Visa to Russia from Sierra Leone

Sierra Leonean passport

Russian tourist visa for Sierra Leonean citizens

If Sierra Leonean citizen wants to visit Russian Federation for a sightseeing, he will need to contact an embassy and apply for a tourist visa. In the Russian embassy he will need to present air tickets, a hotel booking, medical insurance, an invitation letter to Russia and other documents.

Read more: Russian tourist visa for foreigners

In order to obtain tourist invitation letter, you need to make a request to a travel agency, which has its own reference number. It takes only 1 hour to issue an invitation when you make a request to a travel agency. Such invitations issue on travel agencies’ letterheads; it means that different travel agencies have different appearance of the invitation letter. Such invitations consist of a tourist voucher and a tourist invitation confirmation.

In this document must be displayed an information about company issued an invitation and information about invited Sierra Leonean citizen. Also there must be a list of Russian cities, which he wants to visit and necessary number of entries. As far as Sierra Leone is in the List of High Migration Risk countries, so a presence of a tourist invitation does not guarantee an issuance of Russian tourist visa.

If you successfully complete all conditions, Russian tourist visa will be issued for up to 30 days. Tourist visa are for single or double entries.

Order a tourist invitation letter to Russia for Sierra Leonean citizens

Go to Issuing a Tourist Invitation     Price $69.00


Russian private (homestay) visa for Sierra Leonean citizens

Sierra Leonean citizen, who plans to visit his friend or relatives in Russia, needs to obtain a homestay visa in the Russian embassy before the trip. For doing this, a homestay invitation letter needs to be sent to him. An individual or a legal entity can issue and send it.  

If an individual, living in the Russian Federation is going to invite Sierra Leonean citizen, he needs to apply for a homestay invitation letter in the Federal Migration Service section. Besides that, he needs to submit documents, among which must be copies of passports (his and his guest’s) and also an incoming statement and a guarantee letter. In this letter, inviting person commits to provide to a foreigner an accommodation, medical care and livelihood for the whole period of Russian homestay visa duration.

Please note! We do not recommend using a private visa!
Find out why: Why not apply for a private visa?

Read more: Russian Private Visa

If a person living in Russia invites a foreigner and provides a homestay invitation, he must control that his guest will leave a country before his visa expired. If it does not happen, an inviting person will pay for his guest’s deportation. Since Sierra Leone is in the List of High Migration Risk countries, so FMS officers must interview a person inviting Sierra Leonean citizen. A consideration of an application to issue a homestay invitation submitted in FMS takes 30 days according to the law.

If a legal entity wants to invite Sierra Leonean citizen, its representative needs to apply for it in FMS. In this case, it takes 17 days for a consideration.

Homestay invitation letter for a foreigner issues on the state sample letterhead. FMS has a right to refuse an issuance of a homestay invitation in some cases, the refusal is given in a written form with an indication of the reasons. Homestay visa with a presence of homestay invitation issues for up to 90 days. It is for single or double entries.

Order private invitation letter to Russia for Sierra Leonean citizens

Go to Issuing an Invitation


Russian business visa for Sierra Leonean citizens

If Sierra Leonean citizen is going to visit Russia to take part in an auction or to sign a contract, he needs to apply for a business visa in an embassy. In the embassy he must present a business invitation letter to Russia. An organization authorized in the Russian Federation can send him this invitation.

Read more: Russian Business Visa

The business visa invitation letter can be obtained by either of these ways:

Letter from an organization is an application from the head of an organization to the Russian embassy for the business visa issuance to Sierra Leonean citizen. Only those organizations can issue such invitations, which are accredited in the FMS or in the Consular department of the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation. 

In order to issue business invitation on the FMS letterhead, a representative of this organization needs to apply for it in FMS. After that a foreigner will be checked in case to find possible deportations or unpaid fines for the visa regime violation. If they find out, that Sierra Leonean citizen has violated the visa regime before, then an invitation on the state sample letterhead will not be issued. If there are no reasons to refuse the issuance, an invitation will be issued on the protected against forgery FMS letterhead.

Through the special communication channel from the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation to the Russian embassy situated in Sierra Leone, an order to issue a business visa to a certain foreigner can be sent. Such invitation is very convenient because you need to give him only a Telex number.

Read more: What is the difference between Telex and the original invitation

Business visa issues for different periods, which are from 1 day to 1 year. Such visa is for single, double or multiply entries.

Order Russian business invitation to Russia for Sierra Leonean citizens in the form of the letter from an organization

Go to Issuing a Business Invitation

Order Russian business invitation to Russia for Sierra Leonean citizens on the FMS letterhead

Go to Issuing a Business Invitation

Order Russian business invitation to Russia for Sierra Leonean citizens through Telex

Go to Issuing a Business Invitation


Russian work visa for Sierra Leonean citizens

If Sierra Leonean citizen wants to visit Russia to work under an employment contract, he needs to apply for a work visa in the Russian embassy. In order to do it, he needs to preliminary obtain a work invitation letter and Russian work permit. A company authorized in the Russian Federation and interested in this foreign employee can help him to obtain all these documents. It takes about 1,5 months to issue a work permit and a work invitation, after that they will be sent to a foreign employee living in Sierra Leone and he could start a work visa application procedure.

Read more: Russian work visa for foreigners

An advantage of work visas over the other visa types is that its possessors can stay in Russia without leaving country for the whole period of work visa duration. If there is a need to cross the borders of the Russian Federation, work visa possessors can do it without any limits. Usually, work visas issue for 1 year (highly qualified employees can obtain it for 3 years). Work visa can be prolonged every year (it’s unnecessary to leave the Russian federation), under the condition, that an employer remains the same.

Order a Russian work invitation for Sierra Leonean citizens

Go to Issuing an Invitation


Russian Electronic Visa from Sierra Leone

An electronic visa (hereinafter referred to as "e-visa") is a new type of a visa document. A visa invitation to Russia is not required for obtaining an e-visa. To obtain an e-visa to Russia use our “E-visa to Russia” service.

An e-visa can be only single-entry. The permitted stay in Russia on an e-visa is up to 8 days from the date of entry within its validity period.

The validity period and/ or permitted stay on an e-visa cannot be extended. To obtain an e-visa a foreign citizen needs a digital passport photo and a completed application form containing full and valid data at the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Read more: Electronic visa to Russia for foreigners

In compliance with the Russian Government Regulation, Sierra Leone is currently not listed among the foreign states eligible for an e-visa.

We recommend citizens of Sierra Leone obtaining a common tourist visa for a stay up to 30 days.

Get Russian Visa Invitation


Russian consular section in Sierra Leone

Russian diplomatic mission is not available in the Republic of Sierra Leone.

The nearest Russian diplomatic mission is located in the Republic of Guinea.

Actual addresses of Russian embassies in Sierra Leone

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Tourist Visa - e.g.: tourism, sightseeing;
  • Business Visa - e.g.: conferences, business negotiations;
  • E-Visa - e.g.: short-term visits;
  • Work Visa - e.g.: employment in a Russian company;
  • Private Visa - e.g.: visiting friends in Russia (though a tourist visa is cheaper and more effecient??).

To obtain a Russian visa you need:

  1. Fill in our online order form and get a Visa invitation to Russia
  2. Refer to our Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Russian Visa Application, use your personal data and information from the Invitation to Russia
Yes, they do. In order to have a possibility to cross the borders of the Russian Federation, Sierra Leonean citizen needs to apply for Russian visa.
In order to obtain tourist invitation letter, you need to make a request to a travel agency, which has its own reference number.
If you successfully complete all conditions, Russian tourist visa will be issued for up to 30 days.