New Visa Regulations in Ukraine as of September 10, 2011

Ukraine has been steadily bringing its immigration control in accordance with European standards. This has meant a gradual decline in the numbers of expats getting away with long-term unofficial residency in Ukraine. More and more, the 90/180 rule is being enforced, just like the Schengen zone countries, the U.K., and many others worldwide.

The latest development is that previous visa categories are going to be abolished and replaced with a simpler system with just three visa types: transit, short-term, and long-term. The first two will be of no use to nationals of countries enjoying visa-free visits to Ukraine (within the 90/180 day rule).

It is not yet clear whom long-term visas will be issued to, besides those with work permits. Presumably students and those with family ties will be included in the list. There is a small chance that there will be other groups as well (I have my fingers crossed).

Currently valid visas will NOT lose their validity after these changes are made, and their terms and conditions will remain valid through expiration. Any new visas issued after Sept. 10 will naturally belong to one of the new categories.

We also very much hope for a simplification of the registration process which is almost always quite a bit more difficult than getting the visa itself. A tightening of the visa procedures should be accompanied by simplification of related paperwork, i.e. registration, work permit issuing, and obtaining temporary and permanent residency papers. There is no good reason to keep native English (and other language) teachers from teaching their languages in Ukraine legally. So work permit regulations should be simplified to make it possible for more schools to comply. Now, in order for that to happen, many aspects of government relations with small business might need to be changed...

Official sources: http://www.mfa.gov.ua/uk/en/announce/detail/4663.htm, http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/message_09012011.html

Back to Ukraine after a 3 month absence

After over three months backpacking around Europe, I'm back in Kiev. It's great to be back in the only place where I feel like a local. Things are quite cheap here compared to much of western Europe (my last stop was Oslo — my goodness!).

This time things are a bit different than during my previous stays in Ukraine, which were mostly long-term and continuous. This time I entered without a visa using the visa-free regime and plan to spend no more than 90 days here. Then I'll leave and move somewhere for a while before coming back to Ukraine. It is extremely annoying, but there appears to be no reasonable way that I can live here year-round even with 9 years in Ukraine under my belt and an independent source of income coming from outside Ukraine.

If I wanted to legally stay here year-round, probably the only options I have are to find a cheap university that could get me a student visa even if I don't actually attend or only do so occasionally, or to find an employer who would get me a work permit even if my work there is nominal. However, last years' experience with work permits and registration was a nightmare I would rather not repeat.

It's just not worth all the effort right now. I will use this situation to get to know some other countries, too, spending no more than half my time in Ukraine. That's the silver lining on this cloud. I'm particularly interested in Georgia and the more liberal Stans where Russian is a prevalent second language. Georgia, by the way, allows 1-year visa-free entry...

I'm crossing my fingers that upcoming changes in Ukraine's visa regime will allow for more categories of people to apply for residency. For instance, those that have >n years of experience in the country, or those that do not work in Ukraine but have an external source of income (that would be me).

Registration Checks at Ukrainian Border Crossings

I would like to tell about my two most recent border crossing experiences, both of which involved a careful check of my duration of stay in the country and whether or not I had registered with the OVIR.

1. Borypsil Airport, August 2010

I had a new visa from the Krakow Ukrainian Consulate on the heels of a [in hindsight rather pointless] 3-month visa. After asking around online and talking to the Kiev central OVIR, I had concluded that the new visa would probably allow me to have 90 days in the country before being required to register. At the border checkpoint at the airport I was told that this was not the case and that the new visa had no bearing on the 90/180 rule. In essence, this means that under their interpretation if you stay in Ukraine 80-90 days without a visa and leave to get a visa, after reentering the country on visa you will have to register promptly before being allowed to leave the country without paying a fine, even if you only spent 0-10 days in the country with your new visa. However, the central city OVIR may have a different interpretation and may decline to register you until closer to 90 days have passed since your most recent entrance to Ukraine.

Basically, the border guard told me I was in violation and had his boss come out to talk to me. The boss say I would have to pay a fine, emphasizing that the procedure took several hours to write up properly and that I could "take a later flight." I was already almost late to my flight because of issues with my carry-on baggage, which included some metal backpacking gear, and the guard new this because he had requested my ticket along with my passport. I told them there was no "later flight" and that I would not take my trip after all, but would remain in Kiev. At this point I honestly thought my chances of leaving the country were about nil, and I didn't care anymore because of all the problems and the fact that I hadn't slept at all the previous night.

After some hemming and hawing back and forth between the guards, the boss muttered something and left. The guard gave me back my passport and told me I was "incredibly lucky." I couldn't believe it.

I have never paid a bribe in over 8 years of living in Ukraine, and I'm happy that I didn't break with that tradition. I am almost certain that the border guards were setting me up to bribe them in the back room in order to make my flight.

2. Zhuliany airport, May 2011

WizzAir now flies out of Zhuliany, not Boryspil. This is good news, because Zhuliany is actually within city boundaries. I got there by bus for 2.50 UAH (31 US cents). At the border crossing, the guard entered my information into the computer and looked carefully at my visas, stamps, and registration. The registration covered my current stay in Ukraine beyond my exit date, so there was no problem there. But he noticed that there was a problem before the registration -- the same "problem" that the previous border guards had noticed. He spent several minutes talking to his colleague in the booth about the situation, then went out into the back room to talk to the boss. As he was returning down the hall, I heard (in Russian) -- "if he's got that mark [i.e. OVIR registration], that means he's already paid [a fine]." I gathered that the border guard was inquiring about the possibility of fining me for a past infringement. Finally, he came back, apologized for the delay, smiled, and gave me my passport.

Moral of the story: airport border guards are looking at your residency information very carefully these days.

May in Ukraine: Beware of Ticks!

It's May in Ukraine — arguably the prettiest time of year for travel, sightseeing, and enjoying the outdoors. The weather is mild, the trees are covered in unbelievably bright green leaves, and flowering plants are in bloom. Flies are just beginning to appear, but there are few, if any, mosquitos.

This is the time to visit botanical gardens (there are two in Kyiv — a small one next to Universitetska metro station and a large one near Arsenalna station), begin sunbathing, travel to Crimea (not in the summer when it's often intolerably hot), and take road trips to all those obscure destinations you've always wanted to see around Ukraine.

One of the few things you'll need to worry about during this blissful but brief period is ticks ("клещи"). May seems to be their busiest month, and they tend to taper off through the summer. Ticks around Ukraine have been known to carry encephalitis, though cases seem to be very rare.

After spending time outside (on the grass, at botanical gardens, in the forest, etc.), you should check your body over for ticks. They can be a bit hard to see, and prefer areas where the skin is soft — behind the knees, around the tops of thighs and in the groin area, around the armpits, etc. It usually takes them quite a while to crawl up to a good spot, so you often have a good half hour or so to nab them.

Ticks can be removed with tweezers (taking care to grab it as close to the skin as possible), by applying oil and gently rolling the tick over and over with a circular motion (may take 5 seconds to 5 minutes), or by using special "tick tweezers" which one can find in the U.K. and some other places.

Old Soviet Film Festival at Zhovten Cinema in Kiev

Many people in the former USSR have a soft spot for Soviet movies. You can find out why every Wednesday at 10 am at the "Zhovten" (October) movie theater in Kiev (Podil district), just a 5 minute walk from m. Kontraktova Ploscha.

A schedule of the movies can be found on the theater's website. The festival started last week with a showing of Белорусский вокзал and will continue till the end of August. Admission is free! Be prepared for an elderly audience, though, and there are no subtitles, so you'll need to know some Russian to enjoy the movies.

On the first day of the festival there were some addresses by the people who run the cinema and by a well-known singer and performer. All the old people were given flowers, and there was a small TV crew there that filmed parts of the pre-film presentation, focusing in on some of the whitest heads and most stooping backs. I was one of a small handful of young people.

Soviet cinema is a sentimental subject for these older people. It was a different era with different values and different social institutions. Many of them still feel lost in today's society. For these people, the Soviet times were a period with some sacrifices and difficulties, but all in all it was a kinder society with much more solidarity and security. Soviet-era films are like a glimpse into that bygone world. I usually find these movies refreshing and starkly different from modern, high-tech cinema. Белорусский вокзал (Belorussian Train Station), for instance, is a very minimalist, but moving film about the bonds of friendship and how they can be rekindled many years later.

Finding a Gym in Ukraine

Gyms are all over the place in Ukraine, usually a short walk from nearly any residential neighborhood. In my experience, Ukrainian gyms can be divided into three categories:

1. Inexpensive, Soviet-era "proletariat" gyms with old equipment, and semi-commercial gyms at local schools. A single visit may cost up to $2, and monthly passes may or may not exist. Classes like aerobics, shaping, yoga, and martial arts may or may not be available. Usually no Internet presence.
2. Middle-to-upper-class gyms with prices from $30 to $80/mo. (Kiev) depending on how often you intend. Good, modern equipment, ventilation, music, protein drinks, lockers, shower, etc. Some have fitness rooms for aerobics, pilates, yoga, etc. etc. Easy to find online.
3. Upper-crust fitness clubs with high prices and a wide variety of fitness and wellness activities. Not hard to find online.

My experience is with categories #1 and #2. Currently I visit Stimul Gym in Podol. It has a lot of equipment, in places a bit too tightly packed. The TVs in the rooms show fashion models, and the music is usually electronic and energetic, but not masculine enough. This is a bit annoying.

To find gyms in your city, do a search on "спортзал" ("gym") and the name of the city in Ukrainian or Russian. The registration procedure is very straightforward, and you do not have to commit to months at a time. You can come in, register, and immediately do a workout. Most gyms expect you to bring a second pair of shoes for wearing in the gym.

Garbage Scenes Around Kiev

Taking pictures of garbage is one of my favorite pastimes. I do it when I go hiking in Crimea or the Carpathians (where garbage is most out of place) and recently have been pulling out my camera more and more often in Kiev.

Garbage has its own aesthetics. It can be strikingly dramatic, colorful, grotesque. It tells a story about the side of things we don't always see.

Here are some recent shots from Kiev:

This is a view of the artists' market on Andreevsky Spusk that so many foreigners know so well. Paintings are put up in makeshift sheds covered with plastic on an empty plot of bare ground. Behind the impromptu market is a communal waste heap of plastic, glass, food scraps and waste (left by homeless people). Right next to these heaps there is a nice old building with expensive apartments. With little vegetation to stabilize it, the slope is gradually eroding.

Here's a lake near Petrovka metro station.

A closer look at the garbage reveals the usual plastic and glass bottles, drink cartons, and a bit of furniture.

Ukraine National Clean-up Day: April 16, 2011

Want to help Ukrainians get out and clean up their own parks, streets, and squares? Check out the website http://letsdoit.org.ua/ (Ukrainian only). All over the country, on April 16 at 10:45 pm groups of people will be given garbage bags and tools (if necessary) and will spend 3 hours cleaning up.

To participate, you'll need to sign up at http://letsdoit.org.ua/node/add/join, call their phone number 099 24-54-838 or write to the e-mail given on the website. They'll give you your location for the day to make sure that volunteers (they're calling them "activists") will be evenly spread out around the city.

Credit Card Fraud in Ukraine: "It Can't Happen to Me"

All of us know that credit card fraud happens, but many believe that "it can't happen to me." Here's a story I recently learned of first-hand from an expat who makes frequent trips to Ukraine for periods of several weeks or months at a time.

This man experienced bank card fraud twice in one year in Ukraine. The first time the bank figured something was amiss and gave him a call to notify they were cancelling a suspicious transaction. The second time no action was taken by the bank. The expat printed out withdrawal statements and was preparing to scan them and send them to his bank to contest withdrawals amounting to many thousands of dollars.

These withdrawals were all performed in St. Petersburg, Russia over a span of a week or more. One was on the same day that he withdrew money in China (an obvious sign of fraud). He hopes his bank will cancel the withdrawals and he will not lose the money.

I asked how he might have prevented this situation. He said he used his bank card (a debit card) to get cash out of ATMs and to pay at restaurants and stores. He didn't know where his information might have been stolen. Since this happened to him twice in one year, he suspects it might be fairly common among expats in Ukraine. (That's why I'm writing this post.)

I have spent a total of 10 years in Ukraine and Russia and have not had any experiences like this, but I have only used my debit cards to withdraw money from ATMs. I have never used them to pay for things in Ukraine/Russia. I have also not been particularly discriminate in which ATMs I use; usually I just use whatever ATM is handiest. So far so good... But other expats have recommended using only ATMs located inside banks. This is probably sound advice.

Perhaps the most important thing one can to do protect against fraud is to use a debit card rather than a credit card, and to keep the balance in the account reasonably low so that if fraud occurs you will not lose very much money. The expat I talked to was preparing to set up another account from which he will transfer money to his checking account as necessary rather than storing funds in the checking account that is tied to the debit card.

This is something worth thinking about and preparing for. Have you taken steps to protect yourself from bank fraud?

Bila Tserkva: a Quick Getaway Trip from Kiev

I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for places to take outings around Kiev to unwind and get work done at the same time. The best destinations can be reached efficiently with a minimum of waiting around or trying to find what you're looking for.

Bila Tserkva definitely falls into that category. Below is my description of how to get there and have an enjoyable and unusually efficient trip. It's not exactly how we did it (with a lot of trial and error), but it's definitely how we'll do it when we go again in 2 or 3 weeks to enjoy the springtime flowers and budding trees.

DAY 1

Sometime in the morning or afternoon (depending on when you can get off work and other obligations) head down to Lybedska metro station and ask around for the minibuses ("marshrutki") to Bila Tserkva ("Belaya Tserkov" in Russian). Buses leave every 30 minutes, and the trip takes 70 to 80 minutes total. Cost: 20 UAH ($2.50 USD).

The end stop in Bila Tserkva is right in front of the hotel where I recommend staying. It's called "Klark" but is commonly known by its former name — "Dom priezzhikh" (Дом приезжих in Russian). If you arrive after 14.00 you can check in immediately, otherwise you'll need to come back later after you've done some sightseeing (another reason to pack as light as possible and wear a comfortable backpack!).

A simple double room at Klark costs 220 UAH ($28 USD) and comes with its own bathroom with hot and cold water, a TV, and — if you're lucky — Wi-Fi. If the wireless signal does not reach your room, it is available in the halls and lounges and the restaurant. There are outlets in the lounges and the network is not password protected. Internet seems to be reliable and fast.

The main attraction in Bila Tserkva is famous Aleksandria Park. If you get tired of large landscape parks, there are more usual sights in the center of town — i.e. churches, shopping centers, a central square with a Lenin statue, and other characteristic Soviet buildings and infrastructure.

It's easy to get to Aleksandria Park. If you're looking out from the entrance of Klark hotel, walk right about 100 yards to the nearest bus stop and take any one of several buses. #22 seems to run the most often. Fare is 1.50 UAH and you'll need to get off in about 4 stops. If you're uncertain, ask for Aleksandria Park. When you get out, look across the street diagonally and you'll see the park entrance with busts of Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko on either side (these famous Russian and Ukrainian poets and writers visited Bila Tserkva).

An entrance ticket costs 8 UAH ($1 USD) unless you're a student or pensioner. The park is really nice — one of my all-time favorites. Up there with Pavlovskiy Park outside of St. Petersburg, and certainly more interesting than Kiev's Pirohovo Museum from a purely landscape design perspective. There are a number of cascading lakes, and the river Ros forms one of the boundaries of the park.

The best time of year to visit the park is probably between April 10th to the end of October. Spring and fall are particularly spectacular.

Personally, I am happy to spend 3-4 hours in a park like this exploring its perimeter. It is a large park — you've been warned. You can walk 12-15 km here without repeating any routes. Note that working hours are 8 am to 4:45 pm, so you'll need to be careful to get out in time.

After visiting the park, you can head back to the hotel and work online (my option), have dinner, etc. Taking your own food from home is a good way to save time and money, but there are also inexpensive dining options right next to the hotel.

The restaurant on the first floor of Klark hotel seems pretty decent, and you get a 10% discount if you tell the hotel administrator you're going to be going to the restaurant. A full dinner for two will probably cost between 120 and 240 UAH ($15-30 USD) depending on your appetite and taste for expensive drinks. The restaurant has a distinctly Soviet interior, as does the hotel — not necessarily a bad thing, but actually strangely nostalgic.

Another option is "Mirage" cafe located about 100 meters further down the street from the above mentioned bus stop. The cafe offers a rather staggering array of meat dishes and is quite busy, which is a good sign. Here two people can have a full meal for about 120 UAH ($15 USD).

DAY 2

Sleep in or work online or whatever till no later than noon, when you'll need to check out of the hotel. Head to Aleksandria Park for round 2 and leave for Kiev in the later afternoon. Minibuses leave from right in front of Klark hotel and take you to Lybedska metro station for 20 UAH.

PHOTO ALBUM

(shot with a simple iPod camera)







Entrance to the park, with busts of Alexander Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko on either side.

Church in the center of Bila Tserkva.

"Klark" hotel and restaurant.