Now for some practical information about Uzbek visas. While this blog entry is not designed to answer all of your questions, it will give you the basics that will help you through the process.

Like most countries you want to visit, different rules apply to nationalities. In this case, Uzbekistan is no different. If you are a citizen of the following countries, you are among the fortunate ones who do not need an Uzbek visa:

•              Armenia
•              Azerbaijan
•              Belarus
•              Georgia
•              Kazakhstan
•              Kyrgyzstan
•              Moldova
•              Russia
•              Ukraine
  
  For the people who are citizens of the following countries, there is a simplified visa procedure available to them at their nearest Uzbek embassy:
  
  
•              Austria
•              Belgium
•              France
•              Germany
•              Italy
•              Japan
•              Latvia
•              Malaysia
•              Spain
•              Switzerland
•              United Kingdom
  
  A non-visa regime of up to 90 days is available bilaterally for those citizens of the following countries who hold a diplomatic passport:

•              Republic of Korea
•              Brazil
•              Hungary
•              Romania (service passport holders included)
•              Slovakia (service passport holders included)
•              Turkey

For the Rest of Us
If your country is not listed above, then you will need to get a pre-arranged visa to enter Uzbekistan. To start the application process, you will need to go to this link (http://evisa.mfa.uz/evisa_en/) to fill-out the application. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) website, it takes about 10 business days to get your visa. Keep this in mind as you make your travel plans.

The cost of the visa varies with the duration of time you plan to be in Uzbekistan and whether you’ll be traveling with a group or individually. For a list of the differing costs, please check out the MFA's website for detailed information: http://mfa.uz/eng/consular_issues/

Help is on the Way!
If you plan to visit Uzbekistan, Roxana Tour can help you get your visa. For most people, you will need a letter of invitation from a registered tour operator. All you need to do is contact our office (travel.roxanatour@gmail.com OR roxanatour@yahoo.com) and talk to one of our tour professionals to select a tour and submit your down payment to us. When these steps have been completed, we can obtain the letter of invitation for you from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tashkent, which usually takes 5 – 7 business days. We will forward this letter to you, and then you will attach it to your visa application when you submit it to the Uzbek embassy or consular office in your country. Since it takes about 10 days to get the visa, the entire process will take close to 3 weeks to complete. It’s as easy as that!

A Final Note
Upon your arrival in Uzbekistan you will need to register with the Office of Visas and Registration (OVIR). I don’t know about you, but whenever I learn that I need to deal with administrative offices, I get the chills. However, there is an alternative to make your trip an easy one. The good news is that you will not need to make a special visit to the OVIR to take care of this administrative issue. This is how it will work: When you check-in to your first hotel, you will be issued a registration card that you will need to keep with you throughout your journey. The hotel’s concierge will deliver your registration card to the OVIR to get your stamp. For every hotel that you stay, this process will be repeated with no extra effort required from you. However, it’s very important that you have this card when you check-out of each hotel since you will need to return it to the authorities before you depart Uzbekistan.

I hope that this helps to answer any questions that you have about visas in Uzbekistan. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us at any time and our experts will give you the answers!

Posted by Greg Stephenson