Changes in rules of entering Belarus

In accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 624 (30.10.2020) “On measures to combat spreading of communicable diseases” the State border of the Republic of Belarus is temporarily closed for crossing by foreign citizens or stateless persons except for some specific categories of individuals.

! Those arriving in the Republic of Belarus through the Minsk National Airport are not subject to compliance with the restriction rules listed below !

Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus decided that:

1. The State border of the Republic of Belarus is temporarily closed for crossing in by foreign citizens or stateless persons (further – “foreigners”, unless otherwise specified additionally) at all road, railway, river-port border-crossing points as well as those with simplified entrance procedure.

The scope of paragraph 1 does not embrace following categories of individuals:

• Foreign citizens possessing diplomatic and official passports;
• Heads and members of official delegations;
• Foreigners providing international grant aid to the Republic of Belarus;
• Drivers of international road freight as well as international postal delivery vehicles;
• Internal maritime shipping crews, train and locomotive crews involved into international railway communications;
• Foreigners, who are spouses, parents or children of the citizens of the Republic of Belarus;
• Foreigners possessing a permanent or temporary residence permit in the Republic of Belarus;
• Foreigners possessing a work permit or documents authorizing their right to work in the Republic of Belarus;
• Foreigners coming to the Republic of Belarus on notice of serious illness or death of a close relative;
• Foreigners transporting stem cells and transplantation organs;
• Citizens of the Russian Federation going in transit to the Russian Federation via the Republic of Belarus;
• Foreigners going in transit via the Republic of Belarus in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Cabinet of Ukraine (20.01.2009) on simplified border-crossing procedure on the road Slavutich – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station by employees, vehicles and goods of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station or companies operating in the exclusion zone as well as foreign specialists recruited to implementation of international projects on isolating Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station;
• In exceptional cases under extraordinary circumstances and in order to ensure the national interests of the Republic of Belarus foreign citizens who do not comply with the requirements listed in the paragraph 2 may be allowed to cross the State border of the Republic of Belarus by decision of Chair of National Border Committee or his authorized representative.

2. Citizens of the Republic of Belarus as well as categories of foreigners, listed in parts seven and eight of item 2 of paragraph 1 of the decision, while coming from the states included in the list of COVID-19 virus contagious states (the list is placed on the web-site of the Ministry of Healthcare) are subject to self-isolation for 10 days counting from the day of arrival and are barred from crossing the State border of the Republic of Belarus until the end of self-isolation period.

The scope of item 1 of the paragraph does not embrace following categories of individuals:

• Workers of the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Belarus abroad as well as their families possessing diplomatic or service passports;
• Workers of the National courier service of the Republic of Belarus delivering official or diplomatic correspondence on international courier routes;
• Workers of the Republican unitary enterprise “Special communication” delivering special parcels on international special communication routes;
• Drivers of international road freight as well as international postal delivery vehicles;
• Internal maritime shipping crews, train and locomotive crews involved into international railway communications;
• Individuals returning in the Republic of Belarus on completion of duty abroad.

  3. Border service officers as well as customs service officers at border-crossing points operated under customs service:

• Give out state of health form, provided by Ministry of Healthcare, to the individuals arrived in Belarus and subject to self-isolation under the paragraph 2 of the decision;
• Check on filling of the state of health forms given and transmit them to the officials conducting national sanitary inspection;
• If necessary give out to the individuals arrived in Belarus the requirement of abiding by self-isolation rules of conduct provided in the Annex 1 to the decision of Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus (08.04.2020) No. 208 “On implementing restriction measures”.

In accordance with the decision of the Government of the Republic of Belarus on measures to combat spreading of COVID-19 the procedure for entry to Belarus is as follows.

Foreign citizens as well as stateless persons both arriving from the states included in the list of COVID-19 virus contagious states (the list is placed on the web-site of the Ministry of Healthcare by the link: http://minzdrav.gov.by/upload/dadvfiles/letter/perech0910.pdf) and those visited the above mentioned states via transit and were documentary confirmed with spending more than 24 hours in a transit state are subject to self-isolation for 10 days counting from the day of arrival (reduced from 14 days to 10).

! Abidance of 10 days self-isolation is mandatory for everyone even if the COVID-19 PCR-test is negative !

Foreign citizens and stateless persons except for permanently resident in the Republic of Belarus arriving from the states which are not listed in the Ministry of Health’s checklist while crossing the State Border of Belarus must possess the original medical document (in Russian, Belarusian or English) confirming the negative result of COVID-19 PCR-probe.

The above mentioned medical document should contain first name and surname, the result of COVID-19 PCR-probe. Laboratory PCR-testing for COVID-19 should be done not later than 72 hours before crossing the State Border of the Republic of Belarus.

Border service officers (or customs service officers at border-crossing points operated under customs service) exercise control over mandatory presentation of the medical document. The absence of the medical document in Russian, Belarusian or English can be a ground for refusal of entry to the Republic of Belarus.

The following categories of foreign citizens and stateless persons are exempted from self-isolation compliance and mandatory presentation of the medical document:

• Workers of foreign diplomatic and consular missions to the Republic of Belarus as well as those residing in other states accredited coherently to the Republic of Belarus, workers of the international organizations presented  in Belarus; their families possessing diplomatic or service passports;
• Heads and members of official delegations including those arriving by the invitation of the state governmental bodies and organizations;
• Drivers of international road freight as well as international postal delivery vehicles;
• Internal maritime shipping crews, train and locomotive crews involved into international railway communications;
• Foreign citizens coming from the states enlisted in the Ministry of Healthcare’s checklist who go in transit via the Republic of Belarus and possess evidence proving their departure from Belarus within 24 hours;
• Persons transporting stem cells and transplantation organs;
• Foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently resident in the Republic of Belarus returning to Belarus on completion of duty in a state enlisted in the Ministry of Healthcare’s checklist.
• Foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently resident in the Republic of Belarus arriving from states not enlisted in the Ministry of Healthcare’s checklist but going in transit via any state from the checklist provided that they possess evidence for spending less than 24 hours in a state enlisted in the Ministry of Healthcare’s checklist.

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