Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which means a Letter of Invitation (LOI),
approved by the Ministries of Foreign
Affairs and/or Interior, from a private
individual, company or state organisation
in the country you want to visit. After
obtaining ministry approval, your spon-
sor (normally a travel agent) sends the
invitation to you, and when you apply at a
consular office for your visa it is matched
with a copy sent directly to them from
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The cheapest way to get a visa invita-
tion is directly through a Central Asian
travel agency, many of whom will sell you
a letter of visa support for between US$30
and US$100. Stantours
(www.stantours.com)
is one agency that is frequently recom-
mended. A few Western travel agencies
can arrange visa invitations but charge up
to five times the local fee.
Try to apply for letters of invitation
a month, or preferably two months, in
advance. Individual sponsors may need
months to get their invitations approved
before they can even be sent to you.
fines associated with bringing you back
if your papers aren't in order. Try to get a
visa in advance if possible.
Getting Central Asian Visas
in Central Asia
If you are on a long overland trip it's
possible to get your Central Asia visas
en route in Central Asia, as long as you
don't mind hanging around the Central
Asian capitals for a few days (or even
weeks) and spending a lot of time in visa
queues. Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) is a good
place to load up on Central Asian visas.
However, it's generally best to get a
visa in your home country when possible.
Transit & Multiple-Entry
Visas
Even if you are just passing through
a republic (eg flying into Almaty and
transferring overland to Bishkek) you
will need a transit visa.
You might also need transit visas for
some trips even if you're not stopping in
the country. For example, you will need
a Kazakh transit visa to take the bus or
train from Tashkent in Uzbekistan to
Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, or to take the
train from Moscow to Tashkent, as both
routes pass through Kazakhstan.
You may also need a re-entry visa (or
multiple-entry visa) to get back into the
first country if your bus or train dips
temporarily into a neighbouring republic
(most likely in remote parts of the Fer-
gana Valley).
Train trips can be particularly tricky.
New routings mean that you no longer
need a Turkmen transit visa to take
the Uzbek train between Tashkent and
Urgench. Less convenient connections
such as Tashkent to the Fergana Valley
by train (which requires a Tajik transit
visa and a double-entry Uzbek visa) are
worth avoiding.
Visas on Arrival
If there's no convenient embassy in your
country, you can get a visa on arrival
at Astana and Almaty (in Kazakhstan),
Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Ashgabat
(Turkmenistan) airports, but normally
only if you have a LOI and have arranged
this in advance with your agency. Some
reports suggest that you can now get a
visa on arrival in Dushanbe without an
LOI, though this not recommended. A
visa on arrival at Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
is possible (with an LOI) but only if
you come from a country without an
Uzbekistan embassy. Visa-free entry at
Bishkek and Osh airports in Kyrgyzstan
make these the easiest fly-in options.
Responsible sponsors and agencies
send representatives to meet their in-
vitees at the airport and smooth their
way through immigration. Even so,
consular officials at the airport can be
notoriously hard to find, especially if
your flight arrives in the middle of the
night, and they may not be able to find
your records scribbled in their big black
book.
You may also need to persuade the
airline that you are guaranteed a visa
as many are keen to avoid the costs and
Visa Extensions
Extending an ordinary tourist visa
after you arrive is relatively easy in
Kyrgyzstan, a bureaucratic tussle in
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and almost
impossible in Kazakhstan and Turkmen-
istan. Travel agencies can normally help
