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Hello everyone, glad to be here. So here's my deal:

I'm a 23 year-old student in Boston, finishing university in June. I'd like to go over to Russia once school is over, in order to (surprise!) improve my Russian. It seems like teaching is the way to go, especially since I enjoy a semi-subsistence lifestyle, meaning that as long as I have books and alcohol, I'm a fairly happy camper.

In terms of qualifications, I don't have many. Bachelor's in computer science is about it, no prior teaching experience. I speak, read, and write fairly well in Russian, I started teaching it to myself 2 years ago during time off from school, and then took the third-year courses in Russian at school this year.

So given all that, here are my questions:

1. Where. St. Petersburg looks interesting, Moscow too huge. It seems that dayice managed to find work very quickly recently going to Novosibirsk. Any recommendations?

2. Timeframe. I may be in striking distance of St. Petes in July this summer. Would it make sense to just try and find work at that point and stay there, or would it be smarter/easier to scout things out, look around for work, and set something up for August or September?

3. What do I need to do to get permission to work in the country? I've seen things on the forum involving printing up letters from companies, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on.

So that's what I've got, I'd really appreciate ideas as to how to proceed from here.
--Tim

Hi,
Well, the easiest way of coming to work in Russia is to try to find a job before you arrive. That way your school will arrange the necessary paperwork nad they will advise you how to go about getting your visa.

On the other hand, coming to St. Petersburg is also a good idea because you can check out the schools in person and then make your decision. you can;t work on a tourist visa, but then again, its not too far to go to Riga or Tallinn to get a working visa.

good luck with the Russian

Hello, sorry for not getting back to this earlier - been on a wee trip to Scotland and haven't had much chance to keep up with the site.

On to your questions:

tman755 wrote:

1. Where. St. Petersburg looks interesting, Moscow too huge. It seems that dayice managed to find work very quickly recently going to Novosibirsk. Any recommendations?

tman755 wrote:

2. Timeframe. I may be in striking distance of St. Petes in July this summer. Would it make sense to just try and find work at that point and stay there, or would it be smarter/easier to scout things out, look around for work, and set something up for August or September?

tman755 wrote:

3. What do I need to do to get permission to work in the country? I've seen things on the forum involving printing up letters from companies, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on.

Has anyone on here gone the route of going to a smaller town and teaching? After looking into things more, it seems like that might be the best way to go, given that I want to be forced to use Russian a lot when I'm not on the job.

Are there any particular places or schools that people know of along those lines?

Thanks for the help so far,
Tim

Yes, virtually anywhere out of the 'main' cities will force you into speaking Russian (the alternative may be starvation )

Look up Digdug's and The Horseman's posts on Oktyabrsky, get in touch with Digdug (Anna) - she's tremendously helpful. Will the Cowboy is also on good terms with the school and is also keen to help people get out there.

I point out these guys because they both gave Oktyabrsky big thumbs-ups for both the school and the city being safe and friendly.

Cool, thanks for the help bobs, I've now read through some of what those two have written about Oktyabrsky, that might be along the lines of what I'm looking for, so I PM'd them. I'll keep exploring in any case.

Couple more questions:

Visa. I read the very helpful thread you guys had here
http://esl.visarus.co.uk/in/RU/Russia/forum/viewtopic/40.asp
and now I'm just going to try and regurgitate what I've read in my own words and see if I've understood...

To get a multi-entry, 12-month business visa, I need a letter of invitation. I can either make one of these letters up myself (I have my own business registered in the States, so that might be an option), get a letter from a school, or pay an agency that does visas to also write me a letter.

Then, I go through a travel service of some kind or a consulate, and obtain the business visa.

Once I have that, I can enter the country, although I'll need to register my visa periodically. Not exactly sure what this step means and what its purpose is, help me out here.

I'll also need to leave the country every couple months, to make it appear when I re-register my visa every so often that I am actually there on business, coming, going, and so forth.

How close am I in my summary?


Next question is accomodation. If I just show up in St. Pete's and want to look for work there, how cheaply could I find a place to stay while I look for work and an apartment? I wouldn't want to burn through too much money in that time.


And then qualifications/presentation. Is it worth taking any sort of course in TEFL before coming over, or is that fairly worthless? Also, in terms of academic qualifications, do any university names carry weight over there? I go to Harvard, and in some parts of the world (Asia in particular) that seems to be a big deal, in others not so much. Not trying to be a prick, just curious as to how to sell myself in Russia.

Thanks for all the help so far, it's fun getting serious about making the move.
--Tim G.

tman755 wrote:

Once I have that, I can enter the country, although I'll need to register my visa periodically. Not exactly sure what this step means and what its purpose is, help me out here.

tman755 wrote:

I'll also need to leave the country every couple months, to make it appear when I re-register my visa every so often that I am actually there on business, coming, going, and so forth.

tman755 wrote:

How close am I in my summary?

tman755 wrote:

Next question is accomodation. If I just show up in St. Pete's and want to look for work there, how cheaply could I find a place to stay while I look for work and an apartment?

tman755 wrote:

I wouldn't want to burn through too much money in that time.

tman755 wrote:

And then qualifications/presentation. Is it worth taking any sort of course in TEFL before coming over, or is that fairly worthless?

tman755 wrote:

Also, in terms of academic qualifications, do any university names carry weight over there? I go to Harvard, and in some parts of the world (Asia in particular) that seems to be a big deal, in others not so much. Not trying to be a prick, just curious as to how to sell myself in Russia.

Ahh...I'm in a hurry here, but I saw something about writing your own invitation.

The invitation itself must come from a Russian entity--but even companies often go through a travel agent to obtain this invitation. That must be applied for by an agency/company that is registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There are only a certain number of those...others will actually get their invites done by those agencies and find a way to profit.

Anyway, you can write your own cover letter (which could be from your own business), but not the official invitation itself. (And sometimes you need a copy upon entry or at other times during your stay--although I haven't.)