General Category > BELARUS FOR FOREIGNERS
Belarus: How to come and drive European or any foreign car
Jerry:
Here I’ll speak how to cross border with Belarus on any foreign car and how to stay and drive in Belarus with European or any foreign car and the most important how to go out from Belarus)
1. Border in Belarus. Generally nothing difficult: you come to the border, take entrance ticket before enter, but go in red channel. In some borders line is dividing before custom, for EU and Belarusian cars, in some - exactly before enter in custom. About this I suggest to ask people in line, because Belarusians travel abroad a lot with car and for sure they’ll know rules on exact border. But I want to stop a bit you optimism and say that even if you are in EU line this absolutely doesn’t mean that you’ll pass border fast. Generally system very slowly and especially in weekend when people go for shopping in Poland or Lithuania. In this case you can stay in line even 12 hours, but this is in worst case)
In red channel you’ll need to fill in 2 forms of declaration. Here 1 and 2 page of the declaration form with translation and notes how to fill it. To register your car you need to give to the custom officer: 2 declarations, green card, vehicle registration document. Custom officer will register your car (it’s called temporary car import) and then you’ll pass passport control. What mean everybody go to the window where is written “passport control”, firs give document driver/owner and then all other passengers.
It's not written in Belarusian low that if you are not owner you need to give to the custom officer power of attorney. But how it works I have never check and custom officers usually check names in driver’s passport and docs for the car.
2. According the low foreign car can stay in Belarus 3 months from the enter date. Before this date expiration you need to go out the country, even for one hour, but you need to cross border (with EU). Also interesting moment that foreign driving license works only 3 months. But not very clear from the date of car enter or the foreigner enters… Theoretically after 3 months you need to get Belarusian driving license, for what you need to pass theoretical and practical exam in police. But theory you need to pass in Russian language and it’s not allowed to have a translator… Practically I don’t know how it work and if police check any dates. But for 3 years of driving police stopped our car only one time - first day in Minsk)
3. Good new! You can prolong 3 months of car staying in Belarus. But not more than for one year from enter date or your registration / visa expire. So if you enter 1st January and your Belarusian visa expire 1st September, you can prolong temporary car import in Belarus till 1st September. If you visa finish 15th January next year you can prolong declaration only till 31st December.
Where you can register foreign car in Belarus for long term? In local custom that is located in the city. It’s absolutely free. Before 3 months finish you need to go in custom, fill application and usually in 30 minutes your car registration will be ready! New term of staying will be written in you enter declaration. Documents you need: passport with valid visa, enter car declaration, green card, vehicle registration document.
Address of the custom where for sure you can prolong car registration: “Kolyadichy-avto”, Minsk, Babushkina str. 39 (Working time Monday – Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday 9am-6pm)
4. How to leave Belarus by car. Almost the same like you enter, only this time you need to give to the custom officer already filled declaration with all other documents. All other details read in 1st paragraph. Very easy!
Important:
- Again I want to notice that registration for long term you need to make before 3 months from the enter date finish.
- Prolongation up to 1 year works for foreigners except members of Custom Union.
- If you make temporary car import drive foreign car can only foreigner, if drive Belarusian and police catch the driver – be sure you’ll never see you car again. And this is absolutely not joke! Belarusian can drive in only one case – if owner of the car is near in the car.
- More details you can read from the official custom site
Enjoy you staying in Belarus!
coderoyal:
Excellent article. I think it would be helpful for people to have the customs declaration form prepared in advance so I've been searching online and found a link to the form here: http://www.tsouz.ru/KTS/KTS17/Documents/287-%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%9F%D0%A2%D0%94_1.doc
I think this form is used throughout the customs union so it should be useful if you are entering Russia, Kazakhstan, or other similar places I assume.
Навигация
Перейти к полной версии