• Ukrainian Emergency Medical Assistance Insurance: No longer must you buy Ukrainian travel insurance upon entering the country. If you are here less than three months, you do not need any; if longer, you will need to get it when you register your presence (within 72 hours of entering Ukraine.)

The fee may be the following or more (in grivna):

• Customs Declaration: On the airplane you may be handed your Customs Declaration form. If you are not given the forms on the plane you can pick them up from the small kiosk (it has a big sign with "Customs Declaration" written on it) you will see after going through Passport Control. (See below.)

• Passport Control: When you get off the plane, and before you get in an immigration control line, you will need to go to the counter that is either around a pole or against the wall opposite the immigration control booths and fill out a colorful slip of paper. It has advertisements on it and two forms. You fill out both forms. They require your passport information and your address in Ukraine. Then go thru Passport Control. Just hand the official your passport and the registration slip that you just filled out. They will stamp your passport and the registration form, returning half of the form you just filled out. YOU MUST KEEP THIS FORM FOR YOUR ENTIRE STAY IN UKRAINE - IT IS REQUIRED TO GET OUT OF THE COUNTRY

• Baggage: Once through Passport Control you will need to pick up your luggage. Luggage carts are available free of charge. If your luggage seems to be lost, go to the Lost and Found immediately. Let them know if you have to catch a connecting flight so they can give you priority attention. After you have retrieved all of you luggage, fill out the customs declaration.

• Customs Declaration:If you did not get a customs declaration on the plane, you must pick up a form from the small kiosk (it has a sign with "Customs Declaration" written on it, and is wrapped around a pole) that you will see after going through Passport Control. The form is pretty well self-explanatory - if you get one in English. Keep it with your passport. (If you go through the red line, you'll need it when you leave the country.) Be sure to fill out the exact amount of currency that you have with you! It is good to have counted your currency sometime earlier and written it on a piece of paper to refer to now.

• Customs: Proceed to either the green line or the red line.

• Green or red line? If you bring in less than $1,000 and you do not have anything they might think you should declare (see the sign above the entrance to the customs room for their short list), you could go through the green line. Since they often check nationals who go through the green line, and if the line is long, the red line might be quicker after all! The red line is a must if you have over $1,000 on you. If you have gifts to declare (not recommended), this line is for you, too. You can import up to $10,000 without problem, though they might want to see it and even count it. This is to make sure you do not leave the country with more money than you entered with. The main thing to remember is that you cannot take out more currency than you take in, and if you take in more than $1,000, it should be recorded on the customs declaration, especially if you want to take it out.

• X-ray machines: You will have to put all of your luggage through one of the two x-ray machines and then pick it up on the other side. Sometimes you do not have to do that if you are in the green line.

• If you go thru the Green Line and have nothing to declare (therefore, nothing to insure that it is legal for you to take it out of the country), there is no need for a customs declaration when you leave the country. Thus customs might return to you your declaration or they might keep it, since you do not really need it. Always best to keep it.

• Proceed to a Customs in either the green or red line. You need to hand them your passport/visa and your Customs Declaration form. They will determine if they want to check any of your luggage. Until recently, if you had anything of personal value, like a camera, watch, jewelry, etc. that you wanted to take back out of the country, then you needed to have written it on your Declaration. This was to prove that you had these items when you came in and didn't buy them in Ukraine. Rules changed by 2002 and now you are allowed to bring in and take out personal belongings without question. But who knows if they might not ask you to write down some of your more expensive items. Just keep this in mind

• After you get your passport back, you are ready to go through the doors where someone that you know or someone with a sign will be waiting for you!