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Ігор Вишневський That's Life
6 August 2025, 09:00
2025-08-06
Are technology professionals allowed to go on vacation abroad by reservation? What documents are required from the employer, specific cases and legal opinions
Once upon a time, summer was considered a vacation season, and many of us even planned trips abroad for this time. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, everything has changed for the absolute majority of Ukrainians, and for the male part of the population, changes have occurred, first of all, in the legal sphere. Summer vacation trips abroad have become not a common thing, but a privilege for the «chosen ones». But is everything really so complicated if you have a reservation at your place of work? Especially since the State Border Guard Service itself said that it is possible!
Once upon a time, summer was considered a vacation season, and many of us even planned trips abroad for this time. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, everything has changed for the absolute majority of Ukrainians, and for the male part of the population, changes have occurred, first of all, in the legal sphere. Summer vacation trips abroad have become not a common thing, but a privilege for the «chosen ones». But is everything really so complicated if you have a reservation at your place of work? Especially since the State Border Guard Service itself said that it is possible!
In this article, we are trying to present the experience of several representatives of the technology industry who went on vacation this summer based on a reservation, and this trip was successful. Spoiler — there really are such people. In this context, we leave out those men who are fathers of many children, went to the border on business trips, on the basis of disability documents, and so on. Well, it is clear that a priori we are talking only about those men who do not have problems with military registration, but instead have military registration documents of the current sample.
The available legislative grounds are not explicit.
In the summer heat, we want to immediately cool down those who, after the June statement of the State Border Guard Service, are still thinking about going on vacation abroad only on the basis that they have a reservation mark in «Reserve+». No, that won’t work. In order for you to be able to «relax» on Greek, Spanish or Croatian beaches, your employer has to bother a little and provide you with a folder with additional documents. More on them later. For now, so to speak, about the legal basis itself.
When in June of this year, the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko, made a statement that Ukrainians aged 18 to 60 who have a reservation for mobilization can travel abroad not only on business trips, but also on vacation, many were pleasantly surprised by this with a dumb question — what, was it possible? It turns out that it was. But the fact that no one can read about this reason for travel «in black and white» in any regulatory document available to the public is alarming.
«The rules for crossing the state border by citizens of Ukraine state that military personnel who are not subject to conscription during mobilization have the right to cross the state border. These persons are on special military registration. Despite this, the Rules only specify the procedure for crossing the state border for an employee booked on a business trip. There is no clear regulatory framework regarding the possibility of crossing the border during vacation. You can learn about the procedure for crossing the border for this category of persons exclusively from the explanations of the State Border Service of Ukraine,» the Ministry of Justice explained.
The Ministry of Justice added that since the rules for crossing the border often change and currently do not provide for a clear procedure for traveling abroad on vacation for booked employees, the final decision is made individually — at the discretion of the border guard officer during the control.
Let us remind you that traveling abroad is regulated by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 27, 1995 No. 57 «On Approval of the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine» with numerous changes that were made during the full-scale war.
Specific cases: the more supporting documents, the better
Max, an engineer working in the telecom industry, had been traveling abroad for the first time on a reservation a few weeks ago, and for the second time in total during the full-scale operation. He planned to get to his daughter in Spain, where she has been living with her mother since the beginning of the Great War. To do this, he first went to Warsaw by bus from Kyiv, and in the Polish capital he intended to take a plane to Valencia.
The engineer says that, based on his expectations, he didn’t know for sure whether he would be able to get abroad, and kept in mind the possibility that his trip might not take place.
«Before the trip, I called the Border Guard hotline, just in case, and asked what documents I needed if I was traveling by reservation. They listed everything from the list they had previously given me at work. But I also read online resources, and many wrote that from then on everything was at the discretion of the border guard — whether they let you in or not,» Max said in a comment to dev.ua.
According to him, the situation is somewhat strange if, despite a certain list of documents, everything happens at the discretion of the border guard, but there was no need to complain, because most citizens are generally deprived of the opportunity to leave. «Therefore, there was reason to think that it was 50/50. A friend who had previously traveled by reservation and had approximately the same set of documents said that they asked him various questions for 20 minutes, but they still let him go,» he added.
As the engineer says, he was not asked so meticulously at the border about the purpose of the trip, but, in addition to the standard set of documents, he was asked to download an OK-5 certificate from «Diya». In general, his package of documents included:
international passport;
military ID and «Reserve+»;
an extract on the criticality of the enterprise, certified by the director — with a seal;
an extract from the «Actions» regarding reserved employees of this enterprise, certified by the director — with a seal;
a copy of the leave order, certified by the director;
an extract from the vacation order, which indicates that the director does not object to his employee staying abroad for the period of vacation;
certificate of employment.
At the same time, Max makes a «discount» for his case, because he has a disability, although this year he did not have time to issue it according to the documents (in his case, it needs to be reissued every year), and he already traveled abroad last year as a person with a disability. Although this time the reason for the trip was the reservation itself, still, in his opinion, the border guards could have been less picky towards him precisely because of this. One way or another, he got to his daughter in Spain, and everything went smoothly at the border. «They took a photo and that’s it. They stamped my passport and let me back on the bus,» he concluded his story.
The head of the system administration service at one of the enterprises, Oleksandr Ivanov, who went on vacation abroad by reservation in early July, also shared some details with dev.ua.
The list of documents required when crossing the border, according to the AIT resident, in his case was as follows:
a copy of the order recognizing the company as critically important for the economy;
booking application from the «Diya» portal;
a certified copy of the vacation order, which states that the company has no objections to it, and indicates where the employee is going.
«I know that they travel with a standard order form, where they add a line about traveling abroad,» the IT worker commented.
According to Alexander Ivanov, just in case, he also gave the border guards:
certificate from the place of work;
a copy of the vacation application (which also indicated where he would spend it);
Since Ivanov traveled abroad in his own transport, he, of course, did not provide return tickets to the border guards.
According to the IT worker, they did not conduct long procedures of questioning him about the purpose of the trip, limiting themselves to asking whether it was his first time traveling abroad, because he had just changed his international passport. At the same time, he shared that his colleague, who traveled abroad on a business trip, was additionally asked for certificates from the Pension Fund OK-5, OK-7, which can be generated in «Diya», and they also checked the bank’s online account to see if he really receives a salary at the specified enterprise.
That is, in the case of Maksym and Oleksandr, the package of documents was actually identical, but both specialists were guided by the logic that there should be a maximum of confirmations for the border guards.
«Citizens going on vacation often cannot predict whether they will be able to cross the border even with a reservation»
Managing Partner of Evrika Law Andriy Shabelnikov agreed to comment on this issue for dev.ua.
According to the managing partner of the law firm, the procedure for men to travel abroad is regulated by the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine, already mentioned in the text, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 27, 1995 No. 57 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules). According to the regulatory provisions of the Rules, the right to cross the state border under martial law is reserved for military conscripts who are not subject to conscription for military service during mobilization, and this category of military conscripts, according to Clause 1, Part 1, Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine «On Mobilization Training and Mobilization», also includes reserved personnel.
«However, the Rules in their current version regulate the procedure for crossing the state border by military conscripts with reservations for work trips (business trips). However, the procedure for traveling abroad for those booked on vacation is not currently enshrined in any regulatory act. The only official source of information on this issue is the clarification of the State Border Service,» notes Andriy Shabelnikov.
He claims that, despite the lack of a clear procedure for the departure of those booked on vacation, such trips are quite common, and whether a particular citizen has the right to leave in these cases is usually decided directly at the state border by employees of the State Border Guard Service.
«Therefore, citizens going on vacation often cannot predict whether they will be able to cross the border even with a reservation. However, such a situation cannot be outside the scope of regulatory regulation! Employees of the State Border Guard Service should be guided not by their own discretion, but by a clear order,» the lawyer is convinced.
Shabelnikov is confident that the current procedure for citizens to travel abroad clearly requires clarification regarding the possibility of citizens with reservations going on vacation, in particular, the Cabinet of Ministers should make appropriate amendments to the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine.
«This will be legally correct. The main act regulating the issue of military conscripts' departure abroad should contain provisions regarding the departure of reserved employees on vacation. Making changes will contribute to legal certainty and guarantee compliance with the procedure by employees of the State Border Guard Service,» says the managing partner of Evrika Law.
At the same time, as he states, until the Cabinet of Ministers initiates amendments to the Rules, citizens with reservations should adhere to the general provisions for crossing the border under martial law.
So, when crossing the border, according to the specialist, it is imperative to have the following documents:
passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad;
paper military registration document or electronic version in the Reserve+ application (must contain a reservation mark and be entered into the «Oberig» system);
an extract from the vacation order or a copy of it (must contain information about the country of departure, period of stay, employee position, etc.);
other documents to confirm the purpose of the trip.
The lawyer emphasizes once again that a reserved employee who plans to go on vacation abroad should not have restrictions that would prevent them from leaving the country or violate the rules of military registration.
Finally, Shabelnikov emphasizes that in the event of receiving an unfounded decision to refuse to cross the state border, citizens have the right to appeal this decision to the head of the state border protection agency, whose name and address are indicated in the document.
What conclusions can dev.ua draw after we talked with representatives of the technosphere who went on vacation abroad on a reservation, as well as with a lawyer? Departure is definitely possible, and with the desired package of documents and the absence of questions about military registration, most likely, you will be able to cross the border. But the lack of detailed legislative regulation and the component of «excess of the performer» cannot be argued either — under such conditions, especially with a very minimal package of documents and uncertain answers to the questions of the border guards, there is a chance that the border guards will strongly recommend that you rest in Ukraine. Despite everything, while the summer is still going on — all interested booked employees can take advantage of the option of vacationing abroad.
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