How to get Revolut to unlock your account? Here are two success stories

On the night of November 1, citizens of Russia and Belarus living in Europe faced blocking of accounts and cards of Revolut, one of the key banks for citizens of these countries in the EU. This is not the first time that Neobank has blocked the accounts of passport holders of these countries. Oninvest spoke to two people who had previously managed to get their accounts unblocked at Revolut. In one case, the issue was solved by an official appeal to the regulator, in the second case - by uploading documents to the bank's system in the right combination.

On the night of November 1, citizens of Russia and Belarus living in Europe faced another mass blocking of accounts in Revolut. Neobank sent them letters demanding to update the documents confirming the legality of stay in the European Union, European Economic Area or Switzerland. This time many people received another message from the bank a few minutes later - about the prohibition to deposit and withdraw money from their accounts at ATMs, pay for goods and services by card or send money transfers to other Revolut accounts. That is, in fact, the bank blocked their accounts.

In the letters, Revolut also warned customers of unilateral account closure if updated documents were not uploaded by December 31, 2025. However, the upload function itself was not available on the bank's app. To customers who were able to contact the support team, Revolut reported temporary technical difficulties.

Most of the cases of Revolut cards and accounts blocking, which Oninvest has familiarized itself with, concerned those who lived in the EU on long-term national D visas (these include work visas, student visas, family reunification visas, etc.) or on humanitarian grounds. The blocking also affected clients whose residence permits were about to expire. Including even those who renewed their residence permit, but did not have time to upload new data into the bank's system. The problem was also faced by those who are still waiting for the decision of the migration authorities on the extension of residence permits. Accounts were also blocked for citizens of Russia and Belarus who are married to Ukrainians and enjoy temporary protection status.

By Nov. 7, Revolut users began reporting that unobank had restored their technical ability to upload documents or returned full or partial access to the account, and some had extended the deadline for filing valid documents to March 1, 2026.

Oninvest talked to two Revolut clients who were previously blocked under similar scenarios and managed to get unblocked. Here are their stories.

Alina*, a Russian citizen, lives in Greece, where she and her Ukrainian husband have been granted temporary protection under the relevant EU Directive. Under this Directive, Alina's family is entitled to a temporary residence permit in an EU country, as well as employment and medical care, access to education for their children and the opening of a basic bank account.

"We moved to Greece in 2022. A year later, I encountered a Revolut lockout. It coincided with the expiration of my temporary protection certificate, which I presented when I opened the account. The Greek authorities explained that the expired document would be renewed automatically along with the temporary protection status at the EU level, but there was no need to re-issue the certificate itself - even if it expired, it would be valid in the country. Despite this, Revolut took the decision to block it," she says.

According to her, in practice, holders of expired certificates often had to refer to the authorities' explanations and even carry a paper copy of the decision with them in order to receive a public service or other assistance, to show the document to the police, and so on.

That is why Alina did receive a new certificate, but she was still unable to upload it to the bank's mobile application. The Revolut manager told her that the updated certificate was not included in the list of required documents, and the bank's complaints and appeals department indicated that they had the right not to extend the client's service unilaterally.

Since Revolut failed to resolve the situation, Alina sent a complaint about the wrongful blocking of the account to the Bank of Lithuania, which was the first to issue Revolut a banking license.

This is what residents of countries where Revolut does not have a branch office should do. In Greece, where Alina lives, there is no such branch. The Bank of Lithuania accepts such complaints via an electronic form on its website (such an appeal will have to be certified with a European electronic signature). If there is no signature, the complaint will have to be sent by regular letter. Alina did not have an electronic signature, so she chose the second option. Two weeks later, she received a response from the Lithuanian regulator, who recommended that Revolut re-examine her case.

As a result, the bank restored her account and paid her €200 in moral damages.

But according to Alina, the situation with the blocking in 2024 was repeated: the bank's automatic compliance systems refused to consider her certificate valid, but after negotiations with the appeals department, she still managed to unblock the account. "I brought up my old appeal to the Bank of Lithuania and its regulation; perhaps that convinced Revolut," she concludes. In the fall of 2025, when Revolut blocked the accounts of Russians en masse, Alina avoided being blocked.

Another interviewee, Anna*, a Russian woman who lives in Italy with a residence permit (permesso di soggiorno), believes that contacting the regulator is the most effective measure. She also faced a blockage on the night of October 31, 2025.

"I have an indefinite employment contract with an international company, and I have no doubts about extending my residence permit. One snag - you can only submit your documents 60 days before the expiration date, and the review takes up to six months. It turns out that these six months you live with one receipt from the Italian post office that the documents are accepted. It is called ricevuta del permesso di soggiorno. All this time it confirms the legality of being in Italy and the preservation of most of the rights that gives residence permit. These include opening an account in a European bank and using it," she explains.

When Revolut restored the technical possibility of sending files in the application, Anna started trying to upload documents that would confirm the legality of her stay in Italy instead of a residence permit. The bank did not accept the ricevuta, nor the certificate from her job stating that her contract was open-ended, nor the certificate from the municipality confirming her residence. The bank operators assured Anna that these documents would not be considered in any case, as the bank required a residence permit.

However, the combination of an expired residence permit and ricevuta strung together suddenly worked - Revolut unblocked the account and extended the deadline for submitting documents until spring 2026.

In case of failure to upload documents, Anna planned to contact the Bank of Italy (Revolut has a branch in that country). She did not send a complaint to the Italian regulator this time, but she reserves this scenario for herself in the future.

"Since 2022, I have experienced account blocking from Revolut more than once. It is possible that at the next renewal of the residence permit the situation may repeat itself if there are no special clarifications from the EU authorities or financial regulators on such cases. And how will they know about our problems if we don't write to them?" - she explains.

This is not the first blocking of accounts of Russians and Belarusians in Revolut, the bank, which since 2022 remained one of the few in Europe, where the passports of Russia and Belarus with a valid residence permit or national visa could open an account.

For example, in 2023, unobank restricted access to accounts to those with expiring national visas and residence permits. Revolut did not accept certificates that documents for renewal had been submitted and were being checked, and renewal deadlines were stretched due to increased workload on municipalities that could not cope with the flow of refugees from Ukraine, as well as those fleeing persecution from Russia and Belarus.

This time, in its official response to the media, Revolut explains what is happening by the need to comply with the sanctions policies of the EU, the UK, the US and other countries where it operates. The Revolut representative did not respond to additional questions from Oninvest.

October 23, the EU adopted the 19th package of sanctions against Russia. In particular, it prohibits European banks from making payments, acquiring and transactions with electronic money and crypto-assets for citizens of Russia and Belarus, as well as companies from these countries.

Some European banks have followed Revolut's example. For example, according to user reports, in November such cases became known in Germany and France (Commerzbank and AXA, respectively) and Montenegro (Adriatic Bank).

The new sanctions restrictions do not apply to holders of EU passports, European temporary or permanent residence permits. However, there are no clarifications in the current text of the document with regard to holders of national D visas, asylum-seekers and those awaiting the issuance or extension of their documents because of the extended time limits for the consideration of applications.

Until the EU Council or the European Court of Justice gives them, financial organizations will use their own interpretations of this norm, says Artem Kasumyan, senior lawyer of the sanctions practice of the Delcredere Bar Association.

There is a great deal of ambiguity in the sanctions in the area of payment services in their current form, he believes. Formally, Russian persons are prohibited from providing acquiring services, payments and issuing payment instruments (e.g. cards). But in the preamble of the acts imposing restrictions on the provision of payment services, the Council of the EU writes that "the performance of payment transactions" is not prohibited.

This is also pointed out by experts of the consulting company B1 in the review of the 19th package of EU sanctions: the European regulator interprets the restrictions for acquiring and payment initiation, explaining that the new sanctions do not apply to the execution of payment transactions.

But in practice, it is quite possible that the norms will be interpreted broadly, Kasumyan continues. He compares the current situation with the confiscation of cars with Russian license plates, when entering the EU with a private car was interpreted as "import".

If Russian citizens do not have a residence permit or citizenship of the EU, as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland, they should probably convince their bank that the services they provide do not fall within the scope of the new restrictions," says Kasumyan. - If the bank can't be persuaded, it's worth appealing to the financial regulator to confirm that a particular transaction is not restricted by the sanctions regulation. Its decision will be binding for the bank.

Oninvest sent a request to Revolut.

* name changed at the speaker's request

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor