Myself and a friend (Irish passport holders) purchased, a little too eagerly, flights from Dublin to Minsk via Moscow.
We didn't realise that visa free travel doesn't apply to travelers arriving from Russia.
I'm trying to figure out what we would need to do to travel to Belarus, so far - it looks like we need to get a Belarusian visa and then either two transit visas or a multi-entry Russian visa.
Is this assumption correct? We had planned on arriving in Moscow on a Friday morning and then again on Monday morning, the transit visa is only valid for 3 days so we would need two of them?
My main questions are:
- How can I apply for a Belarusian visa from Ireland?
- Where can I get a letter of invitation, from a hotel?
- Is it possible / better to get two transit visas for Russia or a multiple entry visa? Are you allowed to get a multiple entry visa for the sole purpose of transiting
- What would the approximate cost of all required visas be? It looks like it's around 60 euro for the Belarusian visa + 25 for the short term stay - I can't seem to find out how much a Russian transit visa costs..