Work invitations to Russia

As in the case of other types of visas (tourist, business, private), it is impossible to obtain a work visa without an invitation. Therefore, after the successful completion of the previous stages, it is necessary to issue an invitation for obtaining a work visa to Russia.

But, unlike tourist and business invitations, a work invitation to Russia for foreigners doesn’t have to be issued immediately, but rather at the fifth of the six stages of a work visa obtainment process. Before you apply for a work invitation to Russia, you must have a permit to employ foreign labour and apply for a work permit.

The procedure for obtaining a work invitation to the Russian Federation

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This consists of the preparation and submission of the documents (the list is given below) to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and then picking it up there. Normally it takes 12 working days. If necessary, we can speed up the process.

The invitation is issued for 3 months of stay with a single entry. It can be issued in the form of telex or a hard copy on the official Ministry of Internal Affairs form. Telex is an electronic form of the invitation, which is sent directly to the consulate. You will receive a short printed form by e-mail, which you will need to provide to the consulate with the rest of the documents for your work visa. The original invitation must be sent to a foreigner to receive a visa. We will also help with receiving and sending the original invitation abroad.

Further, in order to obtain a work visa with an invitation, it is necessary to apply to the Russian consulate abroad, where the consul will decide whether to issue the visa. Below, we will consider the package of documents that must be submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in detail:

• Petition from the employer to issue an invitation;
• Letter of guarantee from the company-employer;
• Proof of payment of the State fee for issuing a work permit to a foreign citizen or stateless person;
• Copy of the passport of a foreign citizen;
• Copy of the incoming number for a work permit;
• Employment contract;
• Inventory of all the submitted documents.

Our experts will prepare and submit all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and you will only have to wait to receive the invitation. It usually takes 12 working days.

Note that to obtain a visa, a foreigner must collect a standard package of documents and provide, together with the original, an invitation to the consulate. The visa will be issued for the duration of the invitation - for 3 months with a single entry. Further, upon arrival in Russia, the foreign employee must issue a temporary registration at the place of stay within 7 working days, not counting the day of entry, and extend the single-entry work visa issued for 90 days to the multiple-entry work visa valid for a year.

Read further about the next stage – extension of the work visa.

Or return to the description of the whole procedure.