From Kathmandu to the Dniester: how we took a Nepali group through Moldova in transit

01 / Saturday, 21:10

A bridge over the Dniester and fourteen names on a sheet of paper

Saturday, ten past nine in the evening. The Mohyliv-Podilskyi checkpoint on the bridge over the Dniester. Arif, our worker relations manager for Bangladesh and Nepal, stands beyond the barrier of the Ukrainian control holding a sheet with fourteen names printed in Latin letters. The last message in the group chat arrived six minutes ago, a single English word: bridge. Behind these people lie a night on a plane, seven and a half hours on benches in Istanbul, three and a half hours by coach across Moldova and a queue at the border. Ahead of them are Ukrainian control and a forty-five-minute drive to a village where the beds are already made.

That Saturday went into the calendar fourteen weeks earlier, in mid-May. A fruit farm growing apples on the slopes above the Dniester, forty kilometres from the Moldovan border, came to WORKIN with a task: fourteen orchard workers on long-term contracts, on site by early September. The chief agronomist explained why the date could not move: the autumn varieties are picked from the first days of September, and new people had to be in the orchard before the picking began, not halfway through it.

The farm did not name a country. The director put it simply: we need people who know how to work with trees and will stay for years, and where they come from is for you to decide. Olena, who runs client projects at WORKIN, noted one more condition: the group had to be met, driven and settled on the day it arrived, with no night in a hotel or at a bus station.

Who is needed

14 orchard workers

Deadline

On site by early September, fifteen weeks from the request

Contract

Long-term, not for a single season

Farm's condition

Met and housed on the day of arrival

02 / Choosing the country

Why orchards above the Dniester were waiting for people from Jumla and Mustang

We compared countries on the criteria we always use. Experience: people who have worked in orchards can be found in the visa-free countries too, but our partners there had already committed their agricultural pool to seasonal projects for the summer and autumn, while the farm needed people for years rather than a single harvest. In Nepal our licensed partner in Kathmandu had candidates from the mountain districts of Jumla and Mustang, where apple trees grow on terraces beside almost every house, as well as people who had spent several years on plantations in Malaysia. Language: the chief agronomist speaks English, and a Nepali group always includes a few people who can explain things in English to the rest. Time: the route from Nepal takes 10-14 weeks, and there were fifteen weeks left until September. We proposed Nepal, showed the farm honestly that the calendar held a single week of margin, and the farm agreed.

Arif held the interviews at the partner's office in Kathmandu. Dil Bahadur Rokaya, forty-one, travelled more than a day by bus from Jumla to attend. At home he has an orchard of forty trees, which his wife and eldest son will now look after, and behind him are six years on plantations in Malaysia. The youngest in the group, twenty-four-year-old Sumit Hirachan from the village of Marpha in Mustang, grew up among apple trees and was going abroad for the first time. The chief agronomist held the final video call with each candidate: which varieties the person knows, how they shape the crown of a young tree, whether they have worked from a ladder on tall trees. Dil Bahadur and three others answered in English, and the partner's coordinator interpreted for the rest. The agronomist approved fourteen people and two reserves.

Every candidate received a vacancy information sheet in Nepali: the address of the farm and the accommodation, the position and pay from the contract, the contract term, living conditions, which documents to collect and who answers questions in Ukraine. A separate line on the sheet states the rule WORKIN writes into its agreement with every partner: the candidate pays nothing for the job.

03 / The route

One connection, one transit and one bridge

People from Nepal arrive in a country neighbouring Ukraine and cross a land border. Arif began building the itinerary while the candidates were still collecting their certificates, because it decided where the group would cross the border and how many hours it would spend on the road on the final day. The farm lies forty kilometres from the Mohyliv-Podilskyi - Otaci checkpoint. The shortest way there is a flight from Kathmandu with one connection to Chișinău, then about two hundred kilometres by coach to the north of Moldova and the bridge over the Dniester.

As we say on the page about the Moldovan transit visa, we always look first at an itinerary that avoids Chișinău: if there is one at a similar price, the transit step disappears. This time the alternatives meant either another connection or a land journey hundreds of kilometres longer on arrival day. So Arif checked the transit rules specifically for Nepali citizens rather than relying on memory from a previous project, because those rules depend on citizenship, not on whether a person leaves the airport. For this group on this route, transit was required.

04 / Transit

The ticket first, the transit visa second

The farm received the work permits in week five: we had assembled the company's filing documents using the checklist, and the decisions came within seven working days. After the Nepali exit permits and the consular stage, the candidates had their D visas in week eleven. That same day Arif placed a booking for the whole group, and the tickets were paid for as soon as the partner confirmed that every passport with its visa was back in its owner's hands.

The order is deliberate. A transit visa is issued for specific dates, so the ticket is fixed before filing, not after. We took a connection of three and a half hours in Istanbul, even though a slightly cheaper option offered an hour and ten minutes between flights. An hour between flights looks like a saving only until the first flight runs late, and a group of fourteen split at a connection means two different arrival days.

The transit filing went through the migration partner. The candidates provided their international passports, the Ukrainian visa, a photograph in the prescribed format and a completed application form. We provided a ticket with a confirmed connection, the check of the rules for their citizenship and payment of the consular costs. The farm took no part in this step: transit costs are built into the project and paid by the enterprise along with the other documents, and the worker pays nothing for the transit. The practical lead time is one to two weeks, and the group's transit visas were ready in week thirteen, twelve days before departure.

1. 01

   WORKIN

   A flight with margin at the connection, ticket purchase, a check of the rules for the citizenship, payment of consular costs.

2. 02

   Migration partner

   Files for transit together with the candidate for a specific flight and date.

3. 03

   Candidate

   International passport, Ukrainian D visa, photograph and completed application form.

4. 04

   Farm

   Takes no part in the step; transit costs sit within the project.

05 / The folder

Four pockets in a clear plastic folder

A week before departure the partner's coordinator in Kathmandu handed everyone a clear zip folder with four pockets. Each pocket carried a sticker with a number and the name of a place in Nepali: 1 - Kathmandu, 2 - Istanbul, 3 - Chișinău, 4 - the Ukrainian border. Everyone kept their passport on them, and the pockets held the documents for each point on the route. Copies of all the group's documents were kept by the coordinator in Kathmandu and by Arif in Ukraine.

Five days before departure Arif held a video meeting with the group, with the partner's coordinator interpreting into Nepali. They went through the route hour by hour and pocket by pocket. Arif asked for three things in particular. If anyone at the connection offers a different flight, do not accept it and write in the chat: the transit visa is issued for a specific flight. At the Ukrainian border, answer simply and truthfully where you are going and to whom, and show the fourth pocket. In Istanbul, stay together: fourteen people keep to one gate, even if boarding is hours away. Sumit asked whether he could bring dried apples from Marpha for the journey. Arif said yes, just not in the folder.

06 / Schedule change

An email from the airline eight days before departure

On Thursday an email reached the booking inbox: the airline had moved the Istanbul to Chișinău flight from morning to early afternoon. Same flight, same date, but it would now land in Chișinău at 13:40 instead of 9:40. The Istanbul connection grew from three and a half hours to seven and a half, and the whole arrival day shifted by four hours. Under the old plan the group would have moved in at four in the afternoon; under the new one it came out closer to eleven at night, because the later flight now ran into the Saturday evening queue to leave Moldova.

The first question was whether the transit visas still held. We know the rule: check whether the new date fits the existing transit visa, and if it does not, file again. The flight and the date were unchanged, so the transit visas remained valid. Olena passed on the farm's suggestion: move the group in Istanbul onto another airline's morning flight so that it would arrive in daylight. Arif explained why that could not be done. The transit visa is issued for a specific flight; a different flight would mean a new filing and one to two weeks of waiting, and the group would miss September. We left the flight and the date alone.

Instead we rebuilt the day itself. The coach in Chișinău was moved from 10:30 to 14:50, and we asked the carrier to have it waiting at the airport from half past one in case the control went faster. We allowed three hours for the border instead of one. The accommodation supervisor agreed to wait for the group until midnight, and supper moved from seven to half past ten and had to be hot: after a night on a plane and a full day on the road people need a plate of dal bhat, rice with lentil soup that is eaten every day in Nepal, not a sandwich. Arif left Kyiv at two in the afternoon instead of eight in the morning, and the farm moved its welcome meeting from Sunday to Monday so the group could sleep. The coordinator translated the new day plan into Nepali and posted it in the chat that evening.

When a schedule changes, we do not move the date the documents were issued for. We move everything else.

07 / Arrival day

Twenty-nine hours on Kyiv time

From then on the day ran to the new plan. Times are Kyiv time; Kathmandu is two hours and forty-five minutes ahead, while in summer Istanbul and Chișinău keep the same time as Kyiv. For the group it was a small convenience: nobody had to change their watch between Istanbul and the accommodation.

1. Fri 18:00

   Check-in at Kathmandu airport, 20:45 local time. Airline staff check the passports, D visas and Moldovan transit visas. The partner's coordinator stands by with copies of the group's documents.

2. Fri 21:00

   Take-off. Last message in the chat before phones go off: fourteen on board.

3. Sat 04:40

   Landing in Istanbul. The group takes the benches by the gate for the Chișinău flight and stays there until boarding.

4. Sat 13:40

   Landing in Chișinău. Passport control with the transit visas, baggage, a head count in the chat.

5. Sat 14:50

   A driver with a WORKIN sign and a list of names at the exit. The coach heads north.

6. Sat 18:30

   Otaci. A queue of vehicles leaving Moldova; the group waits on the coach.

7. Sat 21:10

   The coach on the bridge over the Dniester. Ukrainian control: passports with D visas, permit copies, invitations with the address. Questions about the purpose of the trip.

8. Sat 21:55

   Arif meets the group, checks everyone against the list, hands out water and Ukrainian SIM cards.

9. Sat 22:40

   Village accommodation. Room keys, made beds, a hot supper in the kitchen.

10. Sat 23:00

    Calls home. In Jumla it is a quarter to two in the morning, and the families are still awake.

The group cleared Ukrainian control in forty minutes. People were asked where they were going and to whom. Dil Bahadur answered in English and helped those who had no English, while the others showed the fourth pocket of their folders: the permit copy and the invitation with the address of the farm and the accommodation. Once at the house, Sumit asked for a photo of the group in the kitchen around the pot of dal bhat. That photo went first to the partner's chat in Kathmandu and from there to families in Jumla and Mustang.

08 / Handover

Sunday for sleep, Monday for contracts

WORKIN prepared the group's housing as part of living support: a house in the village twenty minutes from the orchard, rooms for four, a kitchen and laundry, and a supervisor on call around the clock. Rooms were assigned before arrival, with people from Jumla sharing rooms. We checked the property documents needed for residence permits and registration of residence before the visa filings: the address in the invitation matches the documents for the house.

Sunday went on sleeping until lunchtime and a walk round the village with Arif: the shop, the bus stop, the road to the orchard. Everyone received a guide in Nepali with Arif's number, the HR contact and the emergency number 112. On Monday at nine Arif drove the group to the farm office. HR signed employment contracts with all fourteen, and we submitted the copies within the 10-day term. The law allows 90 calendar days from the permit's issue date to conclude the contract, and ten weeks had passed since our permits were issued.

Tax numbers and bank accounts were arranged within the first week, and the applications for temporary residence permits went in two groups, well before the 90 days of the D visas ran out. That is where our part ended, and from there the farm takes the people on. We continue to handle the group's documents under migration support, and Arif stays in touch with the workers for the whole contract term.

09 / Summary

Fourteen people, three countries in a day and not a single date moved

Route

Kathmandu - Istanbul - Chișinău - Mohyliv-Podilskyi

Transit

Ticket before filing, transit visa for a specific flight

Schedule change

Same flight and date, transit valid, day rebuilt

Border

Passport with D visa, permit copy, invitation with address

Housing

On arrival day, at 22:40, with a hot supper

A transit route is made of dozens of small decisions, and we take each of them before a person leaves home: which flight the transit visa is issued for, what goes in which pocket, who is waiting at each point and what to do if the schedule changes. That is why even an evening border crossing and a day shifted by four hours end with a room key rather than a night at a bus station. The WORKIN replacement guarantee runs for at least 6 months from the worker's first shift, provided the agreed working, pay and housing conditions are met: finding a replacement is not charged again, while state fees, the migration partner's services, travel and living costs for the new worker are paid by the enterprise. How to fit a visa route from Nepal into the 90 days allowed for the contract is covered in the scenario about a fish processing plant, and how we find people with rare experience in Nepal in the scenario about a mushroom farm. The route documents are described on the pages about the D visa and candidate documents, and the whole journey on How it works. More on the pages about workers for agriculture, general labourers from abroad and workers from Nepal.

10 / FAQ

Questions and answers