Thread: travel question?

i know this is a site for russian and this section is for travel and tourism. i'm not looking to travel to russia but to belarus. i know this isn't probably the appropriate place but this site has helped me with learning russian. if anybody knows another site that i can ask my travel questions can you p.m. or respond to this thread i'd appreciate it. thanks for the help and sorry for the post-b.

Meh, I doubt anybody's going to hassle you over posting that kind of thing here. If it were El Salvador or something, we might question your intelligence... Go ahead and post your specific question here. Or if it's a city in particular, I've seen people post Belarussian stuff under the "Russian Cities" forum...

thank you very much. the question i have is in regards to the visa process. i know i need an invatition for the process. is that an invatation from one of the visa help orginazation on-line or can it be from a friend i have that is a belarussian citizen? i was told flying into poland might be better and cheaper. i would assume i need a visa for poland too. if i apply for a single entry visa and fly into belarus directly, that means i can't leave the country to sight see into any other countries and return for my return flight out of belarus, correct? i'm sorry if these questions are pretty elementry, i'm new to the travel scene. thanks-b.

Originally Posted by nduetime

if i apply for a single entry visa and fly into belarus directly, that means i can't leave the country to sight see into any other countries and return for my return flight out of belarus, correct?

As far as I know - there is no passport control on Belarus-Russia border when you travel by train. You can just sleep from Minsk to Moscow.
But when some officials check you passport in Russia - you will be recognized as illegal immigrant.

Originally Posted by nduetime

is that an invatation from one of the visa help orginazation on-line or can it be from a friend i have that is a belarussian citizen?

Originally Posted by http://www.belarustourist.minsk.by/english/visit/visa.htm

Invitation for tourist visa can only be issued by the companies that are registered in Belarus as the travel and tourist companies.

i see that...thank you very much. i have one more question regarding the visa process. can someone tell me how it works. let me explain again...i've never traveled to another country that visas are required that i've had to deal with personally myself. i thought that fill out the application and put the dates i wanted to visit and then i would be granted access with a visa or not. however, i have a friend that is from belarus visiting america and she said that she applied and didn't give any dates. then when they granted her the visa, she was given dates (a five month window from a certain date to a final date in which she had to be out of the country by) in which she could visit america. does anyone know how the process for the visa work? the reason i ask is because i need to know if i need to know specific dates in which i wish to travel when i apply for the visa or not. thank you so much for helping me with my questions-b.

pretty much, you must get an invitiation, which it looks like you wont have trouble getting. Once you have the dates that you KNOW you want to be in country for lets say for example jan 1st till jan 15th. You buy your plane tickets for those dates.

you usually need to buy the tickets in advance because belorussia is going to want proof that you arn't intending to stay there illegally, so they will want to see your round trip itinerary.

After that, you submit your visa application along with about $100 (give or take a few bucks) or so dollars and your itinerary dates to the belorussian embassy (By mail would probly be best because odds are they don't have one in your town) and wait. it usually takes between 5 to 14 days to be approved and a few days longer to get it back by mail.

Here is probly the best website i have seen for visas.
http://www.russia-visa.com/

allbeit, its a Russian visa website... Im sure the process can't be all that diffrent from the belorussian system. just look around there, familiarize yousrself with the process, and good luck!

Have fun on your trip.



***EDIT***

If you look at the bottom of that website, it seems they also have a link to BELORUSSIAN Visas. Have a look... Ive had a few friends use this site on their trips to Russia and ALL recomended it! Let us know how it goes!