Caravanistan

French passport, rejected

applied in Ankara in march 2017, pick up in Tbilissi.
No news after 1 month, after 45 days they sent me an email saying my application for 5 days transit visa was rejected. "Best regards."

roro wrote:"30 year old bearded guy got a 5 day transit visa in ankara, pick up in teheran. no money wanted in ankara."
I had the same experiencein 2015.
Have you received any confirmation (email,sms) before picking-up yur visa in Teh.?
RR.

I received a e-mail after about 15 days with an attached letter. picked it up in teheran, took 5 minutes.
greets

Addendum to my experience in 2015 (forgot to mention it at the time!) - I applied to the Turkmen transit visa in Ankara and arranged to collect it in Baku. When I found the embassy there (a feat in itself, since it's located in a maze of alleyways), the guys on the gate told me to come back in a couple of days. Did that, they shook their heads, one of them got a diary out and pointed to a date a couple of weeks later. Eventually they found someone who spoke a bit more English, who explained that the consul was on holiday (and presumably no-one else had the authority to issue visas in his absence). His scheduled return date was later than the dates for which I had requested the visa, so I gave up on Turkmenistan and took the boat to Kazakhstan instead. If you're desperate to get into Turkmenistan, you may want to contact the embassy in advance to check when the consul has his holiday booked for...

Embassy report : Turkmen visa in Ankara for French people
As we want to spend less than 10 days between Tehran and the Turkmen border, we decided to do the Turkmen visa before Iran. It seems that it is not possible to do it in Georgia or Armenia, we went to Ankara.
The consulate is known by taxi drivers but anyway you can find the address online (I think it changed recently and it may not be the one on caravanistan). It is open all week from 9am to 12pm and 1pm to 6pm. They answered our calls and emails. We went at the opening in the morning, but it was not crowded anyway.
The staff was really helpful. They printed the forms (there is one available on the website, but apparently we needed also another one for transit visa), explained us the letter we needed to write to request transit visa in addition to the forms, pasted our pictures on the forms, and helped us to find the borders we request. We attached our Iranian visa to the demand - and wrote on the letter that French citizens do not need visas for turkey (country of request) nor Ouzbekistan (country of exit).
Then we had to go to a bank near by to pay 10 dollars and get a receipt to give to the embassy. We had withdrawn dollars before going to the embassy.
In total it took 1h30 to make the request, as we did not fill any document before.
8 working days later, we received a document by email from the consulate, saying that our request was accepted. We have transit visa for 5 days between the borders we requested (howdan to koneurgenc), without dates (cool!), to be used within 3 months after the date of issue. We requested pick up in Mashhad, nothing is written on the letter about that, we will see then.

Eddit : Smooth withdrawal of the visa in Mashhad, it took 10 minutes, you have to bring a color copy of your passport (that you can do 2 minutes away from the consulate), fill another form and give 55$.

Could you share the address if it has changed?

Hello!

Canadian passeports, did our application in April 24th. They made us fill the 2 form: the one online + the one they gave us. Really nice and helpful people. Coloured photocopy of passeport, Azerbaijan e-visa (since taking the boat from Baku), 2 coloured pictures, Turkish E-visa, letter explaining our itinerary and proof that no need of visa for Uzbekistan. Took around 15 minutes the first time and 30 minutes the second time. The address we had was the one on Google Maps and was accurate. After they received the paperwork, they give us a small paper to go pay at Isbank, 2 blocks away. We waited 1 hour day and paid 10$ for each applicants. They told us we will get info by e-mail.

7th of May, we received our invitation by e-mail. I asked them by e-mail if I had to secure my visa in Baku or I could have my visa on arrival once in Turkmenbashi. They told me it was better to secure in Baku. In Baku, we went to the embassy and they told us to use our invitation upon arrival in Turkmenbashi to avoid expire of my visa. In Turkmenbashi, no problem at all exchanging LOI for visa!

Safe trip!

Hello!

I applied for a transit visa today with a Portuguese passport it was really smooth.

I submitted: a coloured photocopy of my Iranian visa ; coloured photocopy of my passport ; Both of the printed and filled in forms (Visa and personal information form) with attached photos ; plus a letter stating why I wanted a transit visa, what method of of transport I would be using and explaining that I don't need a visa for Uzbekistan.

The man who took my papers spoke English well and was super friendly. He looked through the papers i handed him and pointed out that the visa form I submitted was wrong because it was printed double sided instead of in two different pages but when I then asked him if there was anywhere nearby where I could just make a copy of the back page to submit it in different pages he said it was ok and accepted it anyways. (So, not sure what that was all about but for all of you out there play it safe and make sure you don't print anything double sided!)

He then told me to go a to bank nearby (7 mins walking) to pay 10$ and return with the receipt.

After I handed him the receipt he said it would take 15 days and they would email me when it was done. I asked him if I could pick it up in Iran and he said yes, no problem.

Now to wait and see what happens when I arrive in Iran.


Oh, also there was nobody else in the consular section when I arrived so it was super fast! I was in and out in less than 40mins, with the trip to the bank included!

edit Sep 3: After waiting the 15 days they said and not hearing from them I emailed them and got no response. I waited another week and sent them another email which they replied within 20 minutes saying my transit visa had been approved!!!! In the email they attached a letter which I need to print and present at any Turkmenistan embassy Iran and they will issue me the visa!!

Applied today for a transit visa in Ankara embassy.
They were kind and helpful, like was said here before.
I arrived at 9 am, embassy was still empty. Because I didn’t print the visa application form I needed to print it and come back. So in total it took me like 3 hours. Make sure you got all documents in advance.

This is what you need to bring with you:

1. Visa application form. You download it from Turkmen embassy of Ankara website. The file to download is called ‘transit visa example’. Open the PDF and fill correctly the required fields, add your photo and print (colorful)

2. Personal form. You download it also from the website. Print it and you can fill it in the embassy.

3. 2 Passport pictures 3x4.

4. Colorful copies of visas of entry/exit country (if needed).

5. Colorful copy of passport

In the embassy they will give you a paper to write a letter. They will give you an example letter you can copy.
You pay 10 dollars in the nearby bank. And that’s it.
Make sure you print all documents, with visa application form filled digitally before printing.