Recent Experience Taking Advantage of Belarus' Visa-Free Policy
I arrived in Minsk yesterday afternoon, and as I was a bit nervous about getting in based on what I've read/the lack of information online, I thought it would be a good idea to post a basic account of what happened for others who might want to visit in the future.
So I flew from London Heathrow to Minsk, with a layover in Warsaw, on LOT Polish airlines. Having read online about Belarus insisting on you buying their compulsory insurance, I withdrew some Polish zloty from an ATM in Warsaw just so I had cash on me.
I didn't need it. At the insurance booth in Minsk, I told the lady I had insurance and she sent me to the immigration queue. I handed over my passport and insurance policy, and the immigration official spent a good five minutes looking at the passport and my visas/stamps with a magnifying glass, before stamping my passport and letting me in. From what I saw, she only compared the names on my insurance and my passport to make sure they were the same.
There were no questions asked whatsoever. No 'how long/where are you staying?', no 'do you have a flight out?'. Nothing. At no point did I get any sense that I was under any scrutiny whatsoever. I assumed that I'd be checked to see if I was leaving via Minsk airport, as it's a requirement if you wish to visit visa-free, but I wasn't. I'd read online that I might have trouble as my picture is from ten years ago now and I look a lot different; definitely wasn't the case. My passport is almost full as well (was slightly concerned about this), and she simply found one of the two remaining spaces and stamped there.
In Ukraine a few years ago I was asked questions for about twenty minutes, and I'd read it was a similar process in Belarus; but from my experience it wasn't the case at all. Granted, I've only dealt with one border official on one occasion, but in a country such as this I wouldn't be surprised if there's a set protocol that all immigration officials are required to stick to.
So that's it! It was all very easy and simple, and you can rest assured that if you're eligible for the 30 days visa-free in Belarus, you can take advantage of it as I have without any worries.
Submitted February 06, 2019 at 01:01PM by thefitnessealliance http://bit.ly/2Db2Wn8
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