hello everyone and welcome and welcome back to my place in Minsk I hope you're
having a lovely day wherever you are. VISA extensions - that is the topic
of this video specifically my experience recently extending my visa in Belarus
from 30 days to 90 days and at his period in this time of pandemic Covid- 9
crisis for many people that are travelling full time or may be stuck in
another country or have chosen not to go back to their home country you may be
facing an issue with extending visas this video is specifically about my
experience as I said however there may be some points the capture in this video
that might be helpful for you if you are in another country looking to extend
your visa so a bit of a recap first of all so I know that not all of you will
watch previous videos where I have touched on this briefly I was in Serbia
I was living in Serbia for a few months until about the 8th of March I then went
to see a friend of mine in Sweden for the weekend and lo and behold the EU
closed all the borders while I was in Sweden and also Serbia did as well (not in
the EU) so I couldn't go back to Serbia and I didn't choose to go back to the UK
more on that in a little bit so I decided to go to Minsk Belarus because
it was the only country in Europe where the borders were open to clarify the point
around why I didn't go back to the UK there seems to be this belief that
returning to your home country is the solution to everything it's not you know
particularly if you are someone like me who doesn't have a home in the UK the UK
is not my home I haven't lived there for four years I don't have anywhere to live
there I need to find somewhere else to stay and actually from people that have
spoken to many of you that are travelling you have chosen to stay in
the country you're not travelling just because
you're in another country that isn't your home country doesn't equal
traveling ok I spend six days a week at home working the other day I go out to
film a video there are no restrictions or lockdown or self-isolation or
anything like that in Belarus and I think you've seen from the videos I've
uploaded from here already there is no one around me I'm not interacting with
people is very deserted so just to get out of your head straight away that I'm
travelling I'm not the most traveling I do is go to the toilet and to bed and to
make poached eggs or beans on toast so obviously extending a visa will
depend on the country in this is a new experience for me so even though I've
been travelling in full time for four years and donlore travelling before
never been in a position where I've needed to extend a visa there are a
couple of times once in Thailand and Indonesia as well why I almost did it
but in the end I decided not to so this whole experience in Belarus has been
very new for me when it comes to Belarus you need to have or satisfy various
things before you can actually enter the country anyway regardless of coronavirus
so you need to have medical insurance you need to have proof of 25 euros for
the duration of your stay and you need to have an onward flight now with
medical insurance I use Revolut so if you don't know
about Revolut there's a link down in the description below where you can get
a revenue card it's basically a digital Bank if you like I do all of my
transactions on there and they also have a medical insurance which is great the
other thing on would travel we know about one would travel as long-term
travellers we don't always want to book a numbered flight because we don't know
where we're going to go so I use onward is it onward travel or it's onward
travel com I think it is it's down in the description below as well if you use
both of those links by the way I do get a bit of money for it like an affiliate
link but it's up to you so I did all of those things I satisfied all of those
things but ultimately they didn't actually ask me any of those things
anyway we're at the country but that is better to be safe than sorry right so
that's the regulations to get in to Belarus but when it comes to extending
your visa I did get told oh I just need to stay here and that's it and it's the
government's extended it to 90 days that was not the case the UK embassy which is
just around the corner told me that I still needed to apply for a 90 day exit
visa otherwise I would not be able to leave the country
so getting your exit visa in Belarus in a five step process
number one contact your embassy more than likely at this period they will be
closed so contact them on Facebook which is what I did they clarified with me
where I needed to go and the fact that I did actually need to apply for it the
second step was to look up where your nearest citizenship and migration office
is in Minsk itself there are about 10 of them so you just need to clarify again
with your embassy give them your address and they'll tell you which one you need
to go to step number two go to the citizenship and migration office and a
big tip and I'll cover some it's later is that if you don't speak
Russian or whatever country you're in if you don't speak the local language right
on your phone and translate it into that language a simple explanation of why
you're there and it works at least it worked for me and they will give you
various registration forms which you need to give to your Airbnb host or
whoever you're staying with and three pieces of paper which tell you how much
you need to pay yes you need to pay it's not a free visa extension. right I've been
given these, I've got to fill these out pay these amounts it's about a hundred
and fifty Belarussian rubles which I think is about fifty pounds and
I've got to come back here with Eleonora on another day as long as it's before
the seventeenth it should be fine it comes to about one hundred and fifty
Belarusian roubles which is about fifty pounds and sixty dollars if I remember
correctly that's the first step so take them home it was the second step but
step three is pay for your visa so go with your Airbnb host with those pieces
of paper which she or he will fill out and you have to pay at a bank so you'll
get three printouts which actually I've got one second yeah three printouts that
they give you at the bank to show that you are paid for your visa the next step
is around medical insurance so when you extend your visa in Belarus they don't
accept medical insurance policy documents in English you have to get
them translated to Russian another alternative is you can just go and buy
Belarusian medical insurance but from my experience it costs about 50 euros
ridiculously expensive so you can go to another place to get your medical
insurance officially professionally translated into Russian that only costs
twenty-five Belarusian roubles which is about eight pounds ten US dollars so
it's considerably more affordable hello everyone I'm in a lift but I have my
English copy of my medical insurance and Russian, brilliant, the final step step
number five is to take your Airbnb host or wherever you're staying with to the
migration office they need to fill out the forms that you got on the first
visit and basically it really helps having that person
there because they can talk in Russian you don't have to worry about the whole
drama and basically wait about an hour and they give you a exit visa and exit
things are on a blank page in your passport so you're good to go
brilliant you can stay in Belarus for 90 days so I'm now here until the middle of
June potentially I'll have to keep checking what's going to happen in terms
of borders opening things like that but some tips let's give you some other tips
as I said having someone that speaks Russian is really important without that
this would have been a disaster the second tip is around the fact that as an
Airbnb host in Belarus they need to register you online with the local
migration office and as an Airbnb host they need to pay the government a
certain amount of money when they have a guest so it's in their best interests
for them to come with you so don't worry about you know oh they're not going to
help me because my Airbnb host has been an absolute gem and the third one is a
bit of an obvious one make sure you have a blank page in your packet in your
Facebook in your passport and it has at least six months of validity like when
we go anywhere you would have to have six months and the last one which
definitely worked definitely much definitely applies to all these
extensions if you know what I mean, be patient it's not going to be a five minute job
but it takes you know half an hour if you know what I mean it's gonna take
time be patient you know don't kick off because it's
taking a while it's a different country it's not something you know the space
might be a bit slower than you may be used to so just keep that in mind you'll
get there in the end I did brilliant and lastly the point about not going back to
the UK you see in the thumbnail that I said I ignored the UK embassy yes the UK
and the embassy have said that all British nationals should be going back to the UK
but for me that's just not the solution as I said I don't have anywhere to stay
there I don't thought it through this with you but I'm not travelling so I'm
in one place I'm not risking the lives of others by going out every single day
I only go to the supermarket every couple of days to get some food things
like that so you know if you're thinking that oh we need to go back home because
everyone else is going home it's not necessary this is my home right now
alright so um yeah you don't necessarily have to follow what the embassies
our company if I'm saying that because you should I should be being a good
youtuber and saying it but that's the reality I didn't do it it worked for me
so thanks for watching I hope that's helped to anyone that is stuck in
Belarus probably not many of you but nevermind yeah I think Indonesia was a
bit of a trauma because it was kind of similar when you have to go to various
places again and again to get your visa unless you use an agency I think
Thailand's a bit simpler you take I think it was like nineteen hundred bar
or something you can go and extend your visa obviously the other option is do a
visa run which I can't do at the moment I could have gone to Lithuania or Poland
and back again and but I can't because they're closed
fantastic so and thanks for watching I'll see you next time lovely