Quote:
Originally Posted by Przemolog
Russia and the rest of the former USSR until visa introduction in 2003 (however, it was always easy to skip invitation requirements by buying "never-to-be-used hotel vouchers"  ) |
Oh, these vouchers...
The same thing needed to enter Poland till 2003 for Russian citizens, which in fact meant free entry state because you could buy such a voucher almost everywhere on your way (on railway stations, in a train going to Poland from some merchants etc.). Now it's not that easy, currently it is the worst period for exUSSR people travelling to West from time to time, because East Europe has not joined Schengen area still (by the way, when will these countries join it?), so for example it's not enough to have just a German visa in a Russian passport to cross Baltic states going there. Poland allowed such visa free transit since 90s and keeps it valid, Latvia allowed it since 1st December 2006, Hungary and Czech Republic did it since 1st September, but some other new EU members has not allowed it yet. Currently, if I have a Lithuanian visa I may enter Poland and then go to Lithuania, but I can't do the opposite route with Polish visa in my passport. If I need to go to Istanbul by a train, I have to get both Romanian and Bulgarian transit visas, which is crazy and not that easy since Turks used to put their visa at their border... and so on.
Most of Russians are set behind iron curtain from the West again, because it's close to impossible to go 2000-3000 km to a nearest embassy just to fill up an application form and then make this way again just to get visa in their own hands.
Thanks a lot for the detailed explaination of what you had in Poland till 90s with abroad travels and regulations. Honestly, I didn't know that socialistic countries except of USSR had a sort of their own free travel area, so it was easy to cross from Poland to GDR, for example. Did they put those restrictions back in 80s right after Wojciech Jaruzelski proclamed state of war?
On the contrary, USSR was generally closed from any country around, I mean you had to had some significant reasons to visit another country (even 'socialistic' one), which could be some things from military service to diplomatic work. Private visits were quite difficult, which was the essence of that iron curtain. :-/ 'Foreign' passports were also stored at authorities while you at home (however, AFAIR it was allowed to keep them at home since late Gorbatchev but people still needed exit visa every time they go abroad), I'm not sure if they were single or multiple use, it didn't really matter since you had to obtain it back for any visit you plan. Now Russians still have both 'internal' (all the people) and 'foreign' (those who applied for it and had no preventing reasons such as sues or valid top secret access) passports, but no exit visas needed since 1993 or may be earlier. On the contrary, some exUSSR republics use the only passport valid both for home and abroad, carrying just a 'foreign usage allowed' mark.