Uzbekistan Embassy in Almaty report

[cfunkhou]

Hey everyone - two USA citizens here just picked up our Uzbek visa in Almaty two days ago based on the guidance from this post. As other posts confirmed, the visa service area is only open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 3PM to 6PM (closed on Wednesday). We got the LOI through Carvanistan because we had a tight window of 2 days to pick up our visa. Other travelers didn't go the LOI route and they had to drop their forms off on Monday and pickup the visa on Thursday (seems like that timeframe varies greatly though). Overall, it took us less than 2 hours between dropping off our application and picking up our visa.

We initially arrived at 1:45PM in case they opened at 2PM. But there was barely anyone at the embassy at that time (people waiting & employees) and the sign by the door clearly said that the visa section opens 3PM - so walked around for an hour until it was open. Tip: if you have time to kill, check out the nearby green bazaar - awesome local market and a great place to try some fermented mare/camel milk!

We then came back to the embassy at 2:45PM and there was a decent crowd by then. As other posts mentioned, you want to go through the gate on the left side of the embassy and can ignore the line outside of the window with the '3' on it. Right after 3PM, they opened the gate for just visa people, but that was ignored and there was a swarm of people piling through the gate regardless. You walk down the courtyard to get to another building. Once you're inside, it's another chaotic crowd of people pushing inside. There are a few service windows - you can ignore these completely and line up by the door on the left hand side.

At about 3:15, the door opened and asked for visa people. Then the visa guy will just grab your passport & application. After handing everything in, about 10 minutes later, they told us to wait outside. Shortly after that, they came through with a stack of papers to make the payment at the bank ($160 for US citizens - woof!). We made the payment at the bank, handed over the receipt (no need to make a copy), and then got our visa about 5 minutes later at 4:20PM (after arriving at 2:45PM).

[roro]

Hi,
It's not really good news, because you had too wait too much, I think.
Any other recent expériences, because I'm planning to do the same , but not to wait 1 week or more in Almaty or surroundings?
RRR

[pnlop]

Hi there,

So I just got my Uzbek visa from the Almaty embassy a few days ago and actually it was not that bad.

I applied on Thursday and that day everything went very well. There was a guy speaking English at the embassy, who took my papers and told me to come back in 3 working days to pick up the visa. Apparently you can go on their website to check if your visa's ready before coming back to the embassy but really I didn't find anything --if anybody's got reports about this I'd be glad to know?
So Tuesday came but the embassy was closed because of Kazakhstan's National Unity Day. Then Wednesday it's closed, so I came back on Thursday. However I was feeling a bit too ambitious because of how well it had gone on my first time there: I arrived at 16.00 and it was crowded, the guards let me inside but then I had to wait a lot. At 16.45 the visa guy left the embassy, saying that he'd be back at 19.00. But it was not the same guy as the week before and this time he spoke no English at all! Usually you can find someone in the crowd to help you out but be prepared just in case it might not happen.
So on 19.00 he came back. We were still a lot of people waiting in line. I think I got to talk to him at around 20.00. He gave me the paper to pay the visa fee at the bank and told me to come back tomorrow at 15.00 because it's at that time that foreigners are supposed to show up. So really I insist, come at 15.00!!! I didn't think it had that much importance but in fact you'll save a lot of time that way.
And so on Friday I came back at 15.00, having paid the fee at the bank. I got my visa in approximately 10min ---with a mistake on my entry date, though; be sure to double check all informations.

In the end I had to wait 8 days to get my visa, including 1 day off (holiday) and 1 mistake from myself (coming at 16.00 instead of 15.00).
Oh and I got a French passport and it cost me 55$ (that the bank asked me to pay in Tenge).

Hope it might help!

[lee]

Directly across the street from the consulate there is a copy shop/photo studio/notary, outside the door it says фото, go up the stairs and it's right in front of you, there you can print your application from a USB stick if you need to, they also can take photos, copy your passport, and you can even fill out the form using their computer if you ask nicely, very cheap - 80 tengue for passport copy and application printing.

Ok, I have a Canadian passport. Arrived at 14:15 on Tuesday, they started letting people through the gate for visas around 15:15, no line or list, so there's no point in showing up before 15:00, if you arrive late just say visa to the guard and he will let you through the crowd. Walked into the building at the end of the path and waited another 20 minutes until someone came out and collected applications.

After waiting another 20 minutes the guy came out and handed back my passport and told me to come back on Monday. Make sure you make a note of the number below the barcode on your application because you can use this to check your visa status.

Thursday night the website showed my visa as complete, so I wrote I down the information from there (Telex number, etc.) And returned to the embassy at 15:00 Friday. Handed my passport and the handwritten information from the website status to the guy and he came out 15 minutes later with a slip of paper in my passport with the amount to pay at the centercredit bank ($85 for double entry 30 days).

At the bank when you walk in, on your right there is a little machine to get a ticket for the queue, push the second button from the top to get your ticket. You can also pay at the terminals to your left, someone may come and help you do this. Bring cash, in tengue. Return to the consulate with the receipt, hand it in with your passport and you will get your passport back with the visa inside.

The people applying that had a LOI were sent to the bank the same day they applied, I assume they got their visa on the spot after paying.

My visa was for 30 days with two entries, as I specified in my application. The two entries are on the same visa for the 30 days, not two separate 15 day visas as I had read before.



Couldn't find the topic for Afghanistan visas in Almaty but in case anyone is wondering the Afghanistan consulate told me I needed a letter of permission from my embassy, which I believe Canada only has in Astana. I explained that I wasn't going to Astana, but he said then the visa is not possible. Didn't try and push it, there is a British consulate in Almaty that might be able to help Canadians, not sure, didn't try.

[Gilles]

I got my 30 days visa yesterday. Because of Ramadan it took me one week, but everything went smooth. No LOI, just filled in the form online. Twice because with the first browser it didn't work. When I went picking up my visa I mentioned that I'm travelling by bicycle and asked to have a validity window of 2 months. Got it without problem. It's crowded and you have to queue for one hour at least but the consular people are were friendly. You can get the double entry visa (30 days total) here in Almaty for 10 USD more. I have a swiss passport. Safe travel.

[jmacdonald]

Hi everyone! We just got out Uzbekistan visas on 18 June 2018 in Almaty. We wanted to share our experience as we gained a lot of info from everyone else's stories!

We are 1 American, and 1 Brit applying for a tourist visa for 30 days.

We live in the UK and decided to go to the 'Stans impulsively, at short notice (within 1 month). Because both of our jobs involve a lot of travel we could not risk parting with our passports to apply for our Uzbek visas whilst in the UK- After reading a lot of posts, we decided to fly first into Almaty and apply for our visa there before continuing on. We purchased LOI's in advance from globalconnect.uz so that we would be able to get the visa on the day of application. (Once paid, the LOI takes 5 working days to come through. We printed this and took this with us to the embassy) The price of LOI differs for the number of entries you need. We also learned that the price of a 14-day visa vs 30-day visa is exactly the same.

We arrived to the Uzbek embassy around 2:15 PM just in case the opening times were flexible(as the posts from 2016 suggest) They currently seem to adhere to the opening time of 3 PM. There were LOADS of people there already- we found ourselves starting out near the front, but by 3 PM we realised that we had been ousted and slowly pushed back to the back! Don't be shy and make sure to hold your ground!

At 3:10 PM, a guard came through and shouted something, we and about 8 other tourists applying for visas shouted up that we were there for visas, and we had to push through to get through the gate. Once through the gate, you go past the courtyard to a little room at the back. PLEASE NOTE. This is room there is a door on the left, and a few smaller windows along the wall. These windows do not open! Make sure to line up next to the door, otherwise, those in the know (there were a few guys acting as an agency with bags of passports and visa applications with us) who were originally behind you will get to cut in front of you!

We waited in this room until about 3:20 PM when the door opened- there were some tourists who had applied for their visas elsewhere (Bishkek) who were there to only pick their visas up- they were helped first. There was only 1 man processing the visas so was a very lengthy process, and there was a LOT of waiting with no real sign of direction/guidance/clue of what was going on. We all stood in a line in the doorway and were helped one by one.

We were finally seen at 4:25 PM and the man who was processing the visas spoke a bit of English and was very kind! When I asked if we could get the visa on the same day, he said as long as the application is in his system then it should be fine. Turns out, that the letter of Invite acts as a sort of registration of application- Our names were on his system so he gave us a slip, and sent us to the bank to pay. Those who did not have a letter of invite were told to come back in 3 day's time.

We went off to the bank- it is about 2 blocks West of the embassy on Gogol street, and across the street as well. We went in, and got a ticket number and waited out turn. They expect the payment in cash, ours came up to $130USD for two, 30 days, 2-entry visas (1 US, 1 UK citizen) We got our payment slip, went back to the embassy, and were handed our visas by 4:45 PM.. We spent a total of 2.5 hours and overall, was a very straightforward experience!

Other things to note:
- Monday was a VERY busy day in terms of us tourists applying for visas. In the end, there were at least 10 of us either applying, collecting, or just paying for our visas.
- they do not need a copy of EVERY single page of your passport. we brought this and were told- TOO MUCH PAPER! they only need the front ID page.
- they did not seem to care if the passport photograph was UK or US sized (they are different sizes and shapes)
- We arrived early but if you are a westerner and can make your voice heard when the gates open at 3 PM (waving your foreign passport around in the air helps), I would say there is not much need to be there to get shoved around for the extra 45 minutes.
- Eat before you go!! We nipped into one of the cafe's nearby first and were so glad we did because we were there for over two hours. Bring water!
- A time-saving option for the Uzbek visa which is also stated on Caravanistan's website- apply in Bishkek and collect in Almaty! they do not keep your passport so you can travel freely.

Good luck everyone!