. Our most recent information for single-entry visas is: 3 day processing: $250; 4-20 day processing: $131. For multiple entry visas: 3-day processing: $450; 4-20 day processing: $150. These times do not include mailing either way. You may want to call the nearest Russian consulate for updated prices and procedures.

Standard visas are for periods of up to three months. Longer-term visas or multiple entry visas require additional lead time and fees in Moscow. FOR VISAS LONGER THAN 3 MONTHS AND ALL MULTI-ENTRY VISAS: As of Feb. 1, 2005, the Russian consulates are requiring documentation of an HIV test. For this you need a signed letter from your doctor stating the date the test was taken and the results.

Please be prepared to take your housing finder's fee, rent, and airport transport fee (if any) with you to Moscow.

IMPORTANT BULLETIN:

There are two important and unfortunate new rules for visas.  First, any foreigner now has to apply for a Russian visa in their home country.  Some Russian consulates abroad may make exceptions, but this is unlikely.  Second, visa holders may now only spend 90 days in Russia in a 180-day period.  This means that after 90 days, you must leave Russia and wait 90 days before re-entering.  These rules have been implemented only recently and although it is not clear how they will be eventually interpreted, they ARE being enforced without exception at present.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

(a) Visa invitation procedures can only be initiated in Moscow by organizations with official status in Russia (we are one), require advance notice and paperwork (our problem, not yours), and may include updated additional fees to the Russian government. We will keep you informed of any changes.

(b) Please give us as much lead time as possible, at least three months if you can. Applications filed less than two months before planned departure may involve additional "rush" charges on the Moscow end and even then the visa invitation might not be issued in time.

Currently the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not accepting applications for visas more than 45 days before the departure date you specify.  They then  take 20 days to issue an invitation, leaving you only a short time to get the visa before your specified departure.  But to avoid paying extra fees at the Russian consulates abroad, you need to apply to them at least 2 weeks before you want your visa.  Go figure.  All this is beyond our control, although we will try to submit your application to them more than 45 days before departure.  In any case, to be on the safe side you should specify an entry date on your application a month in advance of the actual date of your plane ticket.

(c) The Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow requires applicants to provide the address and telephone number where they will be living in Moscow BEFORE issuing the invitation. If you request housing with us, we will handle this. If you will be arranging your own housing in Moscow, please provide that address in the "special needs or important housing preferences" box on our online application form.

(d) There have been changes in Moscow visa registration procedures, which have become almost hopelessly complicated:

- In order to legally register one's visa upon arrival, it is now necessary to pay a fee (2 rubles per day in Russia), and to provide the registration authorities with a "statement" from the landlord or friend where one is living. For those of you who have requested housing through us, this statement will be taken care of automatically by our people in Moscow. Those of you arranging your own housing will be responsible for providing our colleagues with the statement before they can register your visa. Upon arrival, you may call our Elena Sergeevna (tel: 148-69-82) to find out what the statement must say. WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR VISA REGISTRATION PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH HOUSING ARRANGEMENTS WE DID NOT MAKE.

- Although the Russian government does issue one-year multi-entry visas, they will not register your visa upon arrival for more than six months.  If you plan to stay longer than six months, you must actually exit Russia (even for a few hours) and then re-enter.  This is stupid but enforced.

- Residence outside Moscow:

*  In all cases, Russian regulations require you, upon arrival in Russia, to register your visa and residence in the city of your visa sponsor (for us, Moscow).

*  If your principal base will be Moscow but will be making short trips to other cities, we will attempt to register you in Moscow for the duration of your stay in Russia, and can provide a letter for you to carry stating that you are "v komandirovke" from Moscow and therefore not required to register in another city.

*  If your principal bases will be outside Moscow, the matter is more complicated.  You must start in Moscow in order to register.  Because registration is tied to residence, we can usually register you there only for the period of time you will be in Moscow.  We have no personnel outside Moscow, so after that, you will be responsible for registering your residence in other cities where you might live.

SPECIAL ARCHIVE NOTES:

(a) Archives now require a letter from your home institution. Typed on official stationary, this letter should briefly identify you and your research topic. It should be signed by your departmental chair or other supervisor. You'll receive a sample text as an attachment when you apply.

(b) AVPR. If you need access to the Archive of the Foreign Policy of Russia (AVPR), which is not under the control of the Archival Service of the Russian Federation, we need you to fax to our Moscow office (see numbers above) a fuller statement of your "tema". Researchers have had mixed success at this archive, but prospects are greatly improved with advance preparation. On no more than one page, typed in Russian, give your name, academic affiliation, the title of your research project and a description (as exact as possible) of the materials you seek. We need this two months in advance in order to give the best chance of success. Our Moscow colleagues will personally deliver it to the Director of the archive.

SPECIAL NOTE on SAFETY:

In recent months, there has been an increase in anti-American, xenophobic and racist attitudes and incidents in Russia, ranging from increased rudeness toward Americans to spot passport checks on the street to police harassment of researchers to assaults on people of color. Persons with Latin, Asian, or African-American appearance have been most vulnerable. Most foreigners have no problems, but to minimize the risk of such incidents, we recommend that you:

1. carry your passport and visa on your person at all times;

2. avoid calling attention to yourself: dress appropriately, speak quietly in public, avoid speaking English in public;

3. avoid interaction with groups of idle young men in public;

4. avoid public Russian patriotic demonstrations or celebrations;

5. avoid political conversations with Russians, except with friends;

6. call the US Embassy immediately if you are detained by the police [(phone: 728-55-77 (US citizen services), 728-59-90 (after hours)].

We are delighted at the prospect of your participation and look forward to receiving your application. Please feel free to contact us by email (rusarchive[at]verizon.net) any time if you have any questions or problems.