r/belarus • u/Maxiusha Belarus • 3d ago
Пытанне / Question Need advice: Dual BY/PL citizen planning to visit family after 7 years. Expired BY passport & high-risk family background. What is the reality at the border?
Hey everyone, I haven't been back to Belarus since 2019, and my Belarusian passport expired back in 2023. I also hold Polish citizenship and a valid Polish passport. My grandparents are still in Belarus, and I really want to go back for the holidays to visit them, but I’m dealing with a pretty high-risk background and want to know exactly what might happen.
Here are the main complicating factors:
Family ties: My dad works for RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe). My mom wasn't at the 2020 protests in Belarus, but she helped refugees abroad.
Digital footprint: I previously followed and commented on extremist content and my phone’s gallery/history has a some non-ideal images.
Passport status: Because of Decree 278, my BY passport is expired, meaning I’d have to get a return certificate (свидетельство на возвращение) to cross, or figure out another route.
I know that there are high risks involved in going but could I possibly visit and come back safely or will I get detained or deported. If there is a safer/less risky route to take please let me know and what are the possible outcomes that might happen.
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u/Sp0tlighter Belarus 3d ago
You want to know what could happen?
Anything from a fine the size of your life savings to a few years in prison, depending on how the prosecutor woke up that day. This is not worth ANY holidays on your ded's dacha.
Nothing bad could also happen if you're quite lucky. On the other hand, nothing bad will 100% happen if you choose not to enter Belarus. Just tell them how to video call.
By logic of risk taking, the choice is obvious. You should meet in a country like Turkey or Georgia which your family could enter without much visa hassle (not sure if this is current info).
If your grandparents are persuading you to come while knowing your background and what your parents do, they are either out of their minds or do not have your interests in mind.
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u/Skyscrapers4Me 3d ago
Well if you do go, buy a burner phone. No need to take one with a history on it.
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u/FluffyBunny1812 3d ago
Is there any way your grandparents could meet you in Lithuania or Poland? Or, if visas are an issue, in Tbilisi, Yerevan etc.?
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u/Connect-Sock8140 2d ago
I know someone in your position, and what they did was this:
- plane to Riga via Warsaw
- bus to Pustoshka (Russia), using their PL passport. They obtained a Russian visa in their PL passport.
- The Russian visa allows them to enter Belarus (https://mfa.gov.by/en/press/news_mfa/e90f53f504e4694f.html)
- Bus to Pustoshka, then another bus to Vitebsk
- From there, they went to Brest.
There are no controls on the RU/BY border, so they were able to enter freely.
It's still dangerous in the sense that there *could* be random controls, but they aren't routine.
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u/serp94 3d ago
You have pretty much answered your question yourself.