Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe, and yet there are only a few travelers visiting it. Due to several internal conflicts in 2014, Ukraine had no choice but to close the country down in order to protect its territory. It was only as recently as 2019 that the country started to open its borders and welcome tourists and explorers like us to experience its beautiful culture.
In 2019, Ukraine has finally opened up and extended its E-Visa platform to over 52 countries around the world, and together with its EU ties (with most European countries already exempted from the Visa), the country is planning to capitalize on the tourism boom happening all over Europe.
As I learned about this, without hesitation, I decided to apply for a Ukrainian E-Visa right away. After traveling for a month in Ukraine, I am here to tell you about my personal experience applying for a Ukrainian E-Visa, the documents I prepared, and things I wish I knew before applying for a Ukrainian E-Visa.
Let's begin with the first question you should ask yourself: Do I need a visa for Ukraine?
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Do I Need a Visa for Ukraine?
If you hold a European passport, it is very likely that your country is exempt from the visa requirement, and you should be able to travel to Ukraine freely without having to apply for anything.
If you want to know whether your country is exempted or not, please consult the official list of entry policies for each country.
If you are required to get a visa before arriving, do not sweat as you might be eligible for the E-Visa, as I was. If you are from one of the following countries, you are eligible to get an E-Visa for Ukraine:
Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Oman, Palau, Peru, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Thailand, Timor Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
If your country is not exempt from the visa and is not on the list above, unfortunately, you will have to apply for it in the regular way by visiting the nearest Ukraine embassy and applying in person.
I have a Thai Passport, so I am eligible for an E-Visa, and the process of applying for one is pretty much the same across the board. Therefore, even if you are from Australia or New Zealand, you can use this guide to help you with the application process.
What to Prepare for a Ukrainian E-Visa Application?
Like other countries, there are strict requirements for the documents you have to prepare to apply for an E-Visa. Here is a complete list of things I prepared before applying for a Ukrainian E-Visa:
- Photo: One 2x2 inch photo of you, shot for the purpose of applying for a visa (solid colored background, straight face, includes all features of your face, etc.) in a JPEG format. For me, I always have these on hand, so I simply capture the image with my phone, crop it, and upload it to your application on a Ukrainian E-Visa website.
- A Copy of Passport: One scanned version of your passport in JPEG format.
- Health Insurance: It can be any insurance from your home country as long as it covers at least 30,000 EUR. Simply buy one online and attach it to your application on the Ukrainian E-Visa website.
- Proof of Sufficient Funds: One copy of a 3-month bank statement with an amount of money that covers your entire trip in Ukraine. I just got mine from my online bank website and attached a 3-month transaction history I saved in PDF form to my application.
- Document Confirming the Purpose of Visit: Hotel bookings for the duration of your stay and flights in and out of the country. I have essentially attached a PDF document containing my one-month accommodation booking from Booking.com along with my arrival and departure flight itineraries.
And that's basically all of it. In your online e-visa application, you will have the option to upload these 5 documents, so be sure to prepare them in 5 files: 1 x JPEG photo of you, 1 x JPEG image of your passport, 1 x PDF/JPEG of 3 months' bank transactions, 1 x PDF/JPEG of travel insurance plan, and 1 x PDF of your accommodation and flight confirmation (make sure these are all in one PDF).
For an official list of documents required, visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: An Official Checklist of Documents Required to Apply for a Ukrainian E-Visa.
One important thing to keep in mind is that they only allow you to upload files that are 2 MB or lower in size each, which is quite problematic when it comes to preparing the "Document Confirming the Purpose of Visit" PDF.
Make sure to optimize your PDF and JPEG so that their sizes are below the given limit, and ensure that all documents are readable. There have been reports that they might reject your application if they cannot read the contents of your documents.
For an online application to optimize your PDF and JPEG files, you can try PDF Resizer.
How Long Does it Take to Get the E-Visa?
They mentioned on the website that for E-Visa application, it will take no more than 10 business days to receive the result.
BUT from my experience, they can be a few days late, so it is very important that you apply at least a month in advance before your departure date, unless you want to pull your hair out as I did when I received my application result a day before my flight!
I submitted my application for a Ukrainian E-Visa on the 29th of May 2019 with a departure date of the 13th of June 2019, thinking that it would take less than 10 business days to get it approved. Two weeks passed, and numerous unanswered phone calls to the E-Visa department made me consider canceling my flight to Ukraine. However, an email arrived in the evening of the 12th of June 2019, just a day before my flight.
How Early Should I Apply for a Ukrainian E-Visa?
Unless you like living on the edge of your seat, I do not recommend applying for the E-Visa 10 business days prior to your departure date. Make sure you give it a week or two of buffer time, just in case of unforeseen delays when applying for a Ukrainian E-Visa.
Is it Difficult to Get a Ukrainian E-Visa?
The application process itself is pretty straightforward and can be completed in about an hour or so if you have all your documents prepared in the right file size and format.
After you have submitted your application, all you can do is wait (this may take up to 10 business days) as they will go into radio silence until your application gets registered and approved, which should happen instantly following the registration.
When your application is being registered, you should receive a confirmation email with a subject line as follows: "Registration of an e-Visa application form." The email simply means that someone has finally taken the time to look at your application.
In 10-20 minutes after the registration email, you will receive another confirmation email with a subject line "E-Visa issuance". This email is the result of your E-Visa application, and if your application is approved, the E-Visa PDF will be attached to this email, and you are all set to travel to Ukraine.
What is the Validity of a Ukrainian E-Visa?
For a tourist visa, you will get the number of days reflected on your itinerary, which should not exceed 90 days within a 180-day period. The attached itinerary confirms 30 days of accommodation, so the E-visa I received was valid for 30 days after my flight for a single entry.
You can ask for a maximum of 90 days in a 180-day period on a tourist visa (type-C), and you can get either single, double, or multiple entries depending on the itinerary you have attached to your application.
Simply put, applying for a Ukrainian E-Visa is similar to applying for any country within the Schengen zone, as they will only grant you the number of days you requested in your visa application. Therefore, make sure to attach an itinerary that accurately reflects the duration of your intended stay and the number of entries you will require for your trip.
How Much Does a Ukrainian E-Visa Cost?
For a Ukrainian E-Visa, it will cost you 85 USD per application and it is non-refundable if you get rejected. That said, I heard that some people were able to reapply immediately after they got rejected without having to pay another 80 USD in the case of missing or unreadable documents.
What Travel Insurance to Use for a Ukrainian E-Visa?
In order to apply for a Ukrainian E-Visa, you are required to attach your travel insurance plan that covers the period you are in Ukraine. Fortunately, Ukraine is not as strict as when applying for a Schengen Visa, where you will need to buy one from an approved company.
For Ukraine, most of the local travel insurances are accepted as long as the plan clearly states the amount of accidental coverage that exceeds 30,000 EUR.
Ukraine Travel Video
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18 Comments
thank you so much for writing this post !! i learned so much from it, but may i ask you a EMERGENCY question?( im in russia now hitchhike all across russia) do i must attatched" airplane ticket of arrival and departure?" because i am planning to hitchhike in ukraine. i checked the official website they didnt say we need to have ticket , so may i ask you ??
Hey Eric,
I don't have direct experience traveling from Russia and this will depend entire on your nationality as well but if the website doesn't say you need it, then I think that's good enough. Just make sure you are looking at the right list. :)
Thank you so much for this information. I would like to confirm one thing about the Flight tickets. Is it mandatory to book confirmed flight tickets or just an Itinerary enough?
Hi Shameer,
The information they provided wasn't clear when I applied and so I got the confirmed flight tickets and they approved my application so if you can, I would recommend you get the confirmed flight tickets but if you do not want to pay for it, I believe a confirmed itinerary provided by either a travel agency or an airline should be enough.
Very informative! BTW, you should update the eligible countries for the e-visa. Philippine is one of the eligible countries. Cheers!
Great Blog BUT do you mind mentioning a bit more about the consular fee payment ?
As I have not received a link to pay the consular fees.
thanks in advance
If I remember correctly, you pay when you submit your application. Have you submitted the application? If you did, your application should be under Submitted visa applications section and you should have already paid for it.
I applied for my E visa on 2nd of November and my flight is on 1st of December. Does anybody know if I’m likely to get the visa before my flight?
Hello Pete,
It is such a lovely blog and helps in every aspect. Just a quick question regarding passport validity to apply for e-vsia? I have Indian passport do I need 3 months or 6 months validity to apply?
Hey Amit,
There's a high chance you will get your visa by then but it could be at the 11th hour because they tend to do that there. Otherwise, you can try calling them up (it's hard to get a whole of them but you can if you try long enough) a week before your flight. I hope this helps!