It’s 27 April 2026. Today is my birthday. I’m 37. I received the positive decision on my Polish citizenship application on 29 October 2025 and today I fly to Skopje from Warsaw Chopin Airport. It’s the first time since 2023 that I travel out of the EU. It’s the first time that I leave the EU as a Polish citizen. I take the line for the automatic border control. I hear teenagers behind me discussing long waiting. Long? 10 minutes? Are you guys serious?
In front of me in the queue a boy is standing. He speaks Russian through his airpods, keeping his Ukrainian passport in his hands. This passport has a biometrical sign. When it’s his turn, the gate doesn’t open, his document is not seen. The airport assistant says: it’s not your queue, it’s only for EU citizens. The boy, unsatisfied, breathes out and disappointedly goes to another line, one for Non-EU citizens.
Suddenly, it’s my turn. My turn! Oh my God! I’m so excited. Will my ID-card work?
What if they accept only passports? But I registered my boarding-pass with the ID-card. Just in case I have a passport. I put my plastic ID on the glass. The gates open immediately. I step in. I put my feet on the yellow signs of shoes on the floor. These yellow signs are too big for my size - 37. I lift up my cheek, my head, watch on the screen in front of me, look into the machine’s camera, put my pointing finger on the glass of the scanner…and voilá, the gate is open.
Immediately, a young, blond officer just throws a look at me…and then nothing. I can go. Really? I’ve just crossed the border. It took me 30 seconds. I start crying. Unbelievable. No queues! No questions! Where are all these questions? What is the purpose of your visit? Do you have an invitation? When do you come back? Do you have cigarettes? Do you have alcohol? How much money do you have with you? Do you have insurance? No more questions! I start crying.
Tears of relief and solidarity, I cry for my endless hours and lost days standing at the border control for non-EU citizens. I spent years at the border control of ‘Brest-Terespol’, the border between Poland and Belarus. I would wait alone, with friends, with a theatre group, with an aunt. I would wait in a train, in a car, on a bike, in a bus, in a mini-bus. I had different purposes: to travel, to perform, to participate, to do shopping, even sometimes to smuggle goods. And now…long hours turn to the privileged 30 seconds.
No more queues. No more questions. Just be on the move.
Testimony written in the air on my way to On the Move Forum in Skopje dedicated to Mobility Justice.
Sviatlana Haidalionak
Photo: VidiVamo // Види Вака – Vidi Vaka
Read more about the Cultural Mobility Forum 2026 here and watch the recap videos here.