Coronavirus border closures & re-openings

[HLJHLJ]

Kazakhstan has suspended all visa-free travel until 1st November 2020
https://primeminister.kz/ru/decisions/17042020-220

It says it covers entries and exits, so I don't know what that means for people who arrived visa-free and then got stuck when the borders closed.

Is it safe to assume they're doing this to close down any international tourism at this point? Or is it to monitor people if they get into the country? I'm still slated to go mid to late summer, but not particularly confident this will really take place.

This is probably just the easiest way for the government to maintain control of who is/isn't allowed to travel when the airlines start flying again. It'll also let them add at least another couple of months to the quarantine in the form of 'processing time' while claiming to have officially lifted the restrictions.

Either way, as said above, I also wouldn't expect anyone to be moving freely pretty much anywhere in the world for the next 6 months or so at least.

[steven]

Uzbekistan automatically prolongs all visas for foreigners who are currently stuck in the country until June 1st, 2020. No worries! No fines, no problems.



Bit more clarification on the Kazakhstan visa-free suspension: https://tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/k ... ev-399189/

[Edmund]

Hi! I just want to ask whether anyone has any news regarding when it will be possible to travel to Iran? I was planning on staying for several months in Iran during the summer (beginning in July), but ofc... you know what happened. I was about to scrap my plans, but now it seems that Iran has mostly lifted all of its restrictions. Some places state that the border has already reopened, but the information is sparse. Any thoughts?
Thanks!

[Milad]

This information is a mixture of information I have by personal relatives living in Iran and the official travel advice of the German MFA, which is usually up to date:

Getting a visa: Visa issuance is not officially suspended. This does not mean that you will certainly get a visa, they might simply deny all tourist visa applications at the moment, but you can try. I would not risk trying VoA at IKA airport as there have been several reports of people being denied a visa and deported even in "normal" times.

Getting in: the airports are technically open and have never been closed during the entire pandemic, but travellers arriving from most western countries will be quarantined in an airport hotel until they have been tested for Covid-19. This does usually take 48 hours but may take longer. However, the airports being open does not mean that flights operate as scheduled. There are very limited flights to Tehran IKA (IranAir is still flying to a few foreign destinations, maybe also Mahan Air and Qatar) and (close to?) zero international services to other airports in Iran.
All land border crossings are closed (by the neighboring countries, the Iranians have not closed any AFAIK).

Once you're in the country: The restrictions recently lifted used to apply to shops that had been closed (now, most may open again). Many restrictions still apply: Restaurants, museums, mosques, schools and universities are still closed, taxis may not transport more than two persons at a time.

Note that the official infection rates of Covid-19 in Iran are made up by the government and likely to be several times higher. I leave it up to you to decide if you fear the virus or not, but note that due to this, many governments warn against travel to Iran at the moment, which means that your travel health insurance might be void (even if you have a road accident).
In the case that the shit hits the fan and you need to get out of the country immediately (this can both be medical reasons and "larger" reasons such as escalating protests), your embassy will probably be of a lot less help (if any) than under normal conditions.

tl;dr: If you're willing to take a few risks, it might be technically possible to travel to Iran this summer, but your travel experience will be very limited. My recommendation is postponing it, but of course you can wait and see how the situation develops. I do not expect most of the above restrictions being lifted until July.

[steven]

Georgia is planning to re-open for international tourists on July 1st https://oc-media.org/coronavirus-live-updates-7-may/

[Jeans]

Hello I am Jeans, I am in Turkey. I am here to go through the mountains Pamir and visit some Stans countries. I heard the opening of Georgian border. Hope won't need to quarantaine myself. How about the choice of roads if don't want to cross Caspian Sea or Iran than Turkmenistan. Could I go north in Russia? Also heard about bad road in desert ! If that bad how come have buses?

[steven]

Hello I am Jeans, I am in Turkey. I am here to go through the mountains Pamir and visit some Stans countries. I heard the opening of Georgian border. Hope won't need to quarantaine myself. How about the choice of roads if don't want to cross Caspian Sea or Iran than Turkmenistan. Could I go north in Russia? Also heard about bad road in desert ! If that bad how come have buses?

Yes, you can go into Russia, once the border opens again. For more info, see the border crossing pages on Georgia and Azerbaijan. The roads are good.

[mig50]

Bonjour, un ami vient de m,envoyer ce communiqué, à consulter.
https://www.rt.com/russia/488434-russia ... traveling/.
Moi qui avait prévu partir le 1 mai, vers Armenie,georgie, St Petersbourg,Lituanie,Berlin, Benelux.
Au jour le jour........

[mazeno]

a po polsku nie chcesz pogadac?
или по русский не хочеш поговорит?
lebo kapke cosik pogworzyc?
this is english spoken forum in spite of the fact that the owner is belgian :P

[Isaach]

Hi there,

First time poster here (but extensive user of the info on this website). We were supposed to be in Central Asia right now but like many others our trip was cancelled due to Covid-19.

We had already been granted Tajikistan visas, but then we received a message saying that they had been cancelled and that we could get a refund.

Unfortunately it's really unclear what they mean. Has anyone else successfully found a way to get their visa application fee refunded?

"Your evisa application was cancelled. Please, contact with your bank for the refund."

Needless to say my bank does not know anything about this. Thanks in advance for your help.