Caravanistan

Consulate Opening Times

Hi folks,
I will be picking up Uzbek visa in Istanbul and looked up opening times and days and got just Wednesday and Friday opened.
Is this correct?

Thanks in advance
Ciaran

Update - consulate open Monday Wednesday Friday 10-12pm. Took approx 2 hours from start to finish to get Visa including bank visit, $80 for Irish national. 22 day Visa

Just got our Uzbek visa$ in Istanbul this morning. 1 Swiss and 1 Korean citizen.
One of the most expensive, but one of the fastest too lol.
- Printed Aliya’s LOI and visa application forms

- Arrived at Consulate at 9:30am, waited with a dozen of people until 9:50 (no shelter). Then gave the papers along with 1 pic each, original passports (they didn’t keep them) and copy of passports through a metal gate to a guy in a hut.

- Waited another 10mn then the guy shouted something and called us in. Sent us to the back of the house where we handed all the docs through a half-open window to another guy hiding in a house!

- After few min, he gave our passports back and told us to go pay 110 US$ (30 days) each at AK Bank and come back at 3pm! He seemed to be surprised/annoyed when I asked him to which IBAN we are supposed to do the transfer!!

- Once at AK Bank (we went to the one on Carsi Cd) the lady at the counter spoke very good English, but told us that we need a Turkish ID card to be able to transfer money! (How are we supposed to have a Turkish ID card??!).
Then she said, you guys just find any Turkish person, give him/her the money and he/she will do the payment for you! Well, tried with a few, but obviously didn’t work as everyone was wondering what kind of scam that was!
All of a sudden, she became very annoyed by the situation saying that everyday foreigners come and want to transfer money and that she’s stuck in the same situation. We didn’t really know what to do and after arguing for a while, she accepted to do the transfer at her name for us. Said it is totally illegal, but she is so fed up that she will take the risk. Sounded really strange to us, but nevertheless we did feel quite uncomfortable at that time.

- Went back to the Consulate with the receipt and told the guy behind the house about our payment issue. He said that this is related to AK Bank policies and that they are considering changing bank… Anyway, he took our passports with the receipt and we got the visa$ done straight away.

- So overall, the whole process took about an hour.

If this payment issue goes in, I would recommend finding a Turkish person (also getting a UZB visa) at the Consulate and ask if he/she can do the payment for you too.

CHeers

Two Czechs here.

We went to Istanbul embassy with our applications filled and printed. You will also need a passport photo and copy of passport.

Process went smooth, opening hours are 10am to 12pm mon/wed/fri in İstanbul. After handing the documents, to our surprise, they asked us where we want to pick them and Baku was OK (was our intention anyway). Prices varies. Urgent processing is about 30usd more than normal (5-7 working days vs 8+).

In Baku, we made a phonecall to embassy, weve been told how much we should pay (105 for urgent per person) and we were sent to International Bank of Azerbaijan. Located in a center (nice hostels are around for about 7 USD per person). After that we went to the embassy. Here. You need exactly the same documents as well (plus the bank confirmation). They made us a copy of passports, but we had to fill the form again by hand... Anyway the process there was quick, took us about an hour. Also the opening hours are mon/tue/Fri from 10am to 12pm I think 2:30pm to 4:30 pm (~1 hour).

Happy travels!

Report from July 31st 2017
Managed to get an Express Uzbek visa in IStanbul WITHOUT an LOI. Arrived at consulate on the Monday, picked up the visa on the Friday. Cost US$95 per person - we were two people with British passports. No problems or queries at all. No additional $3 payment fee, although still problems with paying at the bank as we were non Turkish citizens (Its a Turkish banking law problem apparently).

further details here - https://asocialnomad.com/turkey/express ... -istanbul/

Already a month ago, but I will post my experience with applying for a Uzbek visa in Istanbul here.

I am a Netherlands citizen.

I showed up on a Thursday morning, 19 april 2018, around 10:30. Opening times are between 10 AM and 12PM.

There were about 20 people waiting, mostly Turkish/Uzbek residents, but also two other foreigners.
A man/security guard is waiting behind a fence. I waited in line until he asked me if I wanted to apply for a visa.

I handed him the application form (filled out on my computer, then printed), a passport photo, my passport and a copy of my passport.

He wrote my name down on a list, and got handed back the documents.

After waiting for a bit, I don't remember how long, he called my name and I was allowed to enter the gate. The consuls office is behind the building.

Here, I handed over the documents again. The consul told me to come back on Monday, which was too late for me. The next day wasn't possible, so I asked for the visa to be picked up in Ankara. This was okay, but he asked for a new form with the place of issue being Ankara instead of Istanbul. I asked nicely if I could change it with a pen, which was okay eventually.

I didn't have to pay yet, that I would have to do in Ankara.

It all went pretty smooth.

Got our visa for Uzbekistan in Istanbul yesterday. All went smooth. We arrived at 09:50, and had our visas sorted by 12:30. We had a LOI even though we didn't need it, we choose it anyway so that we could get our visa same day in Istanbul. Submitted one application form with picture and our LOI. Was told to go to Akbank to make the payment of 60 USD per visa. Ideally you should have USD in cash, but they also accepted turkish lira with a 5 USD commission for the currency conversion. The previous issues with needing to have a Turkish ID card is no longer a problem, so that was great, and the payment was went in order easily. Waited about 30 minutes for our visa after submitting the bank receipt to the Uzbek consulate.