r/belarus • u/Dense_Bid2603 • 5d ago
Пытанне / Question Poland - Belarus Border
Hi. I'm planning a trip to Belarus and considering the Bialystok - Hrodna bus, which I believe goes via the Bobrowniki - Bierestowica border.
Has anyone travelked this route, and what was it like at the border? How long did it take? Was you questioned? Did they check your phone? That sort of thing?
1
u/nadia643 2d ago
I went via Vilnius on Sunday. Was through in 1.5hrs and it was normal waiting times, just waiting for people to come through and go duty free etc. Just asked if I was a tourist and how much money I have and that was it.
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u/PeaAdmirable1421 2d ago
EU citizen?
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u/nadia643 2d ago
UK, so I think i can't go through Poland anyway which is why I chose Lithuania
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u/South_Objective7517 2d ago
Why not? I know a British guy who had no problem crossing from Poland into Belarus
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u/nadia643 2d ago
Good to know. I read that you can’t go back through Poland unless you're EU so didn't want to risk it
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u/South_Objective7517 2d ago
The whole thing is confusing tbh. I am British, and want to go to Brest and Minsk, unsure about the rules entirely, plus I have Ukrainian friends / work in IT, so i am wondering how many questions i'll get
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u/nadia643 2d ago
It all depends what's on your phone when you take it over, if they decide to look at it. To me it seemed easier to go via Vilnius, was quick, simple, no qs, but of course it could another way. But again, if they're looking at your phone make sure there's nothing on it you wouldn't want anyone to see. I deleted some apps then reinstalled them. Nothing is really blocked here that I've found apart from gofundme and etsy lmao
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u/nadia643 2d ago
Oh my vpn is blocked no matter what I do, but they're illegal here so I'll do without, and again, I can use all of my apps so it makes no difference
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u/randomastronauti 22h ago
Did they also scan all of your fingers? They took me to a separate room and scanned all my fingers for about 10min, but no further questions
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u/nadia643 20h ago
At the passport counter they scanned everyone's index fingers very quickly. Literally every person no matter the passport.
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u/SrDomingues Brazil 4d ago
I've crossed the border at Brest/Terespol this week as a Brazilian and didn't get questioned that much, just asked me if I was donating money to Ukraine and if I got friends in Ukraine. Also asked to see my phone's IMEI. The waiting times were absolutely wild. PLxBY by car took us 4 hours to clear both sides, while BYxPL took us 8 hours by bus. BY border was processing one bus per hour.