YOU can because you are a foreigner.

Anyone who has ever tried to use a bank in Ukraine to send money to another country will know the automatic barriers that you encounter from bank staff and the ‘system’.

Recently I needed to send some money (privately and not business related) to the UK. I was lucky to be provided with all the details of the account including full name, address of the bank, the IBAN of the account, the branch sort code etc. but I did not have the SWIFT code of the bank. Within the EU we use the IBAN for all transactions to make life easier, but here in Ukraine an IBAN is not recognised. I knew this already and thought I would ask the bank to find the SWIFT code.

The young banking assistant who was ‘helping me’ simply stated that she could not complete the transaction until I supplied her with the SWIFT code and handed me back the documents.

I immediately adopted my ‘I am the customer’ attitude and I pointed out that she could easily look up the code from their system or from a web site. But she informed me that I would have to do this. Anger took over and at that moment I saw the branch manager walking past and immediately called him over and explained the situation and ask him WHY the bank was expecting me to do all this work even though the bank would be charging me a large fee for this transaction. Was he really expecting me to leave the branch and go and use my laptop to look up the information myself and then return to the bank? Plus I then went into a tirade about customer service. He was embarrassed enough to start looking up the SWIFT code himself on the nearest computer and he found it within a few minutes.  He then ‘instructed’ the young banking assistant to help me complete the transaction.

The banking assistant then pointed out that I could only send the money in EURO and not GBP. I said that’s OK no problem. She asked me ‘’How do you know it will be OK, I think I need to check’’. I said TRUST ME it WILL be OK do not worry about it, the EURO will be automatically converted to GBP when it arrives on the account. She failed to understand that banking in other countries could not be the same as in Ukraine. I then asked the manager to come back and speak to me again and kindly requested him to ‘’TELL HER to just do the money transfer and stop looking for reasons not to do it.’’(This is natural in Ukrainian mentality. Not to do something)

He did as I requested and the transaction was sent on its way.

Sometime later I was explaining this little problem in the bank to one of my Ukrainian friends who immediately replied ‘’Oh well you can talk to people like that because you are a foreigner, we could never do that.’’ I understand what she means and I know that a Ukrainian customer would not have challenged the bank or have even asked the manager for help. This attitude is not good in my opinion. Ukrainians need to be more proactive and stop accepting the status quo in business and general life. I will return to this subject later.

Work Permits, Temporary Residents Permits and Permanent Residence in Ukraine

The BBCU has been very busy recently helping people from many countries to obtain work permits and residents permits in Ukraine.
Foreigners from over 62 countries can enter Ukraine without a visa and stay for 90 days.
However some 'visitors' find themselves overstaying the 90 days and find themselves in breach of Ukrainian Law. It annoys me slightly that many foreign people think they can get away with staying in Ukraine illegally.
If a Ukrainian citizen visited the UK or another EU country or the USA they would find themselves in big trouble if they overstayed their visa or in fact started working in one of those countries without the correct legal documents like a work permit.
I'm sure that there are still many 'western foreigners' who are living and working here illegally.
We can help these people become legal. Moreover, I feel that many of these people have the best intentions of wanting to work as an English Teacher or set up their own businesses here in Ukraine.

Perhaps another reason for people avoiding the legal route is that the process of making a work permit and residents permit application is still a little bit tricky in Ukraine.  Even if you have all the correct documents we all know that Ukrainian civil servants have a habit of creating difficulties. This is where the BBCU can help and take away the worries of the application process.

Naturally we don't do this for free. We are a business and therefore charge a service fee for our work. But we do provide a guaranteed service. What we say is what we do.

I want to encourage more foreigners living and working in Ukraine to contact us and find out how we can help them. Anyone can contact me directly for further advice: gerald.bowers@bbcu.com.ua
or contact our office - Tel: +38067 320 1584 - administrator@bbcu.com.ua

6th September 2003 - 10 years living in Ukraine.

On Saturday 6^th September 2003 I left England for Ukraine. I had already spent time here during 2002 and early 2003 but this was the real thing. After selling my house and packing up my personal belongings into my Land Rover (plus a small trailer), I boarded a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. Landing in The Netherlands on Sunday morning 7th September, I drove right across Germany and into Poland (before Poland joined the EU) and stayed the first night in Poznan.

The next day, 8^th September I drove to the Poland/Ukraine border. Five hours is the longest I have waited to cross any border and the slow process was due the the Ukraine side. I’m sure the border guards and customs officers still thought it their duty to protect the old Soviet Union. I remember a female customs officer telling me ‘’You must pay.’’ Why? I replied. ‘’Because you have a lot of stuff she replied.’’. I refused to pay any bribe and said I would be happy to turn the car around and go back to the UK. She then asked me ‘’Where are the documents from your government showing that you are allowed to come here.’’  I was delighted to reply ‘’The UK is a free democratic country, I don’t need to ask anyone for permission to come here.’’ A border guard officer then asked to see the visa in my passport, which was a personal visa as opposed to a business visa after which they just waved me through and I was driving into the wild countryside and very bad roads of Ukraine.

It was getting dark so I headed to the small city of Koval to find a hotel. My first experience of driving around a city in the dark where street lights were not working and other drivers just didn’t bother to use headlights. Eventually finding the only hotel in Koval I was happy to discover they had a secure parking area with a security guard. I think the hotel room was UAH 100 per night (about $20 in those days). The room was the worst room I have ever paid for in my life but I was just happy to be able to have a safe place to sleep. I went down to the bar/restaurant to find food and drink. In those days they didn’t get many foreigners so I was obviously someone of interest to locals and staff. During a period of about three hours I consumed what must have been a half bottle or more of what they called cognac or whatever it really was.

I cannot remember what time I went to sleep but I woke at 6am sharp the next day with one of the worst hangovers I have ever had and was happy to find my Land Rover and trailer still in one piece.  How I managed to drive I do not know. I found the road to Kyiv and off I went. A strange kind of road      made from concrete. I passed through small villages and forest after forest after forest and started to get a little worried that I was not seeing any other vehicles in any direction. Had I made a wrong turn? I was to later discover that I had found the ‘old military road’ instead of the more up to date Lviv to Kyiv road. I didn’t stop for six hours. I used my own jerry cans to refill the petrol tank on the Land Rover.

Eventually the big city of Kyiv came upon me and by lunch time on Tuesday 9^th September 2003          I was driving down Khreschatyk Street and I’m still here 10 years later 6^th September 2013.

Ukraine and the EU Association Agreement?

Maybe the best article I have seen concerning the relationships between Ukraine and the EU:

James Sherr is Senior Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, expert on international security of Ukraine, Russia and post-communist states. His fields also include the EU and NATO expansion, as well as energy relations between Kyiv, Moscow and the EU. He is the author of the book Hard Diplomacy and Soft Coercion: Russia’s Influence Abroad out in 2013.

Quote:

Ukrainian Week: Isn’t the Association Agreement a program of reforms that Ukraine would have to implement?

Who is going to make Ukraine implement it? The past 20 years of relations between the West as a whole and the former Soviet world should persuade anyone that it is simply not possible to micromanage another country from outside it. If Ukraine had in power a government, a group of people, a group of decision makers and a group of people running the economy who really understand how the EU works, are determined to make these transformations and do all these things, then the Association Agreement would be very helpful. But today the political and economic elite of Ukraine do not want to see these changes take place because their power would be threatened by them. They want to maintain the powers they have over economic life, they want maintain the covert and opaque cash flows and rent-seeking.

See the full article here: http://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/86263

Stay Calm - Leave Ukraine - Often

One of the great benefits of holding an EU/British passport is that we British expats can leave Ukraine whenever we like and return whenever we like (provided we have the correct residents permits). Sometimes we visit the UK and sometimes other countries.

Although Kyiv Ukraine provides a constant stimulus of interests in many ways, the act of leaving the country is therapeutic.  In fact I am now an advocate for encouraging my fellow expats to ‘escape’ at least four times per year. Many of my Ukrainian friends have discovered the benefits of a Schengen visa allowing them to visit many EU countries. On returning to Ukraine they all feel a sense of being ‘recharged’.

Although many foreign businesses and investors are leaving Ukraine there are still many opportunities here. But……the current social and business environment in the country would make anyone want to leave and maybe not return.

I still believe that many business opportunities in Ukraine can be realised. The country still operates on a low cost base. The IT industry in Ukraine has proved to be one of the best ‘nearshoring’ successes in Europe and I’m sure there are many other sectors that will prove successful in providing professional services.

Ukraine & Europe - The Final Decision - November 2013

Chatam House (The independent Think Tank) in the UK has just released a report on the Ukraine and EU situation regarding the potential Association Agreement.

For a state that has defined itself as European since obtaining independence,
Ukraine has had an unusually frustrating relationship with the EU. At the root
of this frustration lies a cognitive dissonance that has never been fully
overcome. To the most principled Ukrainian proponents of EU integration,
Europe (and hence the EU) is an ethno-cultural, Greco-Roman and Christian
civilization – and Ukraine is organically a part of this, despite its Soviet past,
its self-aggrandizing political class and its decidedly uncivic state. To the
more opportunistic and ‘pragmatic’ part of the spectrum, the EU is a source of
wealth and markets. To almost everyone, the EU is also a geopolitical project
offering, for good or ill, an escape from the country’s historical dependency
upon Russia. In this conversation, far less attention is paid to the way the EU
actually perceives itself: as an increasingly multi-cultural entity defined by
values, standards and the harmonization of institutions. The technocratic
biases of EU elites and the dry nature of the integration process do not assist
clarity in this regard. Nor do real divisions within the EU-28 about Ukraine’s
significance and potential.

Download the full report here:
http://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/papers/view/193481

Health is the most important thing in your life

Its an old adage but true, without good health what is the point of anything else in your life.

Only yesterday the public discovered after the death of the famous British comedy actor Mel Smith that he was addicted to Nurofen Plus tablets and taking around 50 per day. Plus he had Gout which spread from his feet to his wrists and caused excruciating pain. He died of a heart attack at the young age of 60.

Although he was a very rich man he could not buy good health.

During the past few months I have experienced very bad health. With two problems connected to the heart and lungs (Pulminary Embolism) and a cancer scare which was later to be diagnosed as a virus infection. But one thing for sure. During this time of ill health I was not capable of performing the 'normal' functions of everyday life and it seriously effected my business activities. But thanks to God life is getting back to normal now.