Tashkent to Shymkent border crossing Q&A

[canongigue]

Border crossing report

25th Dec 2023

I went from Samal bus station in Shymkent. There were a few Matrushkas waiting with the sign Tashkent written in Cyrillic. I paid 2500 Tenge for a seat and wait ca 30 min for more passengers, there were 4 passengers in total. Bus was comfy and clean, the journey took ka 1.30 hr.

At the KZ side there are sim card and money exchange vendors. I helped an uzbek auntie I met on the bus carrying her bags so she was like adopting me for the whole process. Crossing was straightforward on both sides but border polices rarely speak English. So actually coming with locals help a bit. I think I spent ca 1.30-2 hours in total for the process coz it was crowded, and Uzbek border police took my (quite new) passport to check sth even I have a valid visa.
Since the lady was so worried about me getting lost, she took me direct to the bus 169. Bus ticket costs 2000 UZS and it takes you to Shahriston Metro station.
I had no time to get uzbek sim card from the border and regretted it. It was so hard to get in town. So get it at your arrival point.

[robinmetral]

Crossed today, UZ -> KZ. Swiss passports.

Tashkent to the border is straightforward using public transport. Yandex Maps will give you the itinerary using metro+bus 169 that others have mentioned. There's even the buses' live location on the app. You can pay by card for both metro (at the turnstiles) and bus (when the assistant driver comes over, they need to see you tap your card).

Border, UZ side: incredibly disorganized and messy (around 12pm), bags barely controlled at "security", and a huge mass of people trying to get to the passport control booths before everyone else (forget lines). Can confirm that large families use their crying children to skip the queue. The border officer asked for our UZ hotel registration slips, but barely looked at them. It took us 40 minutes in total to get through, the most difficult was to keep our spot in the "line".

Border, KZ side: more organized, took 10 minutes to go through passport control and security, we were only asked if we were carrying over 10'000 USD (I wish).

Out on the KZ side there were a bunch of small currency exchange offices, with better rates than the ones we found in the Shymkent city center. You'll probably want to have exact change for the shared taxi.

Border to Shymkent: shared taxi drivers wanted 5000 KZT per person to drive us to our hotel in Shymkent, we bargained down to 7000 for the two of us. The drive took about 1.5h and we were dropped in front of our hotel. There also seemed to be minibusses waiting a bit further from the border (around here: https://osm.org/go/z0Z3WJwQ-?m=), don't know what their rate is.

Door to door, Tashkent to Shymkent took roughly 4h30 (11h30-16h).

[seiferf0]

crossed April 12, 2024, Shymkent -> Tashkent, German passport

went by Yandex Taxi to Kolos street/bus station; called Көмеш Бұлақ in yandex maps https://yandex.com/maps/-/CDR3N6iX
when arrived I was immediately approached by taxi drivers about whether I wanted to go to Tashkent/Chernayevka border crossing (even when I was still in the taxi, so a bit aggressive)
I paid 1500 Tenge for a seat in a shared modern 7-person taxi. A normal shared taxi would have been 2000 Tenge. I waited about 30 minutes before the taxi was full. The taxis are directly at the crossing with Respýblıka dańǵyly street, 46А. A bit further down Moldugalova street, there are also minibusses/marshrutkas but during the time I was there, none of them left. I think it was pretty downtime on a Friday around noon.
Arrived at the border, walk toward the fenced paths between the cars to the left and a sort of bazar to the right. Choose the right-hand corridor.

Kazakh side: scanning of luggage, asked how much USD and Euro I carry, passport control with some waiting time (several separated queues at once)
Uzbek side: passport control with several booths where I got directed to one, scanning of luggage
both with some passport checks at the beginning and end of the procedure
Both went quite smoothly, in total about 30 minutes. The only real waiting time was at the Kazakh passport control.

Leaving the Uzbek post, the green 169 bus to downtown Tashkent was already standing there right in front.

From accommodation to accommodation, it took me about 3.5 hours.

[Latifah85]

Helo, We will arrive at Shymkent Airport by 1.00am. however, I wanted to cross the border directly, and the time since passed 12.00 midnight & my questions as per blw:-
1. Is the border open 24 hours?
2. Is yandex available during those hours?
3. Is there still a money changer in Uzbekistan / kazakh at the time?

[Napsju]

Super easy crossing today. Took us only two hours from hotel to hotel.

We departed around 5:15 with a Yandex to Kolos. There we paid 10.000 KZT cash for a private taxi (family of 4) to the Chernayevka crossing. We changed some money on KZ side, Pretty OK rate. No questions asked and visa free at both border posts. Singapore and The Netherlands passports. Once crossed, we took a green bus to Shakriston Metro for 1700 UZS (€0,13!!). Tap to pay with Visa / Mastercard is cheaper than cash (2000 UZS). Children are free.

[CentralAsiaAlex]

Very smooth border crossing UZ->KZ. We took the city bus from Sharkhrstan metro station for 2000 UZS each. Remember to pay after you leave the bus, rather than when you get on!

We then took a private taxi from the border to Shymkent railway station for 13500 KZT. Didn’t feel as low as it could have been but we needed to get moving.

[neutronical]

Hi, I will be taking this border crossing in end May 2024. I will be with a group of 4 people self-driving our rental car from KZ to UZ.

May I know what is the procedure at the border? Do passengers all have to alight and when do they alight (when car reaches gate?).

Any info on this or tips will be greatly appreciated.