Guide · The crossing
Poland to Ukraine: the crossing, without the drama.
The border is the part families picture worst and experience most mildly. It is a queue, a passport desk and a set of ordinary questions. Here is exactly how it runs, and what makes the difference between three hours and eleven.
Last reviewed 16 August 2026.
Step one: which airport
Kraków, Warsaw or Rzeszów. Kraków has the widest choice of transatlantic connections and is the usual landing point for families from Canada and the United States. Rzeszów is the closest to the border — roughly ninety kilometres — and the shortest onward leg. Warsaw is the fallback when the fare works out better.
We meet you inside the terminal. From that moment nothing on this page is your problem, but you should still know how it works.
Step two: the train from Przemyśl
Przemyśl is the Polish rail town on the border, an hour and a half from Rzeszów and about four from Kraków. Several trains a day run Przemyśl–Lviv, and the journey takes anywhere from two to six hours — almost all of the variance is the border itself, not the distance, which is barely ninety kilometres.
Polish exit control happens in Przemyśl station before you board. On the Ukrainian side, border guards and customs officers work the train: passports are collected, held for thirty to sixty minutes, and returned. Since January 2026 Ukraine has been running an experiment on the Lviv–Mostyska-2 stretch where control is carried out while the train is moving, which cuts standing time considerably when your service is one of those included.
Step three, alternative: by car
Korczowa–Krakovets is the main motorway crossing on the Warsaw–Lviv axis and the one buses and private cars use. Medyka–Shehyni, next to Przemyśl, is open around the clock and is the only crossing with a permanent pedestrian channel — thousands of people walk across it every day.
Car queues are the least predictable element of any journey into Ukraine. Several hours is normal; at summer weekends and around holidays it can run far longer. This is why every itinerary we build carries a spare day: when a queue eats an afternoon, it eats the buffer, not the morning at your great-grandmother's church.
What you need on you
- A passport valid for the whole of your stay — we check the dates before anything is booked
- Visa-free entry applies to citizens of the EU, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and a list of other countries: up to 90 days in any 180. We confirm the rule for your particular passport in writing — Brazilian and Argentinian included — rather than letting you rely on a forum post
- Medical insurance valid in Ukraine. This is an entry requirement, not a recommendation, and border guards may ask to see it. The war-risk policy we arrange satisfies it and goes considerably further
- Evidence of funds for your stay — the 2026 benchmark is around €60 per day, and a bank card satisfies it in practice
- A stated purpose of visit, and paper to back it: we give you the itinerary, hotel bookings and our contacts printed, so the answer is documented rather than improvised
What they actually ask you
Where are you going, why, how long, where will you stay, who is meeting you. Under martial law the questioning is more thorough than the wave-through you may be used to at European borders, and it is longer for a foreign passport with a Ukrainian surname on it. It is not hostile. “I am visiting my great-grandfather's village with a guide, here is the itinerary” is an entirely ordinary answer and is met as one.
Do not photograph anything at the crossing. Filming border infrastructure is a criminal matter in Ukraine, and a phone raised at the wrong moment turns twenty minutes into two hours. We brief you on this before you leave the hotel, not after.
If you hold, or ever held, Ukrainian citizenship
Read this twice. Under martial law, male Ukrainian citizens between 18 and 60 are generally not permitted to leave Ukraine — and this applies to people who have lived their entire lives in Canada, the United States or Brazil, if their parents ever registered them as citizens. The problem is not entering. It is leaving.
Before anything is booked we check this in writing with every traveller. If there is any doubt about anyone's status, it gets resolved before the journey, never at the border.
Questions we get about this
How long does the Poland–Ukraine border crossing take?
By train from Przemyśl to Lviv: two to six hours door to door, the variance being border formalities rather than distance. By car: several hours is normal, and summer weekends can be much longer. We build a spare day into every itinerary specifically to absorb this.
Do I need a visa to enter Ukraine?
Citizens of the EU, the UK, the US, Canada and many other countries enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. We confirm the rule for your specific passport in writing before anything is booked, including Brazilian and Argentinian passports.
Is insurance really required to enter Ukraine?
Yes — medical insurance valid in Ukraine is an entry requirement for foreign nationals, and border guards may ask to see the certificate. Ordinary travel policies also exclude war risks in the fine print, which is a separate problem covered in the insurance guide.
Can I just cross on foot at Medyka?
It is possible — the Medyka–Shehyni pedestrian channel is open around the clock and is heavily used. We do not route clients that way: it means standing in an outdoor queue of unpredictable length with your luggage, and there is no advantage to it when a driver is waiting on the other side.
What happens if the border closes while I am in Ukraine?
The land crossings have run continuously since 2022, including through the worst months, and closure of all of them at once is not a scenario anyone plans around. Our contract covers the case regardless: if the security picture changes during a journey, the itinerary shortens westward or ends early, and unspent days are refunded.
Practical guides
Are there flights to Ukraine?
No — and what the 2026 reopening talk actually means for a journey you are planning.
Can you get travel insurance for Ukraine?
Ordinary policies are void the moment you cross. What war-risk cover is, and what to check.
The full safety protocol
Where we go, where we never go, and what happens when a siren sounds.
The crossing is the easy part. Finding the village is the work.
Send us the family name and whatever the documents say. We answer in writing within two business days: what can be found, what cannot, and what it would cost in your case.