Visa on arrival Dushanbe

[TezzaTravels]

LOI in theory should no longer be required to issue any type of visa. However, immigration officers may require it to earn some extra money from you especially if you do not look like one that will stand your ground. Most people will pay just to get through.

Cheers, good to know. For what it's with I did give the guy a tough time at least but as you say, in a situation where you're the last person to clear immigration in a now empty hall and it's just you and a dickhead guard and he's quoting rules at you, and you have no internet to even double check what they're saying, and your wife (EU citizen) has been waiting 90 minutes, you just pay the 30 dollars! It sucks to have to play their game and also lose at it, but I could have stood their all day with my only leverage being demanding that I would go back to my point of origin, which is also a slightly iffy situation almost anyone would rather avoid (effectively surrending yourself to a form of detention)

[Summer1997]

Hello all,

I wanted to share our experience of entering Tajikistan on 10th October 2024 as British citizens.

First of all, we'd already done our research and found out that we'd have to fly from Almaty to Dushanbe to be eligible for a visa on arrival unlike if you cross into the country via land. We also knew that there are many seemingly random rejections of e-visa applications for British citizens so the visa on arrival seemed like the best option. We arrived at Dushanbe airport armed with an email from the Tajikistan Embassy in the UK which stated that we could get a visa on arrival at Dushanbe airport and screenshots of our Pamir Highway group tour booking with Visit Alay. With these ready on our phones, we were told by the clerk at the immigration area that we needed a 'letter of invitation' - even though we tried to explain in basic english that we have both an email from the Tajik embassy and proof of booking for the Pamir Highway. He categorically told us this didn't matter and that we needed a letter of invitation as well, although we knew this wasn't correct. Us and two other British tourists were dismissed and told to wait at the side and they'd deal with us after everyone else had been processed. I'm still not sure if this was a power move by the immigration clerk or not. We waited around 2 hours for the rest of the line to go down before jumping to the front of the queue again. In a frankly desperate last attempt to get into the country, I ended up writing a message on Google translate along the lines of:

Hello, we are travelling around Central Asia and want to visit your beautiful country. We have a email from the Tajik embassy in the UK and booking with Visit Alay for the Pamir Highway - we have $60 for the fee - what's the issue?

After some initial hesitation, the immigration clerk went ahead and issued us with the Tajikistan visas after collecting $60 each.

Overall the whole experience was unnecessarily stressful and required a certain amount of flattery and pressure from us.

[Lagerfeld]

Thank's for sharing your experience. Why always problems with the Tajik border police?
For the 60 $ you paid did you receive a bill / receipt ?

[TezzaTravels]

Hello all,

I wanted to share our experience of entering Tajikistan on 10th October 2024 as British citizens.

First of all, we'd already done our research and found out that we'd have to fly from Almaty to Dushanbe to be eligible for a visa on arrival unlike if you cross into the country via land. We also knew that there are many seemingly random rejections of e-visa applications for British citizens so the visa on arrival seemed like the best option. We arrived at Dushanbe airport armed with an email from the Tajikistan Embassy in the UK which stated that we could get a visa on arrival at Dushanbe airport and screenshots of our Pamir Highway group tour booking with Visit Alay. With these ready on our phones, we were told by the clerk at the immigration area that we needed a 'letter of invitation' - even though we tried to explain in basic english that we have both an email from the Tajik embassy and proof of booking for the Pamir Highway. He categorically told us this didn't matter and that we needed a letter of invitation as well, although we knew this wasn't correct. Us and two other British tourists were dismissed and told to wait at the side and they'd deal with us after everyone else had been processed. I'm still not sure if this was a power move by the immigration clerk or not. We waited around 2 hours for the rest of the line to go down before jumping to the front of the queue again. In a frankly desperate last attempt to get into the country, I ended up writing a message on Google translate along the lines of:

Hello, we are travelling around Central Asia and want to visit your beautiful country. We have a email from the Tajik embassy in the UK and booking with Visit Alay for the Pamir Highway - we have $60 for the fee - what's the issue?

After some initial hesitation, the immigration clerk went ahead and issued us with the Tajikistan visas after collecting $60 each.

Overall the whole experience was unnecessarily stressful and required a certain amount of flattery and pressure from us.

Sorry the experience was a pain but at least you didn't fork out extra! They are absolute scumbags there.

[warwick_wandering]

I entered through Dushanbe today (17th November 2024). British passport on an Air Astana flight from Almaty. I was the only person going for Visa on arrival. No queue. Two people behind the same desk, one did all the talking and asked for letter of invitation and I insisted none was needed as confirmed by the Embassy in London, I’m here for four nights, have accomodation booked and flight out booked. He continued to process the VOA without a letter though and he didn’t say anything else, charged $60 and I still had to wait 10 minutes for my luggage after passing immigration, so not too onerous a process.

[Summer1997]

Thank's for sharing your experience. Why always problems with the Tajik border police?
For the 60 $ you paid did you receive a bill / receipt ?

We heard from our walking tour guide in Dushanbe that recently a Tajik minister had requested a UK visa and was denied, hence some difficulty for British citizens now. Not sure how true this is though!

We didn't receive a receipt or anything although we did see a large group of Indian citizens successfully request and get a receipt. By the time we got our visas they had started closing the airport so we didn't bother.