Monthly Archives: August 2011

Two Down, One to Go!

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Happy news from the visa front: earlier than expected, I found a letter from the Uzbek consulate in the mail yesterday. For some reason I feared there would be an issue with overlapping visas, but apparently this does not seem to be one after all. So what did I do to get the visa?

  • Fill in the on-line form at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, print the resulting PDF file and add a photo to that form.
  • Write a nice letter asking for a visa
  • Add a registered and stamped return envelope
  • Add my passport
  • Send prove of money transfer for the visa request

and that was it!
The next step now is to request a tourist visa for Iran. I double checked the visa requirements on the website of the Iranian consulate in Munich (which is the one to contact if you live in Southern Germany) and it seems that there is no need to involve a travel agent. All the travel agent does, is to request a reference number with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which takes between 3 and 7 days. The consulate in Munich also performs this request and it takes 5 days. Thus there is not really any gain, except if I would ask for an express visa. In that case, the consulate performs the remaining activities in 2 instead of 10 days.
Tomorrow I will mail my passport with the following information to the Iranian consulate:

  • Filled in visa request form, which you can find here
  • Passport
  • Two photos
  • Registered and stamped return envelope
  • Prove for the money transfer for the visa request

Hope this works as well as the previous two visas!

First Visa Arrived!

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My first goal is achieved! After two and a half weeks I got my passport back from the Kyrgyz consulate in Frankfurt.
The next visa in my queue is the Uzbek visa. My research led to the information that the Uzbek consulate does not require a letter of invitation for Swiss citizens. Thus the requirements for the visa are the same as for the Kyrgyz visa: completed application form with photo, passport, return envelope and that’s it. Let’s wait and see how things will work out.

Turkmenistan

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Obtaining a visa for Turkmenistan is not really a big deal, just costs a lot of money… here is why:
The Turkmen government requires tourist to have a guide and travel arrangement when travelling through Turkmenistan. Once you have that, you either pick up your visa at the nearest embassy or consulate or even easier, you get the visa at the border.
I inquired with two very helpful Turkmen travel agencies. You can find a list of travel agencies on the website of the State Committee of Turkmenistan for Tourism and Sport.
The travel agencies I contacted were Ayan Tours, a private office, and Ashgabatsiyakhat, a state run office. Both of them provided a great service and made very good recommendations. The one big difference was the price of their offer.
I ended up travelling with Ashgabatsiyakhat and I am looking forward to meeting their guide at the Howdan border on November 22.