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A tracing request should contain full name of the person sought and his/her mother’s name; his/her date (year) and place of birth; the time and place of receipt of his/her last message from abroad (full address is preferable) as well the applicant’s full name and full address (including the postal code) and his/her relationship to the person sought.
It is recommended to indicate the reason for tracing the relative, his/her occupation, and to include a list of family members with their full details.
The applicant’s request should be written in a legible handwriting, signed and dated. Furthermore, the enquirer should indicate whether he/she consents to the tracing information and their personal data being published on the TIC RRC website or in the media.
As for tracing conducted in the territory of the Russian Federation, if the last full address of the person sought in Russia is indicated, the TIC RRC contacts RRC regional branches or departments of Internal Affairs to have this address checked and old local residents/neighbours questioned in order to find out where the missing person went and where he/she may now live. It is important to remember that the current address should be given to the enquirer only with the consent of the person sought in case he/she is found.
Tracing Services of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies do not conduct genealogical searches (the enquirer and the missing person should be acquainted with each other). They do not engage in tracing alimony dodgers, debtors, persons unwilling to maintain contact with their relatives or crime perpetrators, etc.

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The integrity of military graves is established based on official documents, which confirm the date of death and the location of the initial grave site (such as death notifications or certificates of the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence), provided by the enquirer.
After the war, soldiers remains were moved from initial burial sites to specially created Soviet military cemeteries, sites or mass graves. By the time of reburial inscriptions on many graves had been lost, therefore, soldiers were reburied as unidentified, with no surname indicated.
At the request of the Tracing Centre, Tracing Services of some National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with the help of local authorities add surnames of the dead to the lists of soldiers reburied in those cemeteries. Based on the Tracing Centre certificates confirming that the grave has been preserved or the surname of the warrior is included in the list of persons buried at the stated cemetery, the enquirer can obtain a visa at the embassy/consulate in order to visit the grave abroad.
All the costs related to the trip are to be covered by the applicant.
If a request to establish the integrity of graves of warriors buried in the territory of the Russian Federation comes from abroad, the RRC TIC contacts military commissariats of the country, which include, based on an official document, the surname of the soldier in the lists of fallen soldiers buried in the stated location.

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To clarify the fate of relatives who went missing during the war, the Tracing Service contacts the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, the German Red Cross Tracing Service or the Tracing Service of the country where the person went missing.
Prior to this, all the data is checked against the TIC RRC card index of displaced persons.
A tracing request for military personnel who went missing during the Great Patriotic War is sent abroad only if there is official information (certificate from the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence or notification from a military commissariat) confirming the data.

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To receive confirmation of Russian citizens’ being forced labourers or prisoners of concentration camps in Germany during the war, the TIC RRC checks its card index of displaced persons and then contacts the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.
When contacting the Tracing Centre on this matter, is it required to indicate the enquirer’s surname that he/she had in Germany (for women — their surname at birth), the city he/she was taken from and the place where they stayed in Germany, as well as the name of the plant/factory and the surname of the owner they worked for. If the enquirer was a child when he/she was forcibly brought to Germany, it is required to provide full information on his/her parents.

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The checks are conducted on the basis of the Tracing Centre archival materials only (cards index of evacuated persons), no requests to other institutions are filed.
The application form should always contain information on the enquirer requiring the confirmation, his/her address (including the postal code), and information on both parents.
If the enquirer was a child at the time of evacuation and was not evacuated with his/her parents but with other relatives, it is necessary to provide their full names, year and place of birth.
If he/she was evacuated with an orphanage, it is necessary to indicate the place where the orphanage was located and to provide his/her parents’ full names.
The enquirer should sign and date the application form.
It should be noted that all card indexes of the Tracing Centre are arranged by surname in alphabetic order. The Tracing Centre does not have any lists of evacuated persons.
The RRC regional branch should give the enquirer an application form, help fill it in if necessary, and recommend the applicant to contact the TIC RRC directly.

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The checks are conducted on the basis of the Tracing Centre archival materials only (card index of children), no requests to other institutions are filed.
When filing a request, the enquirer should provide his/her full name (the one he/she had when living in the orphanage), year of birth, the place where the orphanage was located, and his/her parents’ full names. This data is required to avoid disclosing information on namesakes.
The Tracing Centre does not have any lists of children whose parents were persecuted for political reasons.
The enquirer should fill in, sign and date the application form.

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Lately, the Tracing Centre has been receiving a lot of requests from children's institutions (orphanages, child care centres, boarding schools) to trace the parents of children living in these institutions, so that these children could receive state allowances and have their social status defined.
This concerns vulnerable families in which one or both of the parents are labour migrants from neighbouring countries. Returning to their countries of origin, they often leave their children at their friends’ or in orphanages.
Sometimes, the parents would separate, one of them returning to his/her country of origin and the other one dying or going to jail shortly after, and the child would be left alone. The child would be cared for by extended family/neighbours or placed in an orphanage. Taking care of such a child requires funding. To determine the child’s social status and decide what happens to him/her next, it is necessary to trace the remaining parent abroad.
If the attempts to find the other parent fail, state allowance is granted to the child.