questions about travel to Russia for dual citizens of US and Russia

[Sasha Senderovich]

Dear SEELANGers,
I recall that a few months ago there was a long discussion on this
list-serve about new visa procedures for travel to Russia for the US
citizens. I am wondering if anyone on the list who is a dual citizen of
Russia and the US has any advice on how the procedures work in this case.

* How does it work for the holders of both a US passport and a Russian
passport for foreign travel (zagran-pasport, not an internal passport)? I've
heard stories of people being able to get Russian visas for their US
passports if they wanted to travel as US citizens, but the visa agency I've
contacted explicitly told me that I would need to renounce my Russian
citizenship first if I wanted to travel on a US document. On the other hand,
there are plenty of people who enter Russia with their Russian documents,
and leave the country with their US passports.

* If one does enter Russia with the Russian foreign passport, how does one
go about post-entry procedures, such as registration at the place of
residence? The rules seem to be more or less clear for registering a US
passport with Moscow or Petersburg authorities, but I am wondering how one
would go about registering a Russian foreign passport which doesn't have a
Moscow or Petersburg "propiska."

I am not terribly committed to keeping my Russian passport, but the idea of
having it seems to be appealing as far as it helps to avoid the process of
obtaining visas, etc. I was just curious if anyone has any *recent*
experience with similar circumstances.

Please reply off-list to senderov at fas.harvard.edu (if the issue proves to be
of wider interest to the list, I would be happy to summarize the
responses.)

Thank you for your help,
Sasha Senderovich

----------------------------------------------
Sasha Senderovich
PhD candidate, Harvard Slavic
senderov at fas.harvard.edu

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