Hello , I'm looking at travelling to Saint Petersburg and i am on the SOR in the UK. I've travelled to Spain and Egypt with No real problem in the past, egypt just filling in the immigration slip for the visa stamp on arrival.  I understand that i will need a Visa to allow me to travel to Russia but I'm concerned of being turned away when arriving. I have to tell my PPO  about any travel abroad which is no problem but I'mconcerned about this Interpol Green notice. I would also like to travel to Tashkent in Uzbekistan . Could anyone please help, assist or advise me on any info. I would be very Grateful. Thanks

I have been to a few far-off countries while notifying on the SOR and had no problems. But none of the countries I went to required a visa (or if so, only an e-visa done online, not going to an embassy or sending documents etc.).

As you've alluded to, it depends whether your PPO will issue a Green Notice. Unfortunately there is no way to find this out; they will not tell you.

But if you've been to Egypt with no problems, it must mean:

- Your PPO did not put an Interpol Green Notice on you (hopefully this option!); or
- The Egyptian IT systems were insufficient and didn't pick it up; or
- The Egyptians only visually looked at your passport, rather than scanning it and checking for alerts

As an aside, by notifying to travel to non-EU, non-Schengen countries, you are effectively telling your PPO that you will be lying to the immigration authorities of those countries by ticking "no" to any questions about convictions (as you will undoubtedly be denied entry if you tell them about sex offence convictions). I was economical with the truth on the forms for the countries I visited; my PPO was clearly aware of this and looked the other way, but it depends on your relationship with the PPO.

Hi , I'm looking at travelling to Saint Petersburg and i am on the UK SOR . Offence happened 12 years ago. I have travelled to European countries and Egypt many times with no problem.
I have to notify my PPO when and where I'm travelling to.
I understand that i have to have a Visa to travel to Russia but am concerned they will turn me away or ask questions on arrival. I'm aware of the Interpol Green notice but don't know how it works.  
I am also looking at travelling to Tashkent in Uzbekistan at some point but believe they now have the tourist immigration cards in place for visitors.
Could anyone give me correct information or advice for travelling to Russia as a UK SOR. 
Many thanks.

Thank you Ben. So the Question asked about criminal convictions would be come up on the visa form then , correct ?
I've only filled in the immigration cards when travelling to Egypt and have been many times through security without no problem.  I have a good relationship with  my PPO , i am no problem for them here ( at least i think the relationship is ok.) They've never had No problem with me. I just wondered how it would work travelling to Saint Petersburg  but thanks for your reply.

I've never been to Russia, so I don't know what questions are on the form. But in most of these forms there seems to a question about arrests/convictions. Non-EU and non-Schengen countries won't see anything when they scan your passport, unless your PPO has issued an Interpol Green Notice or you're on some international terror watchlist or something..

Ok, so basically when filling in the visa forms, disclosing my past convictions would give the Russian Authorities to Deny me access.
And also hoping that my PPO will not issue the green notice. Doesn’t sound promising either way. Really frustrating as my offence was over 12 years ago but Oh well. Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. 👍

Ignore the advice much higher in this thread from Mirrorman, he has no idea what he's talking about. For a green notice to be issued, you PPO has to have assessed the risk of committing an offence abroad as likely, and he needs to both tell you this fact before you go, and tell the NCA to issue the notice. If he tells you he is going to do it, don't travel yet, get a lawyer to pressure him to explain his reasoning. Unless your original offence relates to going abroad to fiddle with kids then they are not going to issue such a notice at all.

That explains the theory very well. In practice, it's very different. If you're prepared to engage a solicitor to scrutinise everything PPU does in your case, then good luck if you have the money. Otherwise, they will say that they don't have to tell you whether they're issuing a green notice, as they probably aren't the ones doing it, and they'll hide behind the standard get out of "prevention and detection of crime". Some forces are better/more pragmatic than others. Yes, a Green Notice, according to Interpol, is issued to warn a country that someone is travelling there with the intention of offending. Perhaps someone should make sure that every police force in the country, and the Home Office, is aware of that and will actually take that into account.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi Trev@ok

We're just in the process of putting together some information on travelling to Russia - I'll let forum members know when it goes live. However, to clarify, the question on the visa form asks:

“Have you ever been arrested or convicted for any offence?”  - [If ‘Yes’ please describe all the facts about the arrest/conviction]

Answering ‘Yes’ wouldn’t automatically mean that your visa would be refused but it’s likely that you’d have to attend an interview at the consulate. Like the US Embassy, the Russian Consulate give little guidance as to who will be given a visa and who won’t, they deal with each application on a case by case basis (hopefully we'll find more information during the course of our research).

Good luck.

Debs


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Don't give advice here you're clearly not qualified to give. Almost all of the posts you make here are highly misleading.