How to cross the border of Transnistria (2015)

Transnistria is the country that welcomes foreign visitors although there is still not too many of them to be found there. However their number keeps on growing and that is why we decided to write this post. Maybe you will have a chance to visit this country once and thanks to us you will know exactly how to corss Transnistrian border. The prcedure is similar to the procedures on every Russian or Belarus border.

TRANSNISTRIA BORDER CROSSINGS

Let’s start from a good information that EU and USA visitors do not need to have any visa. That saves you not only money but also time you would spen’t on applying for it. If you are from the country that needs to apply for visa to Moldova, do it because it will be necessary for you to enter Transnistria. Even if you enter and exif from Ukranine.   

There are several border crossings in Transnistria. There is one with Ukraine in Kuchurgan-Pervomaysk and many on Moldovan border: Bender-Chisinau, Dubassari-Chisinau, Rabnita-Rezina plus one with both Ukraine and Moldova – Camenca. So far we have had a chance to use two of them Bender-Chisinau and Kuchurgan-Pervomaysk.

PROCEDURE AT THE BORDER CROSSING

As we said the procedure is similar to Russian so anybody who has been to Russia before will find it easy. 

First thing you need to do after getting to the border is to fill in the immigration card. It is avaliable at officer’s desk. You don’t have to fill it in using Moldovan, use English but make it clear and readable. If you are visiting Transnistria for longer than one day you should put in the migration card the address where you are staying for the night. Present it together with your passport to customs officer, he will stamp and return you the part of this paper. Put it in your passport and keep it there for the whole time of your stay in Transnistria. You will be asked to return this immigration card when leaving the country. 

Everything should be free of charge, crossing the border should not require from you any cash. Whatever money they request from you, don’t pay, it’s illegal. When we crossed this border in 2015 we have to admitt that everything looked very good, new booths for officers, nice people and nobody even thought about asking for any money. Another thing was in the same place two years earlier but it’s a long story. Maybe it’s because our little baby daughter Ola we got that special attitude this time….

TAKING YOUR CAR TO TRANSNISTRIA

All above reffers to crossing the border on foot or by bus. When you come up with an idea of taking a car to Transnistria it is not so easy any more. Personal procedure is the same but more paperwork for car is required. You have to import the car to Transnistria for the time of your stay. To do it you will need some more documents such as registration certificate, travel passport and of course have to pay the customs (0,18% of the car value) plus 5 Euro tollage. We haven’t tried that as our Moldovan rental company did not allow us take their car to Transnstria at all but do not really regret that. There is no any special parking at Bender-Chisinau crossing, we just left the car smoewhere before the customs booths and looked around for the taxi.

REGISTER YOUR STAY IN TRANSNISTRIA

There is one last thing connected with customs procedures – registration. Just like in the other Eastern state you have to register your stay in the country. It desn’t apply when your stay is shorter than 10 hours. For such time you don’t have to do anything but if staying longer you are obliged to do the registration. If staying in the hotel don’t worry about anything, they will do all the paperwork for you but when you want to stay at private people’s houses you will have to visit migration department in Tiraspol with your pasport and register your stay.

That would be it as far as formal sides of visiting Transnistria as concerned. Now you know everything and can pack your backpack and get on your trip to Tiraspol.