Passport Requirements - Very Important!

In order to be able to obtain a Russian student visa through St. Petersburg State University, your passport should meet the following requirements:

1. Your passport must be valid at least through March 31, 2009.
2. Your passport must be in good physical condition (passports with torn pages or fraying edges may be rejected by the Russian Consulate).
3. Your passport should have two blank visa pages (one visa takes the entire page).

Your should e-mail a scanned copy of the first page of your signed passport (the one that meets all three requirements above) to summersession.abroad@yale.edu along with your application; until then, your application will not be approved.

New HIV Test Requirement for all student visas:
you need to take an HIV Test withing three month prior to the first day of your student visa, that is, in April, and mail the results along with your visa aplication, passport, and photograph.

Visas and Visa Registration/ Визы и регистрация виз

When we receive an electronic copy of the first page of your valid passport, we will send it to St. Petersburg State University for processing a Student Invitation for you.  Student Invitation is an official document issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on your behalf.  It takes at least one months to issue this Invitation.  By the time your Invitation arrives, you will need to submit to us the following four items required for a Russian Visa in addition to your Invitation, 1) your valid physical passport (the visa will be pasted inside your passport), 2) one filled-out and signed application form, 3) one passport size photograph, and 4) your HIV Test results.  Then, we will apply for your Russian Student Visa with the Russian Consulate in New York City on your behalf.  You will receive your Russian Visa in time for your departure.

For more details on the requirements for a Russian visa, go to the New York consulate’s website, www.ruscon.org.

Upon your arrival in Russia, you'll have to pass through passport control and customs. At the passport control desk, you’ll be asked to present your passport and visa as well as a completed, two-part migration card (миграцонная карта, see the link). The flight attendants should give you copies of this form to fill out as you approach the Petersburg airport. If they don’t, make sure you get this form on the ground and fill it out before attempting to go through passport control. The passport control officer will give you back the bottom (“departure”) portion of this form, which you should be sure to keep with your passport and visa. Don’t lose it and don’t throw it away!

Our hosts at the state university will need to register your visas with the police soon after your arrival. To do this, they’ll need to take your passport, visa, and migration card. If our experience in past years is a guide, you won’t get them back until the last week of your stay. During that time, in lieu of passport you will carry a certificate from the university (with a photocopy of your passport), stating that your passport is at the registration office, along with a Russian student ID, which the state university will issue to you.

To make all of this easier for us and for you, we ask that you bring with you to New Haven at least six (black-and-white or color, full-face) passport-size photos—for your visa application here in the States, and for visa registration and student ID in Russia. It’s also a good idea to have two photocopies of your passport and take them with you, just in case.

Public transportation/ Общественный транспорт

You will be met at the Petersburg international airport (Pulkovo-2) and taken directly to your host families by the program coordinator and the state university’s housing liaison. When your five weeks in Petersburg are over, we’ll take you back to the airport as well.

The state university will provide you with a public transportation pass, good for free rides on the subway (метро) and on the trams, buses, and trolleybuses (трамваи, автобусы, троллейбусы). (See the map of the Petersburg subway system below.) In recent years, private buses and vans (маршрутки) have appeared on the city’s streets and highways as well. The маршрутки are often faster than the public buses and trams (though not necessarily safer), and you’ll have to pay anywhere between 12 and 20 rubles to ride them. Unlike public transport, they usually will stop anywhere along the route at your request.

The most pleasant way to get around Petersburg, especially during the magnificent White Nights, is on foot, so bring good walking shoes.