M41 Pamir Highway / Kyzyl Art Pass border crossing procedure Q&A

[pietropodesta]

Hello everyone,

I am posting here to ask for advice on my quite specific situation.

I am doing the Pamir Highway trip with 3 other friends in August this year. We have reserved a car with a driver through Khudoguy, as recommended by Caravanistan. We have another friend who will already be in Kyrgizstan by the time our Pamir tour ends and we agreed with Khudoguy to end our Pamir Highway tour just before the broder in order to allow our friend to pick us up at the Kyzyl Art/Bordobo border.

The plan is that our driver will drop us off at the standard exchange point with the Kyrgyz cars, which is about 2 km from the Tajik checkpoint near the Arkhar (Marco Polo Sheep) monument. Apparently, this is the usual place where travelers transfer between Tajik and Kyrgyz transport.

The question though is: will our friend (EU citizen just like us) be able to reach this exchange point (which as far as I understand will be in the no man's land stretch between the two checkpoints) on a Kyrgiz plated rental car?

Do you have any advice on this?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[Taamoore]

Flagging for folks that as of June 4th there is currently a daily planned electricity outage due to ongoing construction, which is causing the Kyrgyz border station to be closed from 8 AM to 6 PM every day. It’s been like this at least a few days now. Electricity seems to be out in Sary Mogol and Sary Tash during these hours as well.

If you plan on entering or exiting Tajikistan through Kyzyl Art you should plan on going before or after that time or you’ll just be waiting for the electricity to turn back on. It’s unclear how long this will last so you should check with someone local to be sure.

Also, don’t forget to get your Kyrgyz exit permit – in addition to your Tajik GBAO permit. We didn’t realize we needed an exit permit and our rental car company didn’t flag this with us, so we got delayed a full day having to acquire the exit permit from a Kyrgyz travel company.

Happy travels, everyone.

[mazeno]

Also, don’t forget to get your Kyrgyz exit permit – in addition to your Tajik GBAO permit. We didn’t realize we needed an exit permit

???
so for entering kgz the permit IS NOT required
and for leaving kgz IS required?
viewtopic.php?p=63745#p63745

[CmaKadmpt]

If I hire a private driver from Osh to Dushanbe (Kyrgyz car and driver), will the permit be sorted out by the driver or do we have to arrange it beforehand?

[chump_chop]

So no permit or pre-registration needed for exiting Tajikistan entering Kyrgyz via Kyzyl Art border? viewtopic.php?p=63745#p63745 seems to confirm no permit. But would be good to know about registration.

[semf]

As i put on the other thread,

"We just crossed this border yesterday (EU citizens, Tajik > Kyrgyzstan) and you need a permit.
I know there are talks about not needing this permit anymore for the future, but for now, you definitely need it.
As we were crossing, the guard already had our names and our passport numbers printed in a book.
We did ours via Destination Pamir. Quick answers and very polite.
For 15 USD, its better to get it and may not need it than to be stuck in the border.
cheers"

Maybe somebody got lucky and crossed without the permit to enter Kyrgyzstan, not our case. Also, this is a reply o got on a Pamir chat:

[voodoopigeon]

I've used OunTravela (French company) to purchase my permit well in advance of my arrival at the border (hoping to cross TJ to KG), but the only information I have is a 'registration date' and a 'document number' to provide to the guards at the border. Will the guards expect me to show them any paperwork other than my passport, or is this information enough?

However, OunTravela are also reporting on their site (https://ountravela.com/en/kyzyl-art-bor ... ble%20here.) that as of 8th July the permit is no longer needed. Is this the case?

Any advice appreciated.