Information for hotels

Check-in and registration of a Russian citizen

To check into a hotel, a Russian must provide one of the documents: a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, a birth certificate (up to 14 years of age), a foreign passport, a temporary identity card or a passport of a citizen of the USSR (valid) (clause 18 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 18, 2020 No. 1853).
Accordingly, the hotel does not have the right to conclude an agreement and accommodate a guest using a driver’s or service license, a library or student card, or any document with a photograph. However, it is possible to register a citizen of the Russian Federation solely on the basis of four documents - for more details, see paragraph 5 of the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 17, 1995 No. 713, as amended. from 05/25/2017. There is no temporary identity card in the specified Resolution, and it is impossible to send registration data with this type of document electronically.

To register a Russian guest, you must fill out a form (Appendix 10 to Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation dated December 31, 2017 No. 984). If you work “on paper”, then the form must be filled out in two copies, one copy must be taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs within 24 hours, and the second must be kept at home. The new order does not approve the storage period for questionnaires, but many work by analogy with the rules for registering foreigners and store questionnaires for a year.

You can also “communicate” with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in electronic format. If you connect to the Kontur.Hotel service, you will send the form to the Ministry of Internal Affairs electronically via the Internet - at a convenient time, without queues and transportation costs. The form will also be saved on the server, and you can print it or download guest data in Excel format to your computer at any time. When all the information about the guests is clearly presented in front of you, you can easily analyze the hotel’s attendance based on various parameters: who your guests are, what country or city they come from, what hours. And as a result, make the living conditions as comfortable as possible for your main guests, changing the check-in or check-out time, introducing special services, etc.

Preparing a questionnaire in the Kontur.Hotel service

Exception when registering citizens of the Russian Federation

In accordance with Art. 5 of the Law of the Russian Federation of June 25, 1993 No. 5242-1, a hotel may not register a Russian citizen if he is registered at the place of residence or at the place of stay in a residential premises, which is located in the same subject of the Russian Federation as the hotel. For example, a hotel in Samara does not need to register residents of Togliatti or Syzran with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, because all cities belong to the Samara region. But if a Russian citizen with “local registration” lives in a hotel for more than 90 days, then he must be registered.

The following subjects are considered as one region:

Moscow and Moscow region,
St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.

But Sevastopol and Crimea are not.

Normative base

There is no law that would be developed separately for the issue of temporary registration.

Registration of people at their place of stay is carried out based on the laws and regulations of the Russian Federation:

Civil Code;
Law number 5242 of June 25, 1993 is considered the main document;
Government Decree number 713 dated July 17, 1995;
Order of the FMS number 208 dated September 20, 2007.

All these documents contain information: about the approval of the rules for registration and deregistration, the right of citizens of the state to freedom of movement, the right to choose a place of residence and stay on the territory of the Russian Federation, administrative regulations for the provision of services by the Federal Migration Service on issues of all types of registration.

Sample application for temporary registration

Check-in and registration of a foreigner

If your guest is a foreigner, then he must be registered within the working day following the day of arrival. And it doesn’t matter whether the foreign guest already has registration in another place or not. The following documents are required for check-in and registration:

a valid passport of a foreign citizen (in exceptional cases there may be a different document);
migration card (sometimes missing);
visa (also not always available, as there may be an agreement on visa-free travel);
additional documents.

Also, do not forget that a foreigner must be deregistered before 12 noon the next day after the day of departure. When the time to register and deregister is so limited, it makes sense to switch to electronic document management with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In this case, you do not risk being late and getting a fine, because with the help of Kontur.Hotel, completed notifications are sent to the department via the Internet instantly.

In addition, you will not have to enter the same information about the guest twice: at the time of his accommodation and then when preparing a report for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Kontur.Hotel itself will insert into the notification the necessary data that you entered into the service earlier.

To learn more

Rules for registering foreigners

Registration of foreigners who arrived in the Russian Federation is their responsibility, regardless of the purpose of the visit. Russian laws establish that foreign guests must obtain temporary registration within seven days from the moment of their arrival in the country. If a foreigner comes for a shorter period, there is no need for registration.

In addition, the following categories of foreign citizens are exempt from the need to register for migration:

Travelers who travel through the territory of the Russian Federation in transit.
Highly qualified specialists, as well as members of their families.
Crew members of any civilian ship, if they will reside in the country for no more than a day, as well as military ships that arrived in Russia on a state visit.
Staff of buses, trains and airline crews, provided that they do not leave the territory of the station or airport.

The period for which registration is made is limited by the validity of the visa. That is, it can be less, but never more. If a foreign citizen has been issued a work permit, he can register for 12 months.

On July 8, 2021, Federal Law No. 163 of June 27, 2018 came into force, which amended the existing law on migration registration of foreign citizens.

Foreigners are now prohibited from registering at their work address, unless the place of employment is their place of actual residence. The definition of “receiving party” has also been clarified.

You can learn more about changes in legislation and download Federal Law No. 163 here.

Registration: new rules. We recommend watching it.

Special treatment is also given to highly qualified specialists: if there is a need for their services, they can register for 3 years.

Most foreign guests must register with the GUVM within 7 days; for citizens of some countries, other deadlines are established.

Thus, citizens of Tajikistan can register after 15 days, and citizens of Armenia and Belarus have the opportunity to remain without registration for a whole month.

As a rule, guest registration of a foreigner is the responsibility of the receiving party. The exception is cases when the receiving party is unable to register the guest for good reasons, and also if he has his own home in Russia.

If a migrant has his own home in the Russian Federation, he can also apply for permanent registration. To do this, he will have to contact the Federal Migration Service personally. You will need to take with you an identity card, a document proving ownership of real estate and a migration card. If the housing is rented, the situation is different: the host will be the landlord, and it is he who must register the guest.

Sample of filling out a migration card of the Russian Federation

If a foreign citizen is dissatisfied with the work of government bodies of the Russian Federation and believes that his rights have been violated, an appeal against such acts or inaction must be considered within 15 days. Previously, 30 days were allotted for this.

Let’s take a closer look at the documents of a foreign guest

Passport

Most often, foreigners come with a foreign passport. But citizens of some countries, for example Ukraine, Kazakhstan, can come to the Russian Federation with an internal passport (card). This depends on the mutual travel agreement that Russia enters into with each country, which lists all types of documents under which citizens of the two countries can travel.

Also, a foreigner without a passport, but with a certificate of temporary asylum or a refugee certificate, can check into the hotel. His passport is kept by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he still has a document issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in his hands.

There are people who have no citizenship at all - the so-called stateless persons (LSP). They will have in their hands a temporary residence permit for LBG or a residence permit for LBG - and these documents prove their identity.

Migration card

This is the second document that is required for migration registration. Temporarily staying foreign citizens must have a migration card. However, there are exceptions here too.

In accordance with the agreement on mutual trips, the following can come to the Russian Federation without a migration card:

heads of state;
members of government delegations;
members of committees, international organizations;
diplomats;
airplane and train crews.

Citizens of Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan can also come without a migration card for up to 30 days using a foreign passport.

Citizens of Belarus do not receive migration cards at all.

Foreigners with the status of temporary residents and permanent residents in the Russian Federation or Belarus, that is, with a temporary residence permit (TRP) and a residence permit (RP), are not required to receive, keep and present a migration card.

In addition, there are agreements on border areas and short-term trips of citizens who live near the border. These persons can also come to the Russian Federation without a migration card, but only to the border region.

Visa

Now let's look at visas. Foreigners from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and South Ossetia can come and then extend their stay in the Russian Federation without a visa. All other countries require visa entry. But Russia is concluding agreements with various countries on short-term visa-free trips. That is, a foreigner can come to the Russian Federation without a visa, for example, for three months, but for a longer period he will need a visa. Information about agreements and short-term visa-free trips can be found on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.

The APEC business card replaces the visa. If a guest arrives at your hotel with such a card, on the back of which there is an o, issue migration registration for him without a visa, but be sure to attach a copy of this card to the documents.

Foreigners will also be able to come to the European Football Championship in 2021 without a visa (Clause 10 of Federal Law No. 100-FZ dated May 1, 2019). The visa-free period will begin 14 days before the first UEFA Euro 2021 match in St. Petersburg and end on the day of the last game. At this time, foreign fans will be able to enter Russia using a fan passport (Fan ID). Foreigners and stateless persons can leave without a visa within ten days after the date of the last match.

How to avoid fines

By timely and correctly registering guests at the hotel, you will avoid significant sanctions. For errors when registering a foreigner, a legal entity faces a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles (Article 18.9 Part 4 of the Administrative Code). For violations when registering a Russian citizen - up to 750 thousand rubles; for Moscow and St. Petersburg the amount varies from 300 to 800 thousand rubles (Articles 19.15.1 and 19.15.2 of the Administrative Code).

To follow the registration and migration rules without errors, use the Kontur.Hotel service as your assistant. It makes it easy to generate the necessary documents for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and submit them on time. Notifications of the arrival of foreign citizens and questionnaires for citizens of the Russian Federation are sent via the Internet in a few seconds, and hotel employees do not need to visit department branches.

Kontur.Hotel is everything a modern hotel needs.
Managing the number of rooms, receiving reservations via the Internet and reporting to the Ministry of Internal Affairs within one window. Try for free

How to check in at a hotel

The law specifies that Russian citizens staying in guest rooms must be registered at their place of temporary stay. All guests, without exception, both Russian citizens and foreigners, are subject to the registration procedure. The settlement rules are determined by Resolution No. 713 of the Russian Government.

General rules for hotel registration:

Guests arriving at a hotel (hotel, holiday home, camp site, hostel) present personally identification documents. Absentee check-in is not possible.
Fill out the guest questionnaire by hand (2 copies).

Some copies of the questionnaires with a note from the duty administrator remain in the file cabinet of those staying at the hotel, and after the visit of the citizen, they are transferred to the archive for storage for 1 year. Other copies of the papers filled out by the guest are sent to the departments of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation within the next one day. Responsible for conducting timely and mandatory registration of guests are hotel officials appointed by the management.

When checking into a guest room without the above documents (passport) and staying without registering or filling out a form, the citizen will be fined from 2,000 rubles to 3,000 rubles.

This is interesting: Is it possible to contact the MFC to get discharged and register at a place other than your permanent residence?

For failure to comply with the rules of registration at the place of stay in a hotel (hotel), officials also bear administrative responsibility and are subject to collection in the form of an administrative fine in the amount of 2,000 to 2,500 thousand rubles. and may even lose their license for hotel activities. Therefore, administrators must require identification documents for the guest.