Visas

Most of the foreign participants and accompanying persons will have to obtain a visa to enter Russia. Everybody is responsible for their own visa arrangements. However, the organizers will make their best to help where they can.

For information on visas to Russia please see: Visas for Russia.

Guests from some countries do not need visa: please see Visa-free travel to Russia.

Please note that the information on these web pages may be slightly out-of date, so you are advised to search the current information on the web pages of the Russian Consulates in your countries.

For those guests who need a letter of invitation to obtain a visa, please email optic_conf@pgia.ru with the header "VISA" to get a prompt response.

In case you need an invitation letter, please request it before July 1, 2020.
Please note that, in order to issue an official letter of invitation which is desirable to obtain the Russian visa, we need the following information:

full name as per passport
date of birth (day, month, year)
place of birth (city, country)
citizenship
permanent residence (city, country)
home address (NEW!) - not needed for EU visitors by experience
passport number, date of issue, expiry date
affiliation (full name, address, tel., fax)
position
dates of stay in Russia (arrival/departure)
place of getting visa (the city where the appropriate Russian Consulate is situated)
scanned copy of passport (pages containing personal data, passport number, expiry date); scanned pages sent by e-mail are preferable; copies sent by fax are accepted if there is no opportunity to scan the needed pages
mailing address

Please send this information to the Organizing Committee optic_conf@pgia.ru at your earliest convenience.

For guests from EU countries, Japan, USA, China, there is a simplified order of getting visa for science and culture related visits. However, we neeed the above listed information for the invitations as well.

The time necessary to obtain the visa depends on the country. Please look for the corresponding information on the site of Russian Consular Department in your country. For EU citizens, a typical time for issuing a visa is one to two weeks after you visit the Russian Consulate or a visa center and present the documents including the scanned invitation letter.