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10.08.2006 Exiting Russia You must have a valid visa in order to leave Russia. You must also have your migration card and your registration in order to avoid possible problems obtaining future visas to the Russian Federation. If you do not have a valid visa, you will not be allowed to leave Russia! If you lose your passport and/or visa - or if you have any questions or concerns about your visa – immediately contact SRAS. If you are denied exit from Russia, contact SRAS and immedeately return to your university.  Please keep a copy of your passport information page, a copy of your visa, and a copy of your registration in a safe place in case of loss, theft, or unfortunate occurrence. Customs tend to be fairly easy, but don't count on it. Your bags will be thoroughly searched at the airport and possibly at the border before you exit russia by train, bus, or other transport. If you are carrying more than 1,500 USD, you must declare your currency and the authorities will want to see a receipt (or entrance customs form) proving where you got this money. Keep your receipts for any purchased soveniers, particularly for any that do not look new (esp. icons, samovars, art works, and other items that might be considered "of cultural value"). The authorities do have the power to confiscate these items (though we have not heard of any cases where students had items taken). If you have questions about this, please contact us for more details. SRAS encourages students to travel out of Russia and see the countries of Central Asia, Asia, and Eastern Europe. However, keep in mind that that regulations at individual exit points can differ depending on which country you will then enter, and upon the various tendencies of these exit points to enforce/not enforce/make up their own regulations. We will try to compile information here about the various exit points of Russia so that bureaucracy need not hinder your travel plans. If you have recently traveled from Russia to a neighboring country, and would like to share your experiance with customs and imigration, please write us and tell us what you experianced! 1.  Mongolia – via the Trans-Siberian Contributed by Rebecca Stanton, Asst. Professor, Columbia University "You will have to fill out a Russian customs form, in duplicate, when you leave Russia at Naushki if you're taking the trans-Mongolian route and state on it how much you are carrying, in each currency, at the moment you cross the border. At Sükhbaatar, you'll have to go through the whole process again with Mongolian customs forms in duplicate. "At Naushki, if you still have rubles left, do not write down a final amount on the customs form until *after* you have got off the train and bought any last-minute supplies you might need (bottled water, instant noodles etc.) at the little market there. The guidebooks all say that 'once you get your passport back, you can get off the train,' but this wasn't how it worked in our case; rather, the border guards came through and took our passports and migration cards, THEN there was a lull of about 90 minutes during which we were free to get off the train, and then the provodnitsy summoned us back to the train compartments to go through the customs process (at which point we handed in our customs forms and had our passports returned). As soon as the passports were returned, the train left, so had we waited, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to get off at all. "At both Naushki (Russian border procedures) and Sükhbaatar (Mongolian border procedures), our experience was that the border personnel couldn't have cared less about the Western tourists on the train; their chief interest was in the Mongolian traders (smugglers) and the contraband that they had hidden all up and down the train. In dealing with us, they were unsmiling and peremptory as usual, but the actual stamping of forms etc. was a pure formality. "For reference, this was on the No. 10 "Baikal" service Moscow--Irkutsk, and the No. 6 service Irkutsk--Ulaanbaatar. If you're taking the latter, it seems to be a particularly smuggler-heavy train, so be prepared for it to become a positive hive of activity for the last couple of hours before the border crossing -- boxes of goods being stowed in "hidden" compartments in the floor, ceiling, bathrooms, etc. I assume a lively system of bribes makes it possible for these boxes to pass 'unnoticed.'" « back to Student Guide to Russia archive print this page email this page