Uzbek Entry & Exit Update October 2017

[Traveller11]

Hello,

Feedback on our recently completed 14 day visit to Uzbekistan (September - October 2017)

We were advised that we needed to retain every Hostel/Hotel Registration Document that we were given during our stays at the various locations we visited, as it was a mandatory requirement while in the country, likewise to retain the Exchange Receipts provided by the Banks when we exchanged external currency for Uzbek Soms.

While as we arrived at our first accommodation having seen the notice pinned up advising 'All Payments only in Som' but underneath another more permanent framed notice stated that the Local Tax was to be paid in US$ at 2$/Person/Night!

The receptionist when I said I only had US$ and asked if I could pay with them I was told 'Yes' however she was not very happy when I then asked for an accommodation receipt stating that the payment was in US$, as it could cause her problems if I had to produce it to the Authorities!

The total value of the external currency taken into the country being declared on the Customs Declaration Form and then presented as we entered the country and which no one checked.

As we then exited the country 14 days later the bulging envelope of Hostel & Hotel Registration Documents along with the Bank Currency Exchange Receipts remained in the haversack UNCHECKED by any Border Officer.

The 'export' of our remaining external currency while being declared on the Border/Immigration exit document while having diminished was struck through by the Border Officers pen on the form, no questions were asked and no other 'paperwork' was requested to be shown and that was it!

Maybe the rules and regulations are being relaxed as the Black Market for Currency Exchange has also been virtually eliminated!
Unless you don't check the Bank Rate and get sucked in by some guy offering less than the Bank Rate but you think you are getting a good deal!

[steven]

Thanks for the update!

It has always been like this: most people pass through unchecked, but some others get the full treatment.