Expat Community > Ukraine

extremevx
Joined 2015
Posts: 141

You gotta love corruption in its pure form

8 years ago

Ok. Here is the run down on me getting my ukraine permanent residence permit. Since my wife is a russian national but has lived in ukraine since she was 11 and has a ukrainian permanent resident permit also, then I get to bypass the temporary resident permit and go straight to a permanent like her. Don't k ow if this is the way it's supposed to be, but it's what the lady at the ovir office says ans I'm not about to argue. We started this process a month ago and had to put on hold until the new 2016 immigration quotas came down from kiev. Since then I have shelled out about $100 in bribes and other necessary monies to make the process faster and smoother. First I had to go to 3 different hospital departments. One for a blood test. The doctor asked my wife if I really wanted to give blood and wait 10 days for the result, or pay 300 grivna and get the paper with her stamp on it with instant results. Ofcourse I chose to pay the 300 uah, duh! Then there was the chest xray to see if I had tuberculosis, 100 uah for instant processing. Saved a week. Then there was the 500 uah bottle of premium cognac and a box of chocolates and premium coffee to the lady at the ovir office so that we wouldn't have to make a trip to the ukraine embassy in Moldova to get an immigration visa stamp in my passport. Then there was the 300 uah to the doctor at another hospital so she would have to really examine me which means running her finger up my butt for a prostate exam and wait a week for the results. Then there was the extra 150 uah to pay in order to get my police record from the ukraine police in 5 days instead of 2 weeks.
All in all I am wondering now if I shouldn't have done what others have done and just go pay a lawyer. Might have come out even or ahead by doing that. But it was still a lesson learned in how things work in ukraine.

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