In the scientific article, the authors conducted a study of foreign experience in prosecuting for illegal crossing of the state border under the laws of neighboring countries and the European Union. Based on the study, the authors concluded that according to foreign legislation on liability for illegal crossing of the state border, such acts are mostly criminal liability (especially post-Soviet states, except Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia and Moldova; the United Kingdom of Great Britain and

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... Ireland; Poland; France; Germany). However, the legislation of many European Union countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Estonia, provides for criminal liability only if there are aggravating circumstances when crossing the state border, providing for administrative liability for crossing the state border in other cases. Such circumstances are: use of force or threat of imminent use of force when crossing the state border, violation of the air border, ignoring the stop signal or order issued by a border guard official, crossing the border by a group of persons or a vehicle in a place not intended to cross the border, repeated offense while crossing the border, causing serious damage to health or life of a border guard official. Similarly, the legal regulation of legal liability for illegal crossing of the state border in Ukraine is an administrative offense, but in the presence of qualifying circumstances (illegal crossing of the state border to harm the interests of the state, as well as illegal crossing of the state border by a person prohibited entry into the territory of Ukraine, or representatives of units of the armed forces or other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state) – a crime. Belarusian law provides for administrative liability for illegal crossing of the state border for the first time, and criminal liability for repeated offenses. States such as the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Moldova, whose legislation does not provide for criminal liability for illegal entry and illegal stay in the country, consider illegal crossing of the state border exclusively as an administrative offense.