Back in the 80’s and 90’s travelling to the Soviet Union was an arduous process. Back then you needed to have an itinerary prepared in advance vetted by Intourist and each place you stayed need to be pre-booked and when you arrived you checked in to the hotel and the hotel checked you in with the police or possibly worse.
Apparently Romania it was worse while in Czechoslovakia it was similar but not quite so difficult but you had a certain amount of cash you had to change and it was somewhat difficult to spend it all. How different to today.
A hangover from those days is the requirement to have a tourist invitation letter to be able to visit Russia and some of the old requirements from the old days seem to be making a comeback.
The Tourist Invitation Letter isn’t your visa but is something that you need to get before you can get a visa and is usually issued by a Russian company or business.
Another way to get this letter is through our travel partner iVisa who are an online provider of visas. They act as a go between and have great knowledge of visa procedures.
This is an especially good service if you are time poor or need to get a visa quickly.
The Russian Tourist Invitation Letter is a good example of something that could take some time to organise however if you pay for it to be done it is very convenient.
Here is a link to the Russian Tourist Invitation Letter page on the iVisa website.
Note : As a partner of iVisa I do get a payment for those people who order a service. The charge for services at iVisa are the same if you click through my website or if you order the service independently