On the night of Sunday, June 11, the visa-free border crossing regime between Ukraine and the Schengen Area member states came into effect. As reported by the Department of Consular Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, immediately after midnight on Sunday, the first reports began to arrive about Ukrainian citizens crossing the EU border without visas.
According to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, over four million Ukrainian citizens have already received biometric passports that allow them to use the visa-free regime.
As Deutsche Welle reminds, only those Ukrainian citizens who have obtained a biometric passport are entitled to use the visa-free regime with the EU. This document is fully adapted to the electronic reading system used in EU countries. You can stay in the Schengen Area without a visa for no more than 90 days within any 180-day period. The 90-day period is not fixed but is calculated each time you exit, so you need to pay attention to the dates of your recent trips. Violation of this rule may result in a ban on re-entry to the EU.
A migration officer may ask you to confirm the purpose and conditions of your trip, prove that you have sufficient funds for your stay in the EU and for your return home.
If you are visiting relatives or friends, you must have an invitation and the contact details of the inviting party – address and phone number. If the purpose of the trip is to participate in a business or scientific conference, it is advisable to have an invitation to it. And if it concerns studies, you may need to provide confirmation of enrollment in an educational institution.
To prove solvency upon entry, you may be asked to show traveler's checks, accommodation booking confirmations, cash currency, and even have your credit card limit checked. The required amount will depend on the duration and choice of country (or countries) of the trip and may vary: for example, in Latvia it is only 14 euros per day per person, while in Estonia it is already 86 euros per day.
The infographic below, prepared by the Television News Service (TSN), shows the financial requirements and approximate amounts of funds needed for travel to Schengen Area countries.