Personal web office

Second Summit
Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum

Entry to Russia for foreign participants

Documents required at the border Visa validity periods Applying for a visa

Documents required at the border

To avoid encountering any problems when crossing the border, all foreign participants arriving from abroad are required to bring the following documents with them.

If you require a visa to enter the Russian Federation

  • ✓ invitation for foreign arrivals

    ! Please note that this is not an invitation to the Forum, but a separate document from the Forum organizers.

  • ✓ valid foreign passport and visa

  • ✓ medical insurance policy that is valid in Russia

If you do not require a visa to enter the Russian Federation

  • ✓ valid foreign passport

  • ✓ medical insurance policy that is valid in Russia

Participants are not required to present a PCR test result for entry to Russia.

Visa validity periods

After submitting all the required documents, Forum participants can obtain a short-term, single-entry Russian visa for the period from 18 July to 6 August at foreign consular offices of the Russian Federation on the day of their application.

Applying for a visa

Visa = invitation for foreign arrivals + list of documents

1 Generate an invitation for foreign arrivals

An invitation for foreign arrivals is not an invitation to the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, but a separate document from the Forum organizers.

  1. All confirmed participants will receive an official invitation to the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum by email.
  2. After receiving the invitation, log in to your Roscongress personal account using your personal login and password.
  3. Confirm your attendance at the Forum.
  4. Go to the ‘My events – Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum – Event dashboard – Visa support’ tab of the Roscongress personal account.
  5. Your personal information will be automatically uploaded from the Roscongress personal account to the document. You can manually add the city and country where you will be applying for your visa.
  6. Download and print the invitation for foreign arrivals.
  7. Provide your Russian consular office with the invitation for foreign arrivals and the other required visa documents.

    8. If you have found any errors in your personal data in the application for participation, you can contact a Roscongress Foundation specialist to make changes to the personal data.


2 Submit an application at a consular office

To receive a visa for entry into Russia, individuals in possession of an invitation must apply at the relevant foreign consular office of the Russian Federation. Information about the location of Russian consular offices can be found on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

We recommend that participants apply at their Russian consular office in good time, and at least 2 (two) weeks before their departure.

Participants are advised not to apply for entry visas at intermediary visa centres or travel agencies, which are not authorized to issue official visas.

Please make sure to bring the following documents with you when attending your consular office:

  1. A printed invitation for foreign arrivals. The document must be generated in the Roscongress personal account;
  2. A valid travel document recognized by the Russian Federation (an ordinary, official or diplomatic passport or a United Nations laissez-passer). The passport must have at least two blank pages and be valid for at least six months after the requested visa expiration date;
  3. A completed and printed visa application form. The form must be filled out in advance on the visa website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.  When completing the form, members of official delegations, business representatives and persons accompanying them should select ‘official visit’ as the purpose of their trip, while journalists should select ‘press/correspondent’ or ‘press/technical’;
  4. One 35 x 45 mm photo. (colour or black and white). The photograph must be with a clear front view of the participant’s face, without tinted glasses or headgear (with the exception of foreign citizens who are required to wear headgear with respect to their nationality or religion, and provided that they are wearing headgear in their passport photo). The photograph must have been taken no earlier than six months before the date of application;
  5. A medical insurance policy that is valid in Russia.

“We highly value the results of our joint work at the summit. I am sure the achieved results are creating a good foundation for further deepening the Russia-Africa partnership in the interests of our nations’ prosperity and wellbeing.”

President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Putin

The Russia–Africa Summit, which is taking place in Sochi on 23–24 October 2019, encapsulates the historically friendly relations between the African continent and the Russian Federation. This Summit carries great significance as it is the first of its kind to emerge during a period of major global and international transformations. In response to the aspirations of the people it is representing, the Summit intends to build a comprehensive framework for expanding Russian–African relations into broader horizons of joint cooperation across different fields.

The African nations and Russia share a common understanding of international relations, based on the principles of respect for the rule of international law, equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and the peaceful resolution of disputes. Both sides affirm their commitment to support multilateral actions to oppose new international threats, be they terrorism and extremism in all their forms, or declining growth rates. The two sides share a firm conviction regarding the importance of developing trade flows and supporting mutual investment in such a way as to ensure security, peace and development for the African and Russian people.

African countries have huge potential and opportunities that will allow them, once efforts to streamline their economies have been achieved, to emerge as real global players. In recent years, the nations of this continent have achieved major successes spanning the political, economic, social and administrative spheres. Africa has flourished in terms of growth over the past decade, reaching a continent-wide growth rate of 3.55% in 2018.

The African Union Summit, which was held in Niger in July 2019, continued the efforts of the African countries and saw the African Continental Free Trade Agreement come into force, along with its operational instruments. The agreement is one of the key objectives of Agenda 2063, an African development strategy that has been created to address the African people’s desire for prosperity and decent living standards.

These successes are opening up wide-ranging prospects for cooperation between African countries and the Russian Federation, and confirm the determination of African governments and their people to cooperate with multiple partners in order to establish mutually beneficial relations.

With this in mind, we express our hopes that the Russia–Africa Summit will help in the establishment of constructive strategic relations, based on partnership between two sides across various fields, and in the service of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the African people and their friends in Russia.

President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Abdelfattah ALSISI