Talk:Belarus
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[edit] Warning
I removed the warning box warning people not to support organizations trying to overthrow the government. It's two years out of date, and was a pretty obvious warning anyway. --Serotrance
Factbook removed. --Professorbiscuit
[edit] questions about regulations
Please find the answers to your questions below:
The article says that a letter of invitation is no longer required to get a visa, as long as one has the name and address of a citizen. Is that true for all visitors? I have read news items in the last couple of years about invitation letters not being required for visitors from some countries, but does this apply to all visitors from all countries now?
A: The official word from the Belarus Embassy in the UK is:
Effective 1 October 2004 citizens of all the 25 European Union states, as well as of Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Iceland, Japan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Norway, Oman, Qatar, South African Republic, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay, applying for Belarusian visitor’s or business visas who want to stay in the Republic of Belarus for the period less than 30 days do not any longer need formal letters of invitation from Belarusian citizens or organizations. This can be found at: http://uk.belembassy.org/visainfo.html
Note: It says "Belarusian visitor’s or business visas", it does not say "tourist visas" and recently we have heard that UK citizens are being told that they still need an invitation. I can send you a link to this discussion if you want. So this point is still not clear.
The last time that I travelled between Warsaw and Minsk by train was in 2003. Passport control took place at the border on board the train in both directions. The article says that when going from Minsk to Warsaw by train, in addition to passport control in the train, travellers must go to the customs office in the train station before getting on the train, even if they have nothing to declare. I have travelled from Minsk to Warsaw by train a few times and I never did this. If this is now required for all travellers, where is the customs office?
A; I have also traveled back and forth from Minsk to Warsaw several times. Customs inspection were always done after the wheels are changed at the boarder (in Brest I believe). I have also traveled by train from Vilnius to Minsk and again the customs check took place on the train. I am sure that this is not correct.
The article says that visitors must buy insurance and suggests buying this insurance at Kalinka in Warsaw. The last time I bought this insurance, I had to do it in Belarus after I arrived. Does one have to buy this insurance before going to Belarus now? Is Kalinka the only place to get it?
A: Usually you can only by the insurance at the Minsk airport or at an insurance office in Belarus. Here is a link to ONE insurance company that has a website in English. We usually buy health insurance from their office on 16 Rakovskaya st. in Minsk: http://www.belgosstrakh.by/eng/branches
All of this and much more can be found on our Travel Guide to Belarus, a collaborative effort by a citizen of Belarus and a native English speaker: http://www.travelswise.com/belarus.htm . If you have other questions about travel to Belarus, write to us at Emmergene AT Yahoo DOT com
[edit] Letter of invitation
DRAW ATTENTION that from the 1st of October 2004 Belarus set up a simplified visa-issuing procedure. Citizens of European Union (including Estonian citizens and stateless persons residing permanently in Estonia) who are going to Belarus with private or business purposes for the terms less than 30 days do not need an invitation. Such persons have to apply for a visa personally. Their completed visa application forms should contain detailed information about a purpose of their visit as well as a complete data of an inviting party. [1]
[edit] Visas
I'd like to bring up the visa section yet again (January 2009). The section looks nice and informative, but I'm not sure of the accuracy of the information. It seems to contradict itself when the steps on the side list that you need an invitation yet the section text claims that visas are not needed. I have removed the US from countries which do not need a visa and removed the all-caps message that invitations are not needed as Belarus embassy to the US lists otherwise. I hestitate to mess with the info for other nations, so someone knowledgeable about this should try to fix it. AHeneen 09:54, 29 January 2009 (EST)
[edit] Sort term visa details
In page http://www.sweden.belembassy.org/eng/legislation/ is a valid list of the countries that do not need the invitation for SORT TERM Visa.
In the Embassy page is written following: To get a short-term visa for private purposes (visiting Belarusian relatives, friends, other private matters) with the period of validation 30 days maximum for 1-, 2- or multiple entries for a citizen of EU as well as national of several other countries, such as Australia, Andorra, Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Chili, Island, Israel, Norway, Swiss Confederation, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, USA, Uruguay, Republic of South Africa, Japan NO VISA SUPPORT DOCUMENTS SHALL BE REQUIRED.
I have PERSONAL experience about the short term visa also-> I did not need Invitation. I just filled the paper that they told to fill. Really easy procedure.
[edit] Regions
Belarus needs to be broken down in to regions. If you are familiar with the country, please add to this discussion with any ideas! --Peter Talk 16:25, 13 February 2009 (EST)
- I would suggest to use the official division into oblasty (Minsk, Brest, Gomel', Vitebsk, Mogilev, Grodno). This division is more or less consistent with cultural specifics, and I do not know any other accepted way for dividing this country. Atsirlin 17:55, 13 February 2009 (EST)
[edit] Language
Which language do we use for Belarus? English transcriptions for names in Russian and Belorusian are different (e.g., Grodno – Hrodna, Mogilev – Mahilyow). I would prefer the Russian version, since most people (including myself;) do not know Belorusian, and the transcription of Belorusian names looks by far ambiguous. Russian is the official language of Belarus, but most road signs are written in Belorusian. What is the proper choice then? Atsirlin 05:54, 15 February 2009 (EST)
- The basic rule is that we use the most common English name, rather than a standard based on transliteration. The best way, I think, to determine which is the more common name in English is to do an advanced search on google [2] restricted to sites in the English language, and then see which term gets more page hits. Mogilev + Belarus gets about twice as many hits as Mahilyow + Belarus, so we should definitely use Mogilev. Grodno and Hrodna get nearly the exact same amount of hits (103,000 & 106,000), so I think it's fine to pick either one. In the individual city articles themselves, though, it would be nice to put both the Belorussian and Russian names in parentheses. --Peter Talk 20:54, 16 February 2009 (EST)
- Or follow Wikipedia, not because it's authority, but because they are populated by an incredible number of pedantics who like to discuss things far beyond the grave - which comes in handy for us, since then we don't have too :) also, it might be handy to make redirects where in doubt, so we don't end up with serveral guides for the same cities, since it's not too obvious that e.g. Mogilev is the same city as Mahilyow.--Stefan (sertmann) Talk 21:35, 16 February 2009 (EST)
[edit] Online courses
Hello, why this text is not allowed to stay in the article? -> "" There is also Belarusian laguage available as online courses ""
- Wikitravel is a guide, not a link to other guides or references, or secondary sources. Travellers may be interested in doing a course while travelling, so the physical language courses are allowed. Online courses are not. as they are just guides for travellers rather than an activity for them at the destination. See Wikitravel:External links. Feel free to contribute language information to the Wikitravel Phrasebook. --Inas 10:01, 27 April 2009 (EDT)
[edit] Belarusian river cruise development routes
Hello,
Why someone deleted this writing from the article from headline"By river boat cruises"? --> ""In Belarus there is number of excisting river cruises and a lot of routes are under development."" Link to discussion http://forum.esmasoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=4806&sid=5386a79705d7bdb3aeb963eafbe393e5 have many further links about development planned river routes in Belarus.
