I cross the Russian border a lot. But I usually use a car or a train to cross the border of Russia. But this time going to Turkey we flew and when we returned, I discovered some changes to crossing the border. Remember these changes do not apply to car, train and ship crossing. Just when flying by international airliner…
When you cross the Russian border. Russia has you fill out a migration card. Actually it is not a card but a piece of very poor quality paper like newsprint paper. But this paper must be kept the whole time you are in Russia and please do not destroy or loose it…
Now your guess is as good as mine about what Russia does with these migration cards. In the 5 years that I have been here the only time that I have ever needed it was to register myself in Russia per the law and return it when I cross the border to leave. In fact they hardly glance at them when I cross the border and they get wadded up and stuffed in a side coat pocket every time by the border guard. In fact I am not sure if they are not even thrown away at the end of the guards shift… 🙂
But you must fill one out to enter Russia and you must have it in original form when you leave the country and that is that and that is final…
But now to the blessing of modern technology and Russian ingenuity. When we cross the border by international airplane. We do not have to fill out a card anymore. They scan your passport, enter the visa information and wally wally bing bang, a little printer spits out an migration card and all you have to do is sign it. Wow I thought that is great and so much better. I hated filling out that card on a moving transportation type vehicle. The road pothole, track wobble or air-pocket always appears as I am trying to print my information. Then I stopped and thought of something…
Russia is going to all the trouble of installing expensive printers. They have designed software to utilize the old migration form in a printer. They cause the border passport control to type all your information in. But they succeed in making me happy because I do not have to fill out a migration card…
I hate to tell Russia this but what would make this expat happy is to get rid of the worthless migration card forever. Then stop the bull with registration and try to modernize by minimizing the trash. Then take all that money spent on brand new fancy printers to print out an official migration card on cheap paper and give it too the homeless people in Russia who can barely feed themselves…
I have a saying that I use often, “Can’t see the forest for the trees!” It seems that governments in this world are stuck into that type of vision no matter where you go. Somethings just do not make sense…
But I do thank Russia for making my life easier when crossing the border…
Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!
Related articles
- Coffee Thinking’s: Crossing a Border East or West… (windowstorussia.com)
- Getting a Russian Visa from Ukraine… (windowstorussia.com)
- Taxi Taxi Taxi Whispers the Gypsy… (windowstorussia.com)
- From Russia to Turkey with Love… (windowstorussia.com)