I am a foreigner, I plan to visit Ukraine. Do I need a visa?

Step 1. Purpose of the trip

It depends on the purpose of entry and stay how impressive will be the set of documents that needs to be collected. There are three types of Ukrainian visas:

• transit (type B) – issued in the case of transit through the territory of Ukraine to other countries. It gives the right to stay in Ukraine for only five days.
• short-term (type C) – as a rule, it is opened on the condition of entry into Ukraine for a period that does not exceed a total of 90 days within 180 days total. However, there are exceptions. For example, for Serbian citizens, the above figures are tree times less: they can only enter the country for 30 days during the period of 60 days.
• a long-term (type D) visa is accordingly issued for entry into Ukraine for more than 90 days with the purpose of issuing documents that give the right of residence or a long stay here.

Step 2. Do I need a visa?

After the purpose of the trip is figured out, it is worth checking on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine whether citizens of your country need to first open a visa.

In the Ukrainian visa policy there is such a thing as a full visa-free regime, and 8 countries fall under it. Thus, it will be enough for the citizens of Belarus to have only an internal passport at the entrance. For Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, you will need to provide a foreign passport, citizens of Mongolia will be asked for a document confirming the purpose of their arrival, and Russian citizens, in addition to providing the above documents, are required to undergo a process of recording biometric data. Recall that Ukraine has closed entry for male Russians of 16-60 years old due to the imposition of martial law.

The full visa-free regime implies that residents of these countries do not need to get any of the three types of visas.

There is also another type of visa-free regime, which implies that a foreigner can stay on the territory of Ukraine for a total of 90 days for six months. It includes citizens of the countries of the European Union, some countries of South America, the USA, Canada, Japan and many others (more than 50 countries in total). If the trip is planned for more than 90 days, then it will be necessary to issue a visa of type D.

And, of course, there is the visa regime, which obliges foreigners from more than 100 countries to work hard to collect all the necessary documents. Among them are Australia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, African countries and others.

Step 3. Documents

According to the “Rules for issuing visas for entry into Ukraine and transit through its territory” dated March 1, 2017, for all types of visas there is a minimum set that one way or another will have to be provided to the diplomatic institution of Ukraine or another authority authorized to receive documents:

• passport document with at least two blank pages, and which will be valid for at least 3 months after departure to Ukraine;
• completed visa application form;
• health insurance policy with a cost of at least 30,000 euros;
• color photograph 35×45 mm;
• documents confirming the presence of sufficient financial security for the period of the planned stay on the territory of Ukraine (or confirmation of the possibility of obtaining sufficient security in a legal way on the territory of Ukraine);
• confirmation of payment of the consular fee.

Next you need to start preparing basing on the type of visa. Depending on it, the variety of additional documents will vary.

Step 4. Submission of documents

When all documents are checked and prepared, there is a little thing left to do – you need to submit them to the consular office, the diplomatic mission of Ukraine in your country or the visa center.

If you do not like to wait in line, and have citizenship of Australia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica or any of these 43 countries, there is some good news for you. Since April 4 of this year, it has been possible to save your time and open an e-Visa. True, it has its limitations, since it is issued for a single entry into Ukraine with a business or tourist purpose for up to 30 days.

To do this, you first need to register on the platform, fill out an application form, download basic documents and pay the consular fee of $85 online.

There is another option for obtaining a short-term visa for single entry for up to 15 days with the same purpose for e-Visa, namely, to issue it directly at the airport. Branches of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine are at the airport “Boryspil”, “Zhulyany” and “Odessa”. This service can be used by citizens of Australia, India, Indonesia, China and another 26 countries. The consular fee in this case amounts to UAH 2,550, and the decision to issue a visa is made on the same day, according to information from the MFA website. We note that on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine there is information about a possibility of issuing a visa at the airports, however, in a recent interview, the head of the government agency, Andriy Zayats, said that starting from January 1 this option will no longer be available.

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The fact that you have a visa does not guarantee entry into the territory of Ukraine. Refusal is possible during border control at the border checkpoint if, for example, you do not have convincing documents confirming the purpose of the trip.