According to the first part of Article 56 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated January 4, 2010, No. 105-Z (as amended on July 12, 2025) “On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons in the Republic of Belarus” (hereinafter referred to as the Law), a foreigner may be denied a permanent residence permit if the foreigner has been convicted in the Republic of Belarus or another state for committing a crime recognized as such in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, and the conviction has not been removed or cleared.
In the context of the aforementioned provision of the Law, the following circumstances are of legal significance when the migration service considers the issue of issuing a permanent residence permit to a foreign citizen:
- The presence of a conviction that has not been removed or cleared, regardless of the severity of the crime committed.
- The crime must be recognized as such in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
- The discretionary, i.e., non-mandatory, nature of the first part of Article 56 of the Law.
In your situation, the conviction was cleared 15 years ago; therefore, the aforementioned provision of the Law cannot be applied to you, i.e., it cannot be used as a ground for refusing to issue a permanent residence permit. The clearing or removal of a conviction annuls the legal consequences of criminal liability, i.e., all legal consequences and restrictions associated with the conviction.
At the same time, it is important to consider that failure to disclose the fact of your past criminal prosecution in another state in Clause 22 of the application for a permanent residence permit, as well as failure to report this information in your autobiography, will be qualified by the migration service as the provision of false information.
The application for a permanent residence permit specifically refers to being held criminally liable, rather than the presence or absence of a conviction. It is logical that the clearing of a conviction does not nullify the actual fact of a person committing a crime and, consequently, their prosecution.
In this regard, and according to the second part of Article 56 of the Law, a permanent residence permit shall not be issued to a foreigner if, when submitting documents necessary for a decision on granting a permanent residence permit to the relevant state bodies of the Republic of Belarus, the foreigner provided false information, submitted documents and (or) information that do not meet the requirements of the legislation, including forged, counterfeit, or invalid documents.
And this provision of the Law is of an imperative nature, i.e., it is mandatory for application to a foreigner who has provided false information about themselves. In this connection, we recommend not to withhold this type of information.