Ukrainian & Belarusian VISA info pls??
 

Hi All,
Can anybody give me updated information regarding visas etc for border crossing from Moldova to Ukraine. I did do a search but am struggling to get updated posts on the current situation for EU passport holders.

In July we will ride to Chisinau in Moldova and then towards Odessa (keeping south of Transnistria) and northward then to Kiev and on to Belarus. Some questions...

1. Can I get a Ukranian visa at or before the border or is it better to apply to a Ukrainian embassy before we begin our trip?
2. If from the Embassy then how simple might it be to get invitation form a local - is it much paperwork for them?
3. Can I ask question 1 and 2 again in relation to Belarus?
4. Any other help tips or advice appreciated

bier
Declan

there is no requirement for a visa for Uktaine, they will do everything at the border. I haven't done this particular crossing but I have crossed from belarus and also from poland and this has been the situation then. will be crossing from Romania in june and believe non is needed still. Belarus has tighntened up a bit recently. my wife is from there and I have travelled there on about 6 occasions. I have always used avisa agent in southsea hampshire for my visa as they organised letters of invitation. you cannot get a belorusan visa at the border.

Thanks Moggy 1968,
That info is useful. I think i might PM you...

Declan

Ukraine
 

Hi, crossed from Romania into Moldova into Ukraine in 2009. I was worried about these borders because of bad reports here and elsewhere but had absolutely no problems and they were fairly quick. for UK residents a visa is not required. Beware of the many speed traps in the Ukraine, we kept our speed low and never got pulled but met 2 Poles that got stopped and fined 5 times in 2 days. Enjoy ur trip. Andy

Thanks Andysr6,
I hope the visa requirements are the same for us Irish as for ye guys. Thanks for the info...
Declan

It's my understanding that some areas of Belarus are still polluted with radioactivity from the nuclear disaster of 1986 in Chernobyl and radioactive food was found out while for sale, but I don't know if there's a real danger for a short stay like yours...

Thanks for that, I've been a number of times to Belarus and I usually eat all the local foods etc. I was told not to eat mushrooms from the forest but all elso ok.

Declan

the locals still eat the mushrooms, but I wouldn't reccommend it. genrally no risk on a trip of this type. you would probably get more radiation afterliving in a stone cottage in cornwall all your life! the risk is from prolonged exposure.

here is the advice I posted on the chernobyl challenge 2011 forum re getting pulled by the rozzers.

during soviet times these were very nasty people indeed, and people like that don't change just because someone knocked a bit of wall down. I know, I've been stopped in Russia, Poland, Germany and Belarus, so most of the countries we'll be going through. the only reason I haven't been arrested in Romania is 'cos I've never been there!!
the drill is this
do not get the translator involved! as soon as they know someone speaks the lingo your at a disadvantage. play the stupid tourist and your in with a chance.
you will be expected to pay a fine. this may start at 50e, maybe more. DON'T pay it!pleade poverty, insanity, a large group of hungry children, any thing but don't pay. make excuses about why you have transgressed, however stupid they may seem (I was tried claiming I thought the speed limit was in miles an hour not kmh, and got off!). when the time seems right, start negotiating. start with the lowest value note you have in your emergency stash. this is a stash of not more than 20e kept seperate from your main money (if you fetch out a wad of euros it's gonna cost you). about 20 euro is the max you should pay unless things are getting really nasty.
remember, they will get bored too.
using these tactics in many countries I have got off a lot more often than I have paid. remember 50e is a weeks wages to these guys so is a ridiculous amount to pay. we are not a gravy train! paying too much makes for an expensive trip and makes life a lot harder for those that follow us.

Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus
 

Hello Declan,

we have been to Ukraine and Moldova in 2009 (2 entries each). Everything was fine, although we have met police, that wanted some money from us (UA only). But in general we had only good experiences with people, the ukrainians perhaps are a little bit more reserved, than people in Moldova or Romania. All travellers, that we spoke to, who have been there in 2010, didn't have any problems.

We plan to go to Moldova in next April, and in July we probably go to Belarus. We only use visa agents, because it is easy, and they know how to do it.

At the moment we almost have started our researches on Belarus, but if you are interested in exchanging some infos/plans about Belarus, that would be great. We will not only go for transit, I think we plan something like 7-8 days for Belarus.

Marc

Hi Marc,
Thanks for that! We plan to stay about 10 days in Belarus from mid July. Our route is here and we plan several stops in Belarus-mostly in the Brest Region. I have been to Belarus many times before but mostly by aircraft rather than road.

Declan

Belarus Visa
 

Hi Declan,

at the moment we try to get visa for belarus. We have two possibilities: Book all nights in hotels in advance to get a tourist visa, OR have a private address of someone to get a private travel visa.

Because we don't want to book everythings in advance, we are looking for a private belarussian address. We don't have this at this moment.

How are your conditions to get a visa for Belarus? How do you manage this?

Kind regards,
Marc

I drove from the UK to the Chernobyl infected region of Belarus a couple of summers ago, it is a fascinating region.

This is a link to my trip report:

Desolation Travel: Dead Lands of Belarus: Travels Along A Desolate Border by Ben Rich

There are agencies in Minsk who can help you re. visa support. You will probably have to book a night's accommodation to get one but it's a price worth paying.

Thanks for sharing your report, I really loved to read it! :thumbup1:

You're welcome, glad you liked it.

I have always used a visa agent in the UK for my visas and they sort out the invitation letter. Although my wife is Belorusan I take this as the prefered option rather than using her mothers address. because of the political situation there I prefer to try and distance myself administratively from her familly.
be advised the political situation is very difficult at the moment in Belarus. there are also problems getting any foreign currency in the country so you may not be able to change your rubbles back into anything else when you leave, so try not to overbuy
I'm off to Belarus and Ukraine at the end of june driving the support vehicle for 10 motorbikes visiting the Belorusan Orphanages. so far none of the bikers has had problems with visas, despite the governments dislike of charity trips.

The devaluation of the Belorusian Ruble whilst being a disaster for the locals and their savings ( although most had their savings in foreign currency ) is great for travellers. I think the official bank rate for the GBP is 8100 right now. However a note to British readers: not every bank will exchange pounds especially in the sticks. Therefore take Euros which have the best exchange rate on the black market too,hitting over 9000 according to friends in Minsk. Agree about not being able to buy back hard currency.

Moggy: I did'nt understand your comment about not using your mother-in-law's address because of the political situation. I'm sure you know belarus as well as I do,but do you mean because of your connection to a charity? I've used the mother-in-law's address for 5 years with no hint of a problem. No point paying for an invitation when there is no need to mate, the government don't worry about small fry like us, in fact I would say being foreign gives us a lot of leeway: I've been drunk on vodka with friends in Minsk's main square singing "Death to Lukashenko!" ( yeah it seemed a good idea at the time! )a policeman came over and said to my Belarusian friends "take the foreigner home lads" and sent us on our way. One thing those cops respect in the former USSR is a paralytic man bier

Belarussian visa
 

Hello,

we finally got our belarussian visa. So, we soon will do a motorcycle trip to Belarus!
:D

It was not easy to get visa, because they changed the rules, perhaps only for germans. I don't know. For our purposes, they officially only grant visas for tourists (prereqs: book all nights in advance and get a voucher) or have a written and confirmed invitation of someone from belorus for private visum. It is not sufficient to have only an address of someone. There are exceptions. Our visa agent managed to get us private visas without an invitation.

Tannu_Tuva, moggy 1968, Declan or others: Can you give us perhaps few hints about Belarus. We are interested in border crossing, registration, special traffic rules, are there camping sites (found nothing in the internet), small accomodation in countrysite (i. e. "Turbasa"), cheap hotel in minsk, gps coords?

Thanks in advance! :mchappy:

Marc

We rode to Belarus last summer. It was one of the most interesting bike-trips I've made! The people of Belarus are extremely polite and gentle (except for the border-control guys...).

Here are pictures from that trip (the text is in Swedish but the pictures pretty much speak for themselves):

Belarus Motorcycle Adventure, July 2010

If you need GPS waypoints, just let me know!

Enjoy Belarus!

Wow, cool photos. It looks like you really had fun there. :-) Can you recommend the hotel in Minsk (safe parking, how much for a night)?

I will try to translate your report with google.

We also plan to see Mir castle, Nesvizh castle, Vitebsk, Grodno, Brest, Stalins Line, have you been to Chatyn? I can not see it on your map screenshot.

I would love to have your GPS waypoint. I assume, you don't have camping coords. :-)

Marc

Hi Marc,

The hotel Yubileinaya in Minsk was OK. It's a Soviet-era hotel but refurbished so it's pretty much up to western-european standard. It's centrally located with many restaurants close by. The Old Town is 10 minute walk away, across the river.

We paid 108 US dollar per night per twin room (incl. breakfast). The guarded parking at the back of the hotel was 3 dollars per bike per night if you paid at the reception. Paying directly to the guard was only half the price.

I'll PM you regarding the GPS waypoints. No camping coords though :-(

Belarus border crossing
 

Crossing the border into Belarus is quite different, the least to say! The border control guys kept yelling at us in Russian for almost four hours! They were all very un-professional and rude… And no-one didn’t know a single word in English. All information and all documents to fill in are in Russian only. Luckily for us, we were helped by a Latvian guy that also was entering into Belarus.

The sign describing the procedure of getting through the border control. In Russian only…
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/13186016_QcHde#957047819_6Xcii-A-LB

Our Swedish motorcycle insurance is valid (unrestricted) in Belarus but as I understand, vehicle- insurances of other western-European countries may not be valid in Belarus or possibly limited to the third-party insurance. Please check with your insurance company. You may need to pay for vehicle insurance at the border, but obviously we didn’t have to.

However, despite that we all had supplementary medical insurance that was valid also in Belarus, we had to get an ”Obligatory Medical Insurance of Foreigners and Persons without Citizenship staying in the Republic of Belarus”
http://beemer-biker.smugmug.com/Okategoriseradebilder/Diverse-bilder/17419471_ZCZQdX#1324923519_K3K6hvm-A-LB
It cost 3 dollars (or Euro?) for the time we were to spend in Belarus. I’m not sure I would rely on this insurance in case of an illness or injury though…

Anyway, after four hours, I’m finally in Belarus!!! The adventure can begin!
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/13186016_QcHde#957047848_RZoS5-A-LB

PLEASE, don’t let the border crossing procedure discourage you from going to Belarus! Once in the country, we didn’t meet a single person that wasn’t genuinely nice and gentle! And we didn’t have any trouble with traffic police (most likely since we stayed away from the major highways and motorways)

Don't really understand the above. I have crossed the border many times at terespol on my own and had no real problems, typically takes 2 1/2 hours. there are translations of the various documents you need on the windows and walls of the border booths. to be honest 4 hours isn't too bad for a border, Ukraine to Poland took me 20hours, and that was with a bribe, otherwise it would have been 2 days!!!

you need insurance if you don't have a green card specifically for Belarus. it can be bought at the border and is quite cheap.

current advice from my brother in law who lives there is don't take money out at the bank as the exchange rate is poor. change euros at the change booths. you can usually pay for fuel and tourist hotels in euros but will need rubles for food and minor purchases or if staying in smaller hotels. changing rubles back into euros on exit is difficult so don't get too many.(my (Belorusan) wife has just corrected me, it's practically impossible!)

Health wise the UK has a reciprocal agreement with Belarus, but I wouldn't be inviting treatment in one of their hospitals. you can by many mediactions, including antibiotics, over the counter without prescription.

don't go through Brest without visiting the Fortress, held for about 6 weeks (from memory, not absolutely sure) against the Germans depite being hopelessly outgunned. a third of the population lost their lives in the war.

The political position there is currently difficult. As a tourist you are relatively secure but never underestimate the power of the police on the local population.

next friday we leave for our charity trip to belarus
see
Home - CHERNOBYL CHALLENGE 2011
any donations to our childrens charities gratefully received!!

Cider,

Spectacular pictures!

I would be most interested in visiting the ex CCCP air force and Missile base which look particularly interesting.

Could you please let me have the way points or perhaps there is no particular difficulty in finding these places?

Cheers :mchappy:

Hi Ntgizr,

The airforce-bases and missile bases are not very easily found. Please send me your email address and I´ll send you the waypoints (Garmin gdb-file).

And by the way, here are pictures from a previous trip to the Baltic countries, with other former CCCP-bases:

Baltikum, July 2009


Cider

Hi all,

I am currently on a motorcycle trip and am in L'viv in the Ukraine. I am a British citizen and didnt need a visa on the border to get in. My next stop was supposed to be Belarus, but I am now concerned that I will need a visa. Did all of you get your visa before leaving, or was anyone able to purchase one at the border post?

Thanks,

Jamie

You will need a visa and I doubt you would be able to get one at the border (though I have never tried) best bet would be at the embassy in kiev I would think.

Hi Moggy, which visa agency do you use ?

I used an agent based in Southsea. I lived there so it was a 5 minute walk from my house!!

http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile%2...a%29_93388.htm