Those who leave Belarus without a visa are now required to have a residence permit

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According to Nasha Niva, Belarusian border guards have begun to demand residence permits from those who leave the country without a valid European visa. As they say, the border guards take photos of both sides of the residence permit and give it to them.

Is it legal?

According to the current legislation, border guards have no right to demand documents other than the national passport when leaving the country.

What to do?

Do not panic. If you are planning to enter the EU and do not want your documents not to be photographed, we recommend that you consider entering the EU through the Russian-Latvian border. If you do not have a valid visa and were planning to apply for international protection at the EU border, we also recommend using the EU-Russia border for this purpose. 

The option of crossing the European border through the Russian Federation also saves you from mobile device checks and penetration through “extremist” databases.

Read about how to move to another country, get a visa, and legalize yourself in our free relocation guides in Adaptation magazine.