Visa to Belarus
Tourism in Belarus - Visa to Belarus
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If you are going to travel to Belarus, you undoubtedly will need a visa and a passport. The place to apply for a visa to Belarus is usually an Embassy or
Consulate of Belarus in your country. In case, there is neither embassy, nor consulate, you can get visa at the Minsk National Airport.

The basic requirements for your visa application are:

- valid passportVisaToBelarus
- filled form of application
- photo
- additional supporting documents (depends on the type of visa)
- visa fee payment

For different types of visa you will need some supporting documents:

Tourist Visa for Belarus

If your purpose is tourism in the Republic of Belarus, you should apply for a tourist visa, which is valid up to 30 days, and provides short-term singe or
double entry. The documents you should provide, include:
- a request (in a written form) from a registered tourist company or agency in Belarus
or
- a request (in a written form) provided by a rehabilitation/recreation organization in Belarus

Visa to Belarus for a Private Stay

This type of visa is valid for up to 90 days, can provide single, double or multiple entries). Here 2 variants of getting visa are available:

1. Via personal invitation. This invitation (provided by some friends of yours in Belarus) is issued by a local migration and citizenship office. It means
that someone you know should visit the mentioned office and fill in the appropriate form. This form will be sent to you and you can show it while applying
for a visa at the Belarusian embassy in your country.

Visa to Belarus for Commercial Purposes

To get this visa, you would be required to provide a written request, issued by a Belarusian company. However, offices of international companies,
representative offices of international banks in Belarus and private entrepreneurs cannot provide this request, because according to Belarusian law, they do
not possess the status of a legal entity in Belarus.

Visa to Belarus for the Purpose of Studies

Applying for this visa, you need to acquire an original invitation, issued by the educational establishment and verified by a local citizenship and
migration office of the Ministry of Interior of Belarus.

Transit Visa

If your travelling route goes through Belarus, then you need a visa of the country of main destination. If a trip to that country does not require a visa,
you should submit any other supporting documents proving that you need to transit through Belarus.

Application Time


As a rule, it takes about five business days to have your visa application processed. If you need/want to have it processed faster, then it is possible for
some extra fee.

After You Arrive in Belarus


Do not forget to register at the local citizenship and migration office of the Ministry of Interior of Belarus within 3 business days. If you are going to
stay at a hotel, then you will be explained everything by the staff when you arrive.

Please note that the information presented here is of general character and you can learn more details at the Embassy or Consulate of Belarus in your
country.
Update of January, 6, 2010:

Foreigners to Pay More for Belarus Visas at the Airport


The news has been really striking for tourist agencies, as well as their clients, who arrived in Belarus at the beginning of 2010. The thing is that the decision was taken without any preliminary notifications. However, the representatives of the main consular department of the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MFA) claimed that this issue had been processed for 3-4 years already, and the initiative was taken not by the MFA, but by the Ministry of Finances and Ministry of Taxation. The corresponding document was signed by the president on December, 30, 2009.

What is to be changed in accordance with the new law?

1.    Visa types will not be divided into tourist and business (tourist visas were less expensive), now there will exist only three types of visas: B – transit, C – short-term, and D – long-term.

2.    The cost of the visa that is received at the consular department on arrival at the airport will be increased. Now, the foreigner, who comes to Belarus from the country where a BelarusianConsulate is located, will have to pay the triple sum of a single visit visa (for EU citizens the sum will be 180 euro, as a single visit visa costs 60 euro). Visitors from countries where there is no Belarusian consulate will pay 50% more – 90 euro. The highest visa fee is for US citizens, who will have to pay 275 euro.

According to the CEO of the tourist agency AlatanTour, these new measures will hinder the development of tourism sphere in Belarus. Many foreign visitors were satisfied with the possibility to acquire visas right upon their arrival, but now they are to face certain difficulties.
The MFA speaker claims that the main aim of these changes is not to enlarge visa fees, but to unify all visa types and manage them in accordance with the international standards. But such abrupt visa fee increase was unexpected even for the Ministry of Tourism and MFA, which are supposed to be involved into two-side dialogue, regarding such crucial issues. It looks like the dialogue will soon be launched and the only hope remains that consulate fees won’t be sufficiently increased in the short run.