Belarus entry bans are the main focus area of our activity as lawyers. We have been removing such bans for over 7 years and are proud to announce we have a 100% result – we have helped every client who turned to us. This means, if we undertake your case, the probability is 100% that your exclusion from Belarus (and from Russia) will be reversed. Well, we do understand it sounds too ambitious a statement, but we will really help you. We have an immense experience of working with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus which is the authority to impose entry bans. And we are sure in this sphere, there is nobody more experienced and efficient than we are.
Citizens of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Israel, Georgia, the USA, Germany, Turkey etc. have addressed to us with such problems. In fact, we write about it quite frequently, yet questions keep arising.
The first and most important thing you have to know: if Belarus banned you from entry, you are banned from entry to Russia too. There are no exceptions, the rule holds true for all cases. So long as the Belarusian exclusion is valid, you will not be able to enter either Russia or Belarus.
The price for lifting the entry ban for Belarus and Russia is 55 000 rubles (around $850).
Timing – 1 month at least.
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We speak English. Feel free to e-mail us at info@sporsfms.ru. Within 30 minutes, you will receive a reply of the immigration lawyer.
Let us begin from the track record.
It was a mere chance that we started handling such exclusions from Belarus. The point is a long-standing client of us, a citizen of Cyprus who had worked with us for almost ten years as of that time, turned to us asking to remove the entry ban imposed by Belarus. He said he had spent hundreds of thousands rubles for other lawyers going to court with the Federal Security Service of Russia but had not come to any result. We refused politely, because back then it was not exactly our activity profile, and, usually, if all trials have been lost there is already no point doing anything in such cases. But the client kept insisting and persuading us to take it on. Without particularly believing in the result, we did agree – and it took us 3 weeks to resolve the problem. The client’s happiness knew no bounds. So did ours. And one fine day it caught our attention that about 10 clients a day come to us with such a need. The problem has become a mass-scale one but we have found a solution.
What are the reasons for Belarus to place an entry ban?
- Fines – if you have 5 and more of them.
Five and more paid fines.
Well, first of all, one has to be able to get fined so many times. Usually, the fines are for speeding. For example, one goes by car from the RF to Lithuania and exceeds the speed limit and «get caught» by video recording cameras. This is quite frequent. For this, one gets a one-year exclusion from Belarus.
One and more unpaid fines.
A foreign citizen can actually forget to pay the fine – one can lose the payment details, or it can just slip one’s mind and so on. The consequences, however, are grave. You will not be allowed to enter Belarus and Russia until you pay this fine. But it is not enough to merely pay it – you have to send an entire package of documents to Belarus and Russia.
- Not using an international checkpoint to enter or exit the country and/or exceeding the period of stay. In 95% of cases, Belarus is mistaken about your exceeding your period of stay. The point is that if it is not via an international checkpoint that you leave from Belarus to Russia, then the Belarusian state authorities get no information about your leaving the country, so they believe you have exceeded your stay. It is like that: one arrives to Minsk from, say, the Ukraine by plane and goes by car to the RF (not through an international checkpoint), later from Russia one goes by plane to another country, let us suppose, to Israel. As a result, Belarus thinks the person is still with them and issues the exclusion because the person has exceeded his or her period of stay.
- Exiting from Belarus to the RF. Recently, Belarus has introduced a visa-free entry to the country for citizens of over 100 states. However, with there being actually no border-crossing control between the RF and the RB, many dishonest citizens of third countries use the catch to fly to the RF from the Republic of Belarus. Pushing back against it, Belarus introduced the rule specifying that a foreigner can come visa-free to Belarus and fly to any other country, but not to Russia. And so it happens that having flown to Minsk from Tallinn, e.g. visiting some conference or the like, one may not go on from Minsk to Russia after that – even if one has the RF visa. Or, more exactly, one can do it physically – to be banned from entry to Belarus next, because the law of Belarus prohibits flights from Minsk to Russia. So the Belarusian state authorities automatically think the person does not have a Russian visa.
Here is the algorithm of actions for removing the Belarus entry ban.
- Send a request and find out the exact reasons of exclusion. This is a compulsory stage. Practice has shown that even if a client is sure the entry ban was imposed due to fines it may be for other reasons. And it makes no sense hurrying and writing an application for lifting the entry ban stating that all fines are paid and one has relatives – citizens of Belarus. It can be found out that the RB MIA issued the exclusion due to transit and had no idea about your fines until you mentioned them. So, you will have to spend 3 to 15 days for finding out the reasons of exclusion.
- Collect the papers and write an application for lifting the entry ban to the Republic of Belarus. Once you know the reason, you can understand what exactly papers have to be submitted to the state authorities. For example, Belarus states you have exceeded the period of your state and it is not true at all, as all you have done is leaving Belarus not via an international checkpoint and having stayed in the RF for the entire time. Usually, the proofs are tickets, hotel reservation, car rental vouchers, medical certificates issued in the RF, RF exit stamps, air tickets for leaving the RF, apartment rental agreement, a banking card statement and so on.
- Receive the reply from Belarus and send it to the RF FSS noting in the covering letter that as the RB MIA has lifted the entry ban, the RF FSS has to do the same.
- Receive the reply from the RF FSS and enter the RF.
Shall we tell you about a specific example of removal of Belarus entry ban
About a year ago, we also wrote about the foreign citizens crossing the Belarus to Russia border. This article became the most read one on our website, with around 1000 people a day reading it. In brief, foreigners may not cross the border, even in the transit way. They may not do so even if they have a permanent or temporary residence permit.
Half a year ago, we wrote about our successful case of canceling such an exclusion, too. Back then, we were quite quick to assist a citizen of one of the Baltic countries. Such entry bans were rare at that time and were not imposed frequently, with few people turning to us for removal of the ban. Nowadays, the exclusions are a «boom» in Belarus. Which means hundreds of clients a month. There are days when we send two or three applications for removing the entry ban to Belarus. It is difficult to guess what it is related to, but we are about another matter now. If you are looking for a lawyer and an attorney who can raise such an entry ban to Belarus and Russia in an almost guaranteed way – you have found one. We state with all responsibility that we have removed the total of entry bans to Belarus for people who addressed to us and we have a 100% result. It can be explained quite simply – we do not undertake lost cases. We agree it is not for every exclusion that we have such a result, anyway, everything has been fine with Belarus so far.
Recently, we have received two positive replies at a time. Shall we tell you about one of them for now. So, here are the actual circumstances of the case for your attention.
The applicant is a citizen of Georgia. The MIA of the Republic of Belarus issued a decision of exclusion from the Republic of Belarus in relation to the Applicant, which was the ground for the authorized bodies of the Russian Federation to make a decision of banning the Applicant from entering the RF, similarly. Most likely, the RF competent authorities made such a decision proceeding from paragraph 1 of part 1 of article 27 of Federal law dated August 15, 1996, No. 114-ФЗ «On the procedure of exiting the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation». In fact, the Applicant currently has an entry ban for both the Republic of Belarus and for Russia. This is confirmed by the Russian state authorities’ refusal to issue a visa to the Applicant. The fact of exclusion from Belarus is confirmed by the mark in the Applicant’s passport stating that «entry to the Republic of Belarus is prohibited» (without specifying the duration of the ban). The Applicant became aware about the Decision made on 16/08/2018 when crossing the state border. The stamp was affixed to the Applicant’s passport saying he had to go beyond the borders of the Republic of Belarus, which the Applicant did. On 21/08/2018, the Applicant sent an e-mail asking to give explanations about the reasons of exclusion from the RF. The Department for citizenship and migration of the Republic of Belarus informed the Applicant on 22/08/2018 to the effect that «According to information records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, in 2017 you exceeded the permissible period of stay in the country, so by the decision of the Chief administration of internal affairs of Minsk City Executive Committee dated 26/02/2018, you are banned from entry to the Republic of Belarus until 26/06/2021…». The Applicant reported to the Department for citizenship and migration of the MIA of the Republic of Belarus that he did not exceed the period of stay in the Republic of Belarus. Yes, in fact, it follows that formally the Applicant crossed the internal border of the Commonwealth states when proceeding from Russia to Belarus and back, there being no checkpoints on it that are open for international service. And so, given the lack of information about entering Belarus and exiting Belarus, it cannot be determined that the Applicant passed through the country as a transit passenger.
The Applicant arrived to the RF on 17/05/2016 (by plane from Yerevan to Saint-Petersburg), he left the RF on 05/09/2017 (by railway from Saint-Petersburg to Minsk), leaving Belarus almost immediately after that – on 06/09/2017, which is confirmed by the mark in the passport about crossing the Belarus-Ukraine border. The second entry of the Applicant to the RF was on 28/06/2018 (by plane from Kiev via Minsk to Saint-Petersburg), and the Applicant left the RF similarly through Belarus – on 15/08/2018 (by railway from Saint-Petersburg to Minsk and by coach from Minsk to Kiev).
The Applicant crossed the land of the Republic of Belarus for transit purposes only. For all the above time, the Applicant stayed in the RF and not in Belarus, which is confirmed by the following pieces of evidence: rental agreement for an apartment in Saint-Petersburg, an X-ray picture of a finger fracture, the picture having been made in the Railway Clinical Hospital of Saint-Petersburg (the contract is available), the boarding pass for the Saint-Petersburg – Valaam – Saint-Petersburg flight, the results of medical tests done in Saint-Petersburg, too, railway and air tickets. The Applicant is a husband of a citizen of the RF, which is confirmed by the Marriage certificate, the wife’s Russian citizenship being confirmed by the RF passport. The wife permanently resides and performs work activity within Saint-Petersburg. The fact of the Applicant’s stay within the RF can also be confirmed by the wife.
Summing all the above, let us outline the nuances in reversing the exclusion from Belarus:
- Have you been banned from entering Russia because of Belarus entry ban? Send all demands and claims to the MIA of the Republic of Belarus. So far, Russia has nothing to do with it – they just fulfill the Belarusian decision. Once your Belarus exclusion is reversed, the Russian entry ban will be lifted too.
- The MIA of the Republic of Belarus is one of the most reasonable state authorities; you do not even have to send them anything in writing, all you have to do is e-mail your papers.
- It is important to prove the following fact: you passed through the country in the transit way and have not exceeded the period of stay. It is all easy if you have tickets, but it is the case much more frequently that you do not. For example, you crossed the border by car and you have no tickets. How can you prove it? It is here that a lawyer will help you who will elaborate the evidential basis for you.
- If you have any relatives – citizens of the RF and/or Belarus, make sure you mention this in your application for removal of Belarus entry ban. This is a good point.
- As soon as you receive the reply from the MIA of the Republic of Belarus, submit the reply for execution to the FSS of Russia.
Although everything seems clear and simple after our articles, it makes more sense trusting professional lawyers with such cases – they will make no mistakes and complete it quickly. What you can get quite easily on your own is the refusal, and after that it will be extremely difficult even for lawyers to reverse the matters. In this month alone, we have raised five Belarusian entry bans, with these decisions being executed by the Border service of the FSS of Russia as of now. The execution is a mere formality but it has to be done.