Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
¨
a photocopy of the validity and personal
information pages of your passport (some
Uzbekistan embassies require a copy of
all
passport pages!)
¨
anywhere between one and three passport-
size photos
¨
a completed application form, which you can
generally download from the embassy website.
In addition to these, you will also need:
¨
at least six months validity in your passport
and two clean pages
¨
proof of onward transport (for a transit visa)
With the exception of Turkmenistan, visas
do not list the towns to be visited. The
tourist-visa application for Turkmenistan
requires you to list the name of every town
you want to visit, and most of these places,
excluding the capital, will be printed on
your visa.
Bear in mind that most visas have
either fixed-entry dates or fixed-validity
dates, so you will have to carefully plan
the dates of your itinerary in advance. If
you are weaving in and out of republics,
eg from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan's Pamir
Highway, Kyrgyzstan and then back to
Uzbekistan, you'll need to ensure that the
first visa is still valid when you return to
that republic (and that it's a double- or
multiple-entry visa).
Even the most helpful Central Asian em-
bassies in the West normally take a week
to issue a visa. Many embassies will speed
the process up for an express fee (often
double the normal fee). Central Asian em-
bassies within the Commonwealth of Inde-
pendent States (CIS) seem to be quicker.
Visa payment sometimes has to be in
a neighbouring bank, not the embassy
itself, and you'll need to bring back the
receipt as proof of payment.
Visas can be quite expensive, especially
for US citizens who routinely pay much
more for their visas than other nationali-
ties (retaliation for the fees the US govern-
ment charges Central Asian visa appli-
cants). Budget a couple of hundred dollars
for a multi-'stan trip.
Try to allow time for delays and screw-
ups. Errors do happen - check the dates
and other information on your visa care-
fully before you hit the road, and try to find
out what the Cyrillic or other writing says.
Letters of Invitation
The key to getting a tourist visa for Turk-
menistan or a business, longer-duration
or multiple-entry visa or a visa on ar-
rival for other republics is 'visa support',
GETTING CURRENT INFORMATION
Online
Central Asia visa rules change all the time. The following websites are a good option
for up-to-date visa information:
Caravanitan
(www.caravanitan.com)
Thorn Tree
(www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree)
Stantours
(www.tantours.com)
Embassies
Central Asian embassies abroad ofer comprehensive information on visas:
Kazakhtan
www.kazakhembus.com; www.kazconsulny.org; www.
kazembassy.org.uk; also www.mfa.gov.kz/en
Kyrgyztan
www.kgembassy.org; www.kyrgyz-embassy.org.uk;
www.botschaft-kirgisien.de
Tajikitan
www.tjus.org; www.tajikembassy.be; www.tajembassy.org.uk;
www.botschaft-tadschikitan.de
Turkmenitan
www.turkmenitanembassy.org; www.turkmenembassy.org.uk
Uzbekitan
www.uzbekconsulny.org; www.uzbekitan.org; www.uzbekitan.de;
www.uzbekembassy.org; www.ouzbekitan.fr (in French)
