Spain and PACE consistency update: 21 September 2026. Other national sections retain their earlier research scope. Salamanca, Spain
Belarusian citizens abroad may face serious obstacles in obtaining or renewing a valid Belarusian passport through Belarusian diplomatic and consular missions. The consequences can extend beyond international travel and affect residence procedures, identity documentation, administrative access and mobility.
European states already use several legal models to address this documentation gap. These include alien’s passports, foreigner travel documents, recognition of expired national passports for specified administrative purposes, and travel documents linked to refugee or stateless status.
The comparative evidence is particularly significant in Poland, where a Belarus-specific statutory facilitation currently applies until 31 December 2026, and in Portugal, where the law expressly provides a passaporte para estrangeiros for certain resident foreigners who demonstrate that they cannot obtain another passport.
The central question for Portugal is therefore not whether Portuguese law contains a travel-document mechanism. It does. The question is whether and how that mechanism is applied to Belarusian citizens who remain Belarusian nationals but cannot obtain or renew a Belarusian passport.
PACE Resolution 2499 (2023), Addressing the specific challenges faced by Belarusian citizens in exile, called on Council of Europe member States to find solutions enabling Belarusians in exile to travel within the European Union, including through the systematic use of an “alien’s passport” and continued recognition of expired Belarusian passports.
The resolution is a recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly. It is not itself a directly binding EU legal instrument.
PACE Resolution 2541 (2024), §19.5, adopted on 17 April 2024, calls for documentary measures in response to consular passport refusal, including travel documents and recognition of de facto statelessness for Belarusian individuals at risk of political persecution or conscription. This defined risk context must be retained; the resolution does not itself determine an individual's legal statelessness or confer a Spanish travel-document entitlement.
The resolution also places passport restrictions in the broader context of transnational repression.
A Belarusian national passport is issued by Belarusian authorities and remains the ordinary national identity and travel document of Belarusian citizens.
For citizens living abroad, however, the practical ability to renew that document depends on access to Belarusian diplomatic and consular services. Where a person cannot obtain a new passport, an expired or cancelled document can create a documentation gap in the host state.
The absence of a valid Belarusian passport should therefore be analysed separately from the person's nationality. Passport validity and nationality are not the same legal question.
The lack of a renewable national passport may affect: