Belarus Visa Requirements

Hi all! To go a bit in the detail of visa process to Belarus I found visa requirements for Belarus

The quote below goes from that link:

A valid passport and Belarus visa are needed to enter Belarus territory. You may get your visa in Belarus Embassy or Consulate in your home country or at the Minsk-2 Airport upon arrival when you present yourself for passport check.

To obtain your Belarus visa apart from passport you will also need 1 passport size photo, pay an application fee for visa, an visa application form filled in and other required documents that depend on the reason why you visit Belarus.

The list of required documents that you may need to have with you:

For Belarus Tourist Visa (given for up to 30 days, can be single or double entry) you need a written request by a Belarus Tourist Agency (Belarus Tourist Voucher).

For a short-term visa issued on the basis of private visit (given for up to 90 days and allows single/double/multiple entries) it is required to have an original invitation request issued by the Ministry of Interior of Belarus. The request for invitation is can be done by any private person who is a citizen of Belarus, who is able to guarantee your accommodation and demonstrate his/her affiliation with you. This request is processed for at least calendar 30 days.

For a long-term private visit Belarus Visa (allows your stay for 90 days within a year), you are required to have a family member or a relative who has Belarus citizenship. This visa is also given to those who own a residence in Belarus.

Belarus Business Visa (valid up to 90 days) can be granted if you are able to submit a written request by a Belarus company that you are doing business with. This requests cannot be given by international companies or companies not origination from Belarus.

To get your Belarus Transit Visa (valid for up to 48 hours) you need to have a visa of the country of your destination and a motivation why you need to transit through Republic of Belarus.

Belarus Working Visa (treated as Business visa) you need to submit a request by a Belarus company that you have intentions to work for. Prior to opening this type of visa Belarus based company should get a Belarus Work Permit (an employment authorization) on your behalf approved by local authorities.

For Belarus Study Visa, an original invitation by the educational institution where you are going to study verified by a local citizenship and migration office of the Ministry of Interior of Belarus.

For Belarus Permanent Residence you get a temporary visa that is based on the approved application that grants you the possibility to reside in Belarus without limits .

Minsk-2 Airport Consulate office issues visa immediately and if you apply in the Embassy or consulate the usual processing time is 5 business days (urgent processing in 2 business days is done for an extra fee).

Preparing for my vacation in Belarus

First thing that I found out was the number of procedures to get my Belarus visa. The whole process seems to be really annoying as there are some documents to collect though visa is just a formality. The prices for Belarus visa are really high for American citizens. I hope that this will change in future.
But in any case as I made up my mind to come to Belarus I prepared my passport, a photo, booked a hotel and went to the Embassy to get my visa there. To my surprise I had to provide something like a contract with Belarus travel agency. It is called tourist voucher and comes along with invitation letter. Well, this seems to be reasonable, but only to some extent as I may want to travel on my own without any agency. Apparently, this is not foreseen and then I had to find somebody to get this invitation.

Introduction

I would like to tell you about my last visit to Belarus.This visit was really incredible and there are a lot of things that I can share.This blog is going to be organized as a series of posts about Belarus.