Turkmenistan Transit Visa in Tehran

[hitchhikable]

Passport: Ukraine (solo traveler)
Applied: 01 February 2018
Answer received: 19 February 2018 by phone
Requested entry: 10 March 2018 by Bajgiran (Iran) - Ashgabat (TM)
Requested exit: 14 March 2018 by Farab (TM) - Alat (UZ)
Result: REJECTED

No comment. I asked by phone if I could reapply for the same visa (in the meantime ended up staying in Iran longer time), the person on the phone said "it will be the same, mister".

Still if it helps: they request a copy of the visa of the onward country. If you are visa-free for the onward country (such as e.g. Uzbekistan for the citizens of Ukraine) they asked to bring instead a "document to confirm that it's visa-free". I printed a webpage from the Uzbekistan MFA official website listing visa exempt countries and highlighted Ukraine with marker, they accepted this.

Everything else is as in the Caravanistan page/forum.

Good luck!

[roro]

Thanks for detailed infos!
But sorry for your reject....

RR.

[LisetVanOosterhout]

Hi guys,

I entered the lottery and applied for the Turkmen visa last week in Tehran. However, I forgot to explicitly mention that I want to pick up the visa in Mashad. Does anyone know if I will need to go back to Tehran to pick up the visa? Or will pick up in both Tehran and Mashad be possible once the visa is granted?

Thanks for your help!

Liset

[roro]

I think you can pick-up your visa in both towns. If in Teh, you have to wait and during this wait you can go to Mashad.
Good luck with lottery , and let us know!
I'm planning to apply in Ankara, pick-up in Teh and crossing fingers!
RR.

[LisetVanOosterhout]

Thanks for the reply RoRo!
I hope thats the case indeed! Good luck for you as well!
I'll keep you updated!

[3enruta]

Couple of Spaniards,

 We apply on Wednesday March 7 for March 21, with a Chinese couple and several carriers. They assured us that the Newroz would not be a problem and so it was.

Visa confirmed on March 17 and collected in Mashad on March 19.

Although in Tehran they have to fill out the papers in the street (in Mashad there is a closed porch) everything was very easy.

To call the Tehran consulate works very well as it is explained in Caravanistan, better than with the telephone number indicated in Tehran. Thank you very much!!

To take into account: March 8 closed (also the consulate of Uzbekistan)

[LisetVanOosterhout]

28 year old Female traveler from The Netherlands. Applied for a 5 day transit visa in Tehran.
In the letter I didn't indicate any destinations but wrote 'just transit'. Just got the confirmation that I got the visa!

[roro]

Thanks for these reports!
RR.

[Leanna]

A bit delayed but this is our experience:
2 people, Italian and German passport, we applied for a transit visa the 21st of March (in the middle of Nowruz, but luckily enough the Turkmen embassador happened to be there to pick up some food, found us nice, and called the visa guy to open for us, so we could apply).
We brought the documents (color copy of passport and Uzbek visa, picture, letter), in the letter we wrote that we want to go to Bukhara and it's impossible to reach otherwise. We put Howdan to Farap as entrance/exit. You can also exit to Urgench anyway, but we saw that too late to change it. They told us to call them after a week or ten days. We called after a week and they knew nothing yet (they also ask you for a reference number, which we didnt have so far, then we gave our names and passport numbers and got a reference number we used in the next calls). We kept calling for the next days every morning, and on the 3rd of April finally got a confirmation that it was approved. We were told we could pick it up in Tehran or Mashhad. We went to Tehran, picked it up the 4th, and entered Turkmenistan the 6th!
Note: We initially applied for a tourist visa via Owadan tours because we thought that would be a safer bet, but they rejectetd our application, so we tried the transit visa without great hopes for it to work, but it did

[Zuton34]

April 2018 - French couple traveling by bike - Transit visa of 5 days
POSSIBLE

We apply in Teheran and have it in Mashhad consulate 3 weeks later. We call after 2 weeks to get the confirmation.

In Masshad the man from the consulate ask us a copy of our passeport, a photo and to fill a new form. We came on morning and get our passeport ready in the afteenoon.

Be carefull, they really want fresh dollars. No mark on it.

Moreover, we have connections with other french bikers on the same road in the same time (passing through Turkemenistan in march and april this year) : 15 request, 15 success until now, all french. Most of them mentionned on application letter that they are traveling by bike.