Russian Visa question

I have a slightly different visa question. We are US citizens traveling on a baltic cruise in June on RCL and will stop in St Petersburg for 2 days. We are planning to do a private tour with one of the companies mentioned by so many on this site - SPB, Alla, etc. I know that we do not require a travel visa to do this from all my reading. But here is the twist. My children (who are both under 18) will be coming with us on the cruise and both were adopted from Russia. As such, they have dual citizenship for the US and Russia until they are 18 years old. We are planning to only travel with their US passports (as they are full fledged US citizens) but i didn't know if we will have any issues going thru immigration for an approved tour - with someone telling us that the kids cannot go ashore unless they have their Russian passports. Has anyone ever brought their child on a cruise and had a similar situation? I'm someone has experience with this as are thousands and thousands of kids who have been adopted from Russia and many of us want to take them back to see their birth country. Looking forward to any insight!

There was some one who posed that same exact question maybe a year or so ago. I'm sorry but I don't remember the answers. Maybe some one else does.

 

If not I would first contact the tour operator and ask them. I think they would know exactly what you need or don't need. If that doesn't satisfy you, try contacting the American embassy service and ask them.

 

Again, maybe one of the regulars here can remember back to that question and hopefully get you an answer.

 

Cheers

 

Len

I would think that if they board the ship as U.S. citizens that's what they remain for the duration of the cruise. However, definitely enquire of your tour operator what they recommend.

Many countries require their citizens to enter and leave the country on the passport of that country, with the US being no exception. I would check with the Russian embassy and bring their Russian passports along just in case. The Russian place of birth and first names on their American passports will tell authorities in in Russia that the kids potentially have dual citizenship.

 

Our kids have dual German and American citizenship and since the US requires them to enter on an American passport, we have to make the trek to the American consulate every five years to get their passports renewed. Germany requires them to use their German passport, so when travelling to the US, we always bring both sets of passports along.

I would think that if they board the ship as U.S. citizens that's what they remain for the duration of the cruise.

This is absolutely incorrect. If the children are still Russian citizens, they will remain Russian citizens regardless of what passport is used to board the ship. And Russian citizenship and immigration laws will therefore have to be complied with.

 

Some countries impose stiff penalties if a citizen enters the country using a foreign passport, even if they are a dual national. To add to the list of countries that require entry on their own passports, Australia and South Africa are two more that I know of; and I know people who (through ignorance) have fallen foul of those countries' laws on this by entering on a foreign passport.

This is a good example of where cruise critics vast experience can't answer legal issues. Check with your consulate!

OP, we adopted our daughter in Russia several years ago. Her original Russian passport has not yet expired, and she, of course, has a US passport. We were planning on a cruise visit to SPB this summer, so I had the same questions you have. If you do a search on Cruise Critic, you'll find a thread by a family with three adopted children who visited a SPB orphanage as part of their private tour visit a couple of years ago. Because they entered Russia with their US citizen parents under a private tour's blanket visa, they only needed to show their US passports at the Immigration desk in SPB. From what the family later posted, that is exactly what happened. No one asked for the children's Russian passports.

 

I also asked TJ Travel about this question and was told that my daughter would enter SPB with the rest of our family on the same blanket visa voucher, and that we only need to furnish her US passport information. Thus, if there were an issue in SPB, she would have entered as a US citizen and could have therefore been under the protection of the US Embassy/SPB Consulate.

 

This whole situation -- a blanket visa on a cruise visit -- seems to be quite different from the advice we've all received about our children being required to enter Russia (by air) on their Russian passports.

 

Because of what happened in Crimea (we visited Yalta last summer) and is still happening in Eastern Ukraine (have friends in Odessa, a wonderful city), we decided against visiting SPB this summer. I won't get into the politics of it, only want to share what we found out about dual citizen children visiting SPB while on a cruise.