Belarus Visa Free June 10 to July 10 in 2019

[steven]

PS: I got out on the train to Moscow - no border check at all. Left Moscow via air: once again no problem that I did not have a Russian stamp in my passport: showed them my ticket, everyone understood. Molotsy!

[Milad]

That's interesting, I was woken up on the Minsk - Saint Petersburg train this morning by a few Russian border guards, who checked my passport and ticket. As they went directly to me, I assume the provodniki told them so. BTW, the provodniki on this train didn't know that the ticket allows visa-free acces to Russia as well - it took all of my (awful) Russian skills to convince them to let me on the train. Tomorrow I'll leave Russia to Estonia, let's see how that will work...

[Milad]

Leaving Russia to Estonia was no problem at all, I was obviously not the first one with a Games ticket at this border, the border guard knew how to handle it.

[olmo]

Anyone following this may also be interested in the new Free Visa for Kaliningrad: http://electronic-visa.kdmid.ru/klgd_home_en.html

We had a similar experience, entry to Brest by train was fine, thanks Steven for the heads up about the migration card, one of us would not have gotten one had we not asked for it.

Train Vitebsk to SPb, had some discussion with the provodnik who eventually just gave up and told us he didn't really think that we'd be ok but that'd be our problem. Border guards came directly to us, took them well over an hour to figure out what to do with us, though fortunately they just came to take and return our passports a couple times.

Leaving Russia from Pskov to Riga was also a lengthy process, though simply because no one seemed to know how to properly register our special case on their computers ...

Anyways, an interesting trip we wouldn't have made without the visa free option!

[Elms]

My very late report:

We booked Ecolines bus from Kiev to Minsk but were refused boarding by the company representative checking tickets because I didn't have a visa ... despite a printed out explanation from the website and some other passengers knowing about the exception (after 3 months I received a refund) Fortunately there was another night bus a bit later, this time a Belorussian company and the driver didn't care about visas anyway. No trouble with either border guards. I mentioned I'm going to Russia next but didn't ask specifically for immigration card, so I didn't get it. No checks on the train to Moscow.

When leaving to Estonia at Ivangorod/Narva the Russians asked about migration card, let me wait a bit but then let me through without a fuss. I think most of it was just looking for someone who knew how to enter the EG ticket number The Estonians were more difficult, they weren't happy with my EU ID and wanted to see the Russian passport (as I spoke Russian and have a Russian first name I guess), then they were confused why I have a previous Russian visa and not this time, my officer didn't know about the Games but the lady next to her did.

[steven]

I also tried to take the bus first, same issue, would not let me on. Glad that I wasn't let on because the bus looked horrible.

Train was expensive but hassle-free.

[Elms]

Friends went with another BLR bus company from Kiev to Brest, also no issues.