Moving to Ukraine from Belarus. Personal experience
After a recent article about moving to Belarus, I thought that some might be interested to learn about other experiences: about moving to Ukraine from Belarus.
At once I want to note that this article will tell in some detail not so much about typical IT things, but rather about life in a small Ukrainian town as a whole. Caution traffic.
Why did I even decide to move to a country with such a difficult situation? A good friend of mine left some time ago in the USA, got a little accustomed there, saved some money and, since we had long wanted to try developing the game, decided that the time was right. Unfortunately, programming is not our strength, and for the first project I wanted to find some small indie team, with which we could finish an existing project. So, through Google and gamesjam, we selected interesting games, discussed options and contacted some guys . The guys turned out to be very good and we decided to bring the game together to a logical conclusion, namely the output in the Appstore and later in the Play market. Therefore, just a little advice: participate, at least occasionally in such projects as gamesjam, no one knows how, where and when they will notice your project and to whom it may be liked. In general, lay out what you are doing to the public, no matter what it is, a photo, video, articles or program code - you can always get some kind of backlash. In general, the search process, team building and the entire workflow are the material of a separate article, so if you are interested, I will be happy to describe our experience. Actually, because our programmer / game designer lives in Ukraine, it was decided that I should also move here to make it easier for us to work and communicate.
A ticket from Minsk to Lvov will cost about $ 50. There were no complaints about the Belarusians at the customs, someone from Russia was driving nearby, the customs officers paid a little more attention to the person, but also missed without any apparent difficulties. From Lviv to Uzhgorod bus costs another $ 10. At the same time, the bus looks more like a kind of a minibus , besides, it also stops literally at every corner, turn and stop in order to gather as many people as possible. In general, after the Republic of Belarus, where, for example, the bus from Svetlogorsk to Minsk makes a maximum of two or three stops, it seemed very strange and somewhat annoying.
')
To search in Ukraine, slando.ua is most often used, so almost any used items, rental housing, etc., should be looked for there. Light, nominally 2-bedroom, but in fact a dressing room of such size that it can well be considered a 3-room apartment costs $ 200 per month.
Utilities have not paid, so I can not say how much the cost of maintaining the apartment. What pleasantly pleased, right in the apartment is a boiler that heats the water. Hi permanent shutdown hot water for prevention! Here it is, of course, impossible.
For the sake of justice, it is worth noting that for a month and a half I was twice faced with the fact that after 2-3 nights there was no water until morning. With what it was connected I can not say. By the way, the same boiler will heat the water for the radiators in the whole apartment, you can set the temperature yourself, which I think is very cool.
The apartment is located in the center of the city, in the same building on the first floor there is a bakery, two banks, a pharmacy, a hairdresser, a small convenience store. Around, in 5 minutes of walking, there is a supermarket, which Eurotopt or Almi, a couple of pharmacies, several cafes, a lot of small shops, will best serve in Belarus. And another cafe. People love coffee here, they drink it quite a lot, there are a lot of different cafes and small restaurants. After my small town Svetlogorsk , it was a culture shock. Prices are pretty good, on average something from $ 0.7 for a cup of espresso, to $ 1.2 for a latte macchiato. I myself do not consider myself a fan of coffee, but suddenly this information will be interesting to someone. Milkshakes of 0.5 liters also cost around $ 1. In general, it is quite possible to eat here only in some institutions, without preparing yourself practically anything, prices quite allow it. As far as I could get acquainted with the Ukrainian legislation, for opening a cafe our analogue of IP is quite enough (only here, unlike in Belarus, an entrepreneur can hire people, up to 10 people for a flat tax with a fixed payment (about $ 20 per month, plus social. a fee of ~ $ 40 per month), or an unlimited number of people paying% of income), plus the recently passed Euro 2012, most likely prompted the opening of such a large number of catering establishments. Although, in fact, in comparison with Belarus, in Ukraine this has always been all good. It is very happy. There are a lot of people who eat at a cafe at any time of the day. The staff in the same restaurants is very friendly and smiling. It was a novelty for me when, at the end of the dinner, the girl asked if I liked everything about them. A simple psychological method, but for some reason they are often neglected in my homeland. And I compare this not even with my small homeland, but with the institutions of the city of Minsk.
Let's talk about something without which we can hardly work and communicate normally.
Immediately I advise Kyivstar. Home Internet starts at speeds of 20/10 Mbps.
In Belarus, Byfly’s usual unlimited limit ends at 8 / 0.5 Mb / s. The cost here is 70 hryvnia (~ $ 6), in the Republic of Belarus 216,000 Belarusian rubles (~ $ 21). The cost is 3.5 times higher, the speed is 2.5 times lower (I generally keep quiet about the recoil speed). Yes, if you are very lucky, you can connect the same tariff to Byfly (if there is a possibility to connect in your house, which is absolutely not guaranteed), but it will cost you 376,000 Belarusian rubles (~ $ 37). Once again $ 6 and $ 37. And now I see that the 40 Mbit / s tariff costs only 80 hryvnia (~ $ 7), so I’m already useful to change my tariff. It is useless to compare with Belarus, ~ $ 7 against ~ $ 61.
Plus, there is a rather interesting bonus system here. Bonuses are added to the account in the “My Kyivstar” system, which can then be used to pay for calls and mobile Internet, to connect some services, and so on. In general, a sort of additional domestic currency, which you get just by paying a subscription fee for home Internet. At the same time, as far as I could see, it is primarily these bonuses that are used, and only then real money. Also, these bonuses can be sent, for example to your friends. Very cool.
Such a convenient and very useful thing as the promised payment at Byfly works better. There, it is completely automated, you should go to your personal account, choose a service and after 10 seconds your internet will work again. There is a feeling that the application is processed by a person, because the delay between connecting the service and turning on the Internet was about half an hour. There is much to improve. Again, in fairness, it is worth noting that the Internet here occasionally, about once a week, disappears for a few minutes. For the same things was noticed and Belarusian Byfly.
There are applications for iOS , Android and Windows Phone, common for home Internet and mobile communications, which is very convenient.
In general, in a nutshell, pretty bad. The connection itself is not bad, although the coating leaves much to be desired. 3G no, I have not seen this icon on the phone at all. Although the speed of 3G in Belarus is quite low, and the battery is eaten fairly quickly, but at least it is there, some kind of it. There is simply no.Of course, in large cities such as Kiev or Lvov, most likely there are no problems with this, but, again, after Belarus this seems strange. It turned out that the necessary frequencies are occupied by the military, so 3G is not as a matter of principle, but President Poroshenko ordered the launch of 3G networks a few days ago . This is a very unexpected news for me, such a big country and until now there was no third generation communication ... In general, I want to believe that the recent events in Ukraine will serve as a catalyst for major changes for the better in the country.
In general, the rates are pretty good. Again, I'm talking about Kyivstar, and I advise him. You can choose what is more important to you the Internet, calls, or calls to other networks, depending on this to choose the desired tariff Free . In addition, in Uzhgorod, it is also cheaper than Kiev. Interestingly, the price changes depending on whether you pay the fare in advance or on a daily basis after using the service. In addition, unlike the Belarusian one, Welkom, where if you run out of megabytes included in the tariff plan, you are offered to go to the next plan, higher up the tariff ladder (and if you have free minutes, then they will burn, on the other hand, there will be megabytes, cool, which is already there), here an additional package is simply connected with the same megabytes at a price of 0.50 hryvnia (~ $ 0.04 or ~ 440 Belarusian ruble) for 10 megabytes. Principle, pretty good. People who are more important to the Internet can simply choose unlimited Internet, which, by the way, is not in Belarus. PDF with the details written in normal human language, large print, it's nice. It is also pleasant that the site is designed both in Ukrainian, and in Russian and English, and the switch hangs in a prominent place. By the way, you can buy a SIM card without a passport, which, again, after Belarus, is very good, there is no feeling of total surveillance.
This is trouble, failure and sadness. In other words, perhaps, not to describe.
Yes, there are normal, but it is more likely an exception, and both for highways, and for pedestrian sidewalks. At the same time, the roads between the cities are still more or less good, at least those that I managed to drive on the way from Lviv to Uzhgorod, but inside the city everything is pretty bad.
Although long-distance roads, judging by my previous trips to Ukraine, still, rather bad, than good. It is simply impossible to compare with Belarus. I think that from 3 countries (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine) the roads are the best in Belarus.
As far as I am aware, citizens of other countries may stay in Ukraine for 90 days without the need for registration or any other actions. No visas, migration cards or other vestiges of bureaucratic times are needed. In principle, in the near future I will have to find out in my own skin how government institutions work in Ukraine and how easy it is to get permission to stay in the territory for more than 90 days.
The article has already turned out quite large, so I would divide it into two parts. If you are interested, I can tell you about the prices of food, clothes, bicycles , receiving money transfers from the USA, describe the urban infrastructure in more detail, what kind of places there are, talk about the language barrier, and answer questions if they arise.
At once I want to note that this article will tell in some detail not so much about typical IT things, but rather about life in a small Ukrainian town as a whole. Caution traffic.
Small preface
Why did I even decide to move to a country with such a difficult situation? A good friend of mine left some time ago in the USA, got a little accustomed there, saved some money and, since we had long wanted to try developing the game, decided that the time was right. Unfortunately, programming is not our strength, and for the first project I wanted to find some small indie team, with which we could finish an existing project. So, through Google and gamesjam, we selected interesting games, discussed options and contacted some guys . The guys turned out to be very good and we decided to bring the game together to a logical conclusion, namely the output in the Appstore and later in the Play market. Therefore, just a little advice: participate, at least occasionally in such projects as gamesjam, no one knows how, where and when they will notice your project and to whom it may be liked. In general, lay out what you are doing to the public, no matter what it is, a photo, video, articles or program code - you can always get some kind of backlash. In general, the search process, team building and the entire workflow are the material of a separate article, so if you are interested, I will be happy to describe our experience. Actually, because our programmer / game designer lives in Ukraine, it was decided that I should also move here to make it easier for us to work and communicate.
Moving
A ticket from Minsk to Lvov will cost about $ 50. There were no complaints about the Belarusians at the customs, someone from Russia was driving nearby, the customs officers paid a little more attention to the person, but also missed without any apparent difficulties. From Lviv to Uzhgorod bus costs another $ 10. At the same time, the bus looks more like a kind of a minibus , besides, it also stops literally at every corner, turn and stop in order to gather as many people as possible. In general, after the Republic of Belarus, where, for example, the bus from Svetlogorsk to Minsk makes a maximum of two or three stops, it seemed very strange and somewhat annoying.
')
Housing
To search in Ukraine, slando.ua is most often used, so almost any used items, rental housing, etc., should be looked for there. Light, nominally 2-bedroom, but in fact a dressing room of such size that it can well be considered a 3-room apartment costs $ 200 per month.
Utilities have not paid, so I can not say how much the cost of maintaining the apartment. What pleasantly pleased, right in the apartment is a boiler that heats the water. Hi permanent shutdown hot water for prevention! Here it is, of course, impossible.
For the sake of justice, it is worth noting that for a month and a half I was twice faced with the fact that after 2-3 nights there was no water until morning. With what it was connected I can not say. By the way, the same boiler will heat the water for the radiators in the whole apartment, you can set the temperature yourself, which I think is very cool.
The apartment is located in the center of the city, in the same building on the first floor there is a bakery, two banks, a pharmacy, a hairdresser, a small convenience store. Around, in 5 minutes of walking, there is a supermarket, which Eurotopt or Almi, a couple of pharmacies, several cafes, a lot of small shops, will best serve in Belarus. And another cafe. People love coffee here, they drink it quite a lot, there are a lot of different cafes and small restaurants. After my small town Svetlogorsk , it was a culture shock. Prices are pretty good, on average something from $ 0.7 for a cup of espresso, to $ 1.2 for a latte macchiato. I myself do not consider myself a fan of coffee, but suddenly this information will be interesting to someone. Milkshakes of 0.5 liters also cost around $ 1. In general, it is quite possible to eat here only in some institutions, without preparing yourself practically anything, prices quite allow it. As far as I could get acquainted with the Ukrainian legislation, for opening a cafe our analogue of IP is quite enough (only here, unlike in Belarus, an entrepreneur can hire people, up to 10 people for a flat tax with a fixed payment (about $ 20 per month, plus social. a fee of ~ $ 40 per month), or an unlimited number of people paying% of income), plus the recently passed Euro 2012, most likely prompted the opening of such a large number of catering establishments. Although, in fact, in comparison with Belarus, in Ukraine this has always been all good. It is very happy. There are a lot of people who eat at a cafe at any time of the day. The staff in the same restaurants is very friendly and smiling. It was a novelty for me when, at the end of the dinner, the girl asked if I liked everything about them. A simple psychological method, but for some reason they are often neglected in my homeland. And I compare this not even with my small homeland, but with the institutions of the city of Minsk.
Internet and communication
Let's talk about something without which we can hardly work and communicate normally.
Home Internet
Immediately I advise Kyivstar. Home Internet starts at speeds of 20/10 Mbps.
In Belarus, Byfly’s usual unlimited limit ends at 8 / 0.5 Mb / s. The cost here is 70 hryvnia (~ $ 6), in the Republic of Belarus 216,000 Belarusian rubles (~ $ 21). The cost is 3.5 times higher, the speed is 2.5 times lower (I generally keep quiet about the recoil speed). Yes, if you are very lucky, you can connect the same tariff to Byfly (if there is a possibility to connect in your house, which is absolutely not guaranteed), but it will cost you 376,000 Belarusian rubles (~ $ 37). Once again $ 6 and $ 37. And now I see that the 40 Mbit / s tariff costs only 80 hryvnia (~ $ 7), so I’m already useful to change my tariff. It is useless to compare with Belarus, ~ $ 7 against ~ $ 61.
Plus, there is a rather interesting bonus system here. Bonuses are added to the account in the “My Kyivstar” system, which can then be used to pay for calls and mobile Internet, to connect some services, and so on. In general, a sort of additional domestic currency, which you get just by paying a subscription fee for home Internet. At the same time, as far as I could see, it is primarily these bonuses that are used, and only then real money. Also, these bonuses can be sent, for example to your friends. Very cool.
Such a convenient and very useful thing as the promised payment at Byfly works better. There, it is completely automated, you should go to your personal account, choose a service and after 10 seconds your internet will work again. There is a feeling that the application is processed by a person, because the delay between connecting the service and turning on the Internet was about half an hour. There is much to improve. Again, in fairness, it is worth noting that the Internet here occasionally, about once a week, disappears for a few minutes. For the same things was noticed and Belarusian Byfly.
There are applications for iOS , Android and Windows Phone, common for home Internet and mobile communications, which is very convenient.
Mobile communication and mobile Internet
In general, in a nutshell, pretty bad. The connection itself is not bad, although the coating leaves much to be desired. 3G no, I have not seen this icon on the phone at all. Although the speed of 3G in Belarus is quite low, and the battery is eaten fairly quickly, but at least it is there, some kind of it. There is simply no.
In general, the rates are pretty good. Again, I'm talking about Kyivstar, and I advise him. You can choose what is more important to you the Internet, calls, or calls to other networks, depending on this to choose the desired tariff Free . In addition, in Uzhgorod, it is also cheaper than Kiev. Interestingly, the price changes depending on whether you pay the fare in advance or on a daily basis after using the service. In addition, unlike the Belarusian one, Welkom, where if you run out of megabytes included in the tariff plan, you are offered to go to the next plan, higher up the tariff ladder (and if you have free minutes, then they will burn, on the other hand, there will be megabytes, cool, which is already there), here an additional package is simply connected with the same megabytes at a price of 0.50 hryvnia (~ $ 0.04 or ~ 440 Belarusian ruble) for 10 megabytes. Principle, pretty good. People who are more important to the Internet can simply choose unlimited Internet, which, by the way, is not in Belarus. PDF with the details written in normal human language, large print, it's nice. It is also pleasant that the site is designed both in Ukrainian, and in Russian and English, and the switch hangs in a prominent place. By the way, you can buy a SIM card without a passport, which, again, after Belarus, is very good, there is no feeling of total surveillance.
Roads
This is trouble, failure and sadness. In other words, perhaps, not to describe.
Yes, there are normal, but it is more likely an exception, and both for highways, and for pedestrian sidewalks. At the same time, the roads between the cities are still more or less good, at least those that I managed to drive on the way from Lviv to Uzhgorod, but inside the city everything is pretty bad.
Although long-distance roads, judging by my previous trips to Ukraine, still, rather bad, than good. It is simply impossible to compare with Belarus. I think that from 3 countries (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine) the roads are the best in Belarus.
Stay in the country
As far as I am aware, citizens of other countries may stay in Ukraine for 90 days without the need for registration or any other actions. No visas, migration cards or other vestiges of bureaucratic times are needed. In principle, in the near future I will have to find out in my own skin how government institutions work in Ukraine and how easy it is to get permission to stay in the territory for more than 90 days.
Instead of conclusion
The article has already turned out quite large, so I would divide it into two parts. If you are interested, I can tell you about the prices of food, clothes, bicycles , receiving money transfers from the USA, describe the urban infrastructure in more detail, what kind of places there are, talk about the language barrier, and answer questions if they arise.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/296684/
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