RLUS Ltd

Russian Language Undergraduate Studies Ltd

TAKING TWO RLUS COURSES

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This page is designed to help students who have opted to take two RLUS courses, one in the autumn term and the other in the spring term.

RLUS will assume that you will come home after the autumn term course in December and return for your spring term course in February or March. If you have opted to travel with the group, two air tickets will have been booked and you need do nothing more.

If you would like to stay in Russia between the two courses…

So, you think it a good idea to stay in Russia between the two courses – and why not? You will have time to travel and visit other parts of Russia. However, Russian bureaucracy makes it difficult. The advice which follows is based on the experience of students who have done this in the last few years. Please bear in mind that rules change without notice and what follows may therefore not be accurate. Even worse, you may be given advice by your RLUS representative or your course organiser, only to find that it is wrong, as some bureaucrat has decided to change the rules or interpret them in a different way! Please don’t blame the representative or the course organiser; they are doing their best to be helpful.

To study at an institution, you must have a visa from that institution. Even if the institution you are studying at in the autumn term can extend your visa until the end of your spring term course, that is of no use. Your visa must come from the place where you are studying (and please note, you cannot have two visas at one time). This is what you have to do:

1) Ask the institution where you are studying in the autumn term to extend your visa till a few weeks after the start of your spring term course. There are no guarantees that this is possible. In fact it si likely they will refuse, as they are only supposed to provide visa supportr while you are studying with them. Each place is bound by the local rules and different rules apply in different places.

2) Inform Dr Bivon that your visa invitation for the spring term course should not be sent to UK but remain with the spring term course organiser.

3) Contact your spring term course organiser as soon as possible informing them of which Consulate you intend to use and arrange to go to your spring course organiser to collect your new visa invitation.

4) When you have your new visa invitation, you will have to leave Russia and return to the UK to get your new visa. You will not be able to get your new visa until the very beginning or shortly after the start of your spring term course, as your visa invitation usually only starts when the course begins. Please note that even if your visa invitation starts before this, you must not enter Russia using this visa before the official RLUS course start date, otherwise there will be problems with registration. Any official fines levied on course providers due to students not heeding this advice will be borne by the students themselves.

5) Your new visa will be registered in the normal way by your spring term institution.

6) There is no guarantee that you will be able to stay in your autumn term accommodation until the spring semester; you should discuss this with your course organiser (and host family if applicable) as soon as possible after arrival.

7) The only other way of staying between the two ocurses is to obtain a tourist visa, which last a maximum of 4 weeks. Your RLUS representative will advise you where ot obtain a tourist invitation. You will have to return to the UK to get your new tourist visa.

I hope that has not put you off!! Students have done it in the past. The most important thing is advanced planning. Talk to people in Russia as soon as you have decided and check carefully what you have to do. There is little point in getting angry about the rules, they are ridiculous. If there are ways round them, Russians will find them!

One final point: all of this may be totally inaccurate, as Russians have a nasty habit of changing the rules without notice! Please take advice from the student representative, as they will have the latest information.

In conclusion, the only way to be certain of staying on in Russia is to book a 36 week course in Moscow or St Petersburg.

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Last updated by Dr Roy Bivon on 22 September 2009