Ukrainian Girl with Biometric Passport Wasn’t Allowed to Board a Bus to Bulgaria
Ukrainian girl with biometric passport wasn’t allowed to board Ecolines’ bus travelling to Bulgaria.
The Facebook user Olga Lents reported the incident on the social network and provided the photographic evidence of entry denial.
According to her post, the bus company employee denied access for 12 years old passenger with biometric passport due to the absence of visa.
“Yesterday my sister with her husband, 12 years old daughter, and three years old son didn’t manage to enter Bulgaria for vacation. They bought the tickets for Ecolines Company’s bus in advance, but the bus hostess Anna Karpenko refused to let them on board, because my sister’s daughter (aged 12) didn’t have a visa. My sister, her husband, and son have the German Schengen, but my niece’s visa had expired just before the visa-free regime was introduced“, – Olga wrote.
According to her, just the day before, the travels called to the Bulgarian Embassy and the Customs Service, and the both agencies responded that it was allowed to enter the country without visa based on the biometric passport, however, in Ecolines, the bus hostess apparently has the ultimate decision-making authorities.
In response to the question regarding the operation of visa-free regime between Ukraine and EU, hostess Karpenko stated that ‘they follow their own laws’.
The correspondent also added that the visa-free regime support service works only on business days and on Saturday in the morning hours, so it was impossible to get an emergency assistance beyond these hours.
“Ecolines isn’t going to refund the cost of tickets, since my sister and her family refused to travel themselves. They said they would process a compliant within 30 days! By the way, my sister already bought the return tickets” – Olga Lents wrote.
As you can see from the picture of ticket, the reason for boarding denial was: ‘travel denied – no visa, only biometrics’.
Let us note that Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has been already notified of the incident. Other Ecolines customers also confirm that the carrier does not exclude the possibility of such boarding denial.
“The hotline operator said the hostess is fully authorized to decide on such issues… We are waiting for explanations, refund and, as I hope, the apologies from the bus carrier“, – the user Elena Vashchenko wrote.
As you probably already know, in the early hours of June 11th, EU Member States introduced the visa-free regime for Ukraine. Therefore, after June 11th, any citizen of Ukraine who has received the biometric passport will be able to enter 30 European countries: i.e. all the EU Member States, except for United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway, without visa.
It means that Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus that do not belong to the Schengen zone, also will allow Ukrainian citizens to cross the border without visa after June 11th.
Ukrainians may stay within their territory up to 90 days every 180 days.
For more detailed information regarding the border crossing requirements during visa-free regime operation, please read the publications: “Regarding Visa-Free Regime. Which Documents the Ukrainians May Need to Present at the Border?” and “In Which Cases the Ukrainians Won’t Be Allowed into European Union – Explanations from Foreign Ministry”.
