Carrier refused to take Minsk resident on bus because her visa was set to become valid in four hours, but the border was further

Illustrative photo. Photo: BGmedia

A Belarusian woman shared on Threads that on the evening of April 18, she planned to travel from Minsk to Warsaw. However, the Ecolines driver did not allow her on the bus because her visa was set to become valid the following day. The girl was outraged by this — it was a four-hour drive to the border, and there was a bus queue before the "Brest" checkpoint, BGmedia reports.

Why the Minsk resident was not allowed on the bus, even though her visa became valid in a couple of hours

The Belarusian woman has already deleted her post on Threads, but BGmedia has a screenshot of it.

«Just now, they [Ecolines] did not let me on the bus to Warsaw because my visa starts on April 19.

The bus departs on April 18 at 20:00, it's at least a 4-hour drive to Brest, and there are over 30 buses at the border. From this, it follows that I would cross the border on April 19. However, Ecolines refused to provide the services I paid for, despite my reasoning.

They refuse to refund the money. Has anyone been in such a situation? Can I sue them?»

In the comments, the girl was advised to proceed as follows: travel to Brest by train or a regular bus, take a taxi to the border, and then, in the queue before the "Brest" checkpoint, look for this Ecolines bus. At 00:00 on April 19, according to the State Border Committee, there were 38 buses in the queue. Therefore, the girl could easily catch it at the border. Moreover, she could have also left on the morning of April 19.

Whether the author of the deleted post did so is unknown.

Ecolines: only passengers with a valid visa are allowed for transportation

On the ecolines.by website, at the beginning of the section "Rules for the carriage of passengers and luggage on international routes," the following is stated:

«Attention! Only passengers with a valid visa, the validity period of which has not expired on the date of the flight, are allowed for transportation to countries where a visa regime is established.»

And in point №3 "Rights and Obligations of Passengers and Carrier," there is the following paragraph:

«Upon boarding, the passenger is obliged to present valid travel documents that are active at the time of boarding the bus. [...] The carrier also has the right to refuse travel if the bus crew suspects that the travel documents may cause problems for the passenger with border services and delays during border crossing. [...] The carrier has the right to refuse travel if the validity period of the documents has not begun at the time of boarding the bus.»

It turns out that in this situation, Ecolines adhered to its own rules.

What people say

Commentators confirm that Ecolines is strict on this matter — it will not take passengers without a valid visa. Passengers are warned about this in advance at the company's offices.

However, judging by messages in border chats, other carriers often do not have such a problem if only a couple of hours remain until the visa becomes valid and there are queues at the border:

«My son and I were traveling; our bus was at 19:40 on December 21, and the visa became valid from December 22. Everything was fine; they took us.»

«We traveled with "Intercars." Visa from August 1. We boarded at 20:00 on July 31. Everything was fine. We only arrived in Brest at the beginning of the first hour.»

Users also write that Belarusian border guards do not check visas. Therefore, one can enter the Belarusian checkpoint even without a valid visa. The main thing is that it starts to be valid at the time of control at the European checkpoint.

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