Custom Declaration on TRAINS in OZ/TJ/KZ

[Chair]

Hi,

In 3 weeks i am going to make more than 20 train connections starting from Kazakstan - uzbekistan-tajiksitan- and then kyrgystan by bus.

All are VISA free for me (except UZ , require e-visa)

All countries have different regulation for how much $ cash i am allowed to take out with me.

I did lot of research online and basically as long as its below 2000$ and you have declared it when entry (with copy of your entry declaration showing amount) because you are not allowed to take out more than you got in the country. (Tajikstan requires declaration for as low as 500$ in cash).


I read through all posts on this sub-form, but it would be helpful is people who travelled recently on trains can please tell us

1- how did custom declaration work on trains? did they provide you with a declaration form
2- were you asked about cash on train? do they check how much money you have?


PS. As of september 2022: KZ/UZ/KR require NO Vaccination /PCR TEST etc
HOWEVER, online it says TJ requires 72H prior PCR test, anyone travelled recently to TJ can confirm this?

[Chair]

For those interested below are some of the trains im taking:
1- Almaty to Tashkent
2- Tashkent to Nukus
3- Nukus to Khiva
4- Khiva to Bukhara
5- Bukhara to Samarqand
6- Samarqand to Dushanbe
7- Dushanbe to Tashkent
8- Bishkek - Almaty

[Milad]

I have never seen anyone declaring their cash in writing in the past years. Very occasionally, some Customs guy may ask how much cash you're carrying, but if your answer is something like "300$" and you're not having an insane amount of cash with you, nobody will bother to make you fill out anything. This used to be different in Uzbekistan pre-2018, but these times have finished.

Apart from this, it makes no sense to take the train from Bishkek to Almaty as there is no direct railway.

[sebhoff]

Isn’t there a train from Bishkek to Novosibirsk that stops in Almaty? As far as I know, it leaves every 8 days and takes 14 hours. I’d be happy to take that train instead of a bus/marshrutka…
Sebastian

[RollingTreeHouse]

I've been asked by Uzbek customs how much money I had, probably because they had a lot of time due to there not being many passengers on the international segment of the train.
They then counted any cash they found in my luggage, but I am pretty sure that this was done out of boredom, as they did not record it in any way nor did they actually calculate the total value between all the different currencies.
There was no written declaration, same for the medicine they found in my travel pharmacy.

There is a direct train from Bishkek to Novosibirk and vice-versa that stops in Almaty, but unless you are a train enthusiast or afraid of Kazakh/Kyrgyz traffic you will be better served by road-based transportation, both in terms of speed and price.