Visa Overview
Our Beijing office offers a visa service for Mongolia and Russia and Belarus by appointment. If you are visiting Hong Kong in person, we can also help arrange a Russian visa and China visa locally. Our partners in Moscow offer a Belarus transit visa service if you will be travelling to Eastern Europe after your trans-siberian trip.
If you can not take advantage of our visa service, we can send the visa support documents so you can make the visa applications yourself at your local embassy.
Also in this section
Which Visas?
You are most likely to need a Russia visa for any Trans-Siberian Railway trip. Next up are Mongolia as well as China. You may not need a Mongolian visa if you are travel on the Trans-Manchurian route, travel from Moscow to Vladivostok, or if you are a US Citizen.
You will proably need a China visa and if you plan a double entry trip, i.e to Hong Kong and back again or to Mongolia and back again, you will need a double-entry China visa.
You may also need a Belarus transit visa if you plan to travel overland between Russia and Eastern Europe, read more on the Belarus Visa page.
Our Visa Service ~ Who Qualifies?
Our visa service is only available to our customers that book a trans-siberian package with us. We do not offer visa invitation only.
Where to Apply?
Beijing Office
Our Beijing office can help apply for the Russian and Mongolian visas at the embassy in Beijing. The Mongolian visa is quite straight-forward, but the Embassy can be very busy during the summer and you need to give the Embassy authorisation for us to apply on your behlaf. The Russian Embassy has very strict requirements. From 12th April 2004 the Russian Embassy only issue Russian visas if you have China Residency and to certain nationalities. As an official agent we can apply on your behalf but we still need to present the original visa support documents. There are some exemptions and the rules are often interpreted differently on a whim! We offer a postal visa service if you are already in China. We can also apply for a Belarus transit visa on your behalf at the friendly Embassy in Beijing, however at certain times agents are not given free access, so check with us for your specific circumstance.
Hong Kong Office
Our Hong Kong office can help with China and Russia visas. The Mongolian Consulate in Hong Kong is closed. The Russian Embassy is less strict than in Beijing but you still need to be in Hong Kong at the time of application and for some nationalities for a certain length of time. To apply for a Russian and Chinese visa in Hong Kong, you must actually be in Hong Kong at the time of application as the visa office checks for a valid entry stamp in your passport.
Click for full details of our visa service.
UK Visa Service
Applying for visas in the UK is fairly straight-forward using a postal service. The Russian Embassy in London offer a postal visa service through their official agency VFS Global. The Chinese Embassy in London also offers a postal visa service through their official site - Chinese Visa Application Service Center. The Mongolian Embassy do not offer a postal visa service, but recommend using a local visa agency called CIBT if you do not want to travel to the Embassy in person.
New Zealand Visa Service
The Russian Embassy in New Zealand asks for a covering letter from a local agency and we can help with this paperowrk in most cases.
Apply yourself
If you do can not take advantage of our visa services, you can obtain your own visas.
When to Apply?
Timing
You will need a bundle of visas if you plan to travel overland across several continents. Visas can generally be obtained in any order, but often not more than two months in advance of travel. Some embassies only allow application in your country of residence which can be problematic when you are on the move. The Embassy will require your passport for up to one week each in some cases and so juggling your passport between the relevant Embassies can be tricky.
The Russian visa application can be a difficult process. The regulations in both Hong Kong and Beijing are strict and frequently changing, especially when they are busy, or a new consul starts working! Depending on your circumstances, it may be best to apply for the visas before you arrive in China. Each visa normally takes around one week, although express applications are often available.
Apply In Advance
If you are living in China we offer a postal visa service through our Beijing office.
Apply On Arrival
If you are currently LIVING in Hong Kong, our office there can help apply for Chinese and Russian visas. Allow one week for each visa, or less if you pay express charges. If you have booked with us in advance and there is time to have the visa paperwork sent from Moscow we may be able to apply for the Russian visa while you are in Beijing. The Mongolian visa is easy to arrange while in Beijing or at other locations around the world.
Visa regulations change frequently and often without warning
ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK FOR YOURSELF!
Although we try to keep these pages as up-to-date as we can we accept no liability for any inaccuracies in the information contained.
