Embassy reports: Russian Visa in Tashkent

[steven]

Please read and post reports on the embassy of Russia in Tashkent below.

We summarize all info on the Russia visa page.

See here if you are still in need of a letter of invitation for your Russian visa.

[nollers]

16 september 2013

I'm traveling on a swiss passport. Went to Russian embassy on monday at 09:50. A crowd was waiting in front of the door and I kindly informed the officer that I was here to apply for a tourist visa. I had to wait 5 minutes before he called me and a few other people who where here for business visa. You need to find your way to a room with a lot of desks and go to the first desk right in front of the door. The girl checked the document very carefully so here is the important things :

For schengen countries they ask to see the original of insurance policy. I had mine scanned and sent to me by email from Switzerland. Then I just made a good quality print from a photo printing shop and a black and white bad quality print to show as copy. It went out fine. I also did a good quality print of the voucher.

After all documents are accepted, you get back a file with your documents and passport with a number on it. You will be requested to go to the cashier (kassa) and pay for your visa in advance. The cashier will keep your files after you paid.

When filling the application form, make sure to report the exact information you gave for the voucher. It helps to have everything "making sense". Report the name of inviting organization, reference number and confirmation number from your voucher.

List of required documents :
------------------------------------
- Travel voucher with attached confirmation (contain reference number and confirmation number, you can order it online)
- 1 completed and printed application form from http://visa.kmid.ru
- 1 copy of ID page of your passport
- 1 picture
- US dollars, visa need to be paid in advance, no refund (46$ standard 4 working days / 92$ express 1 working day)

! Additional ! only for Shengen countries, Estonian, and Israeli citizens :
- "Original" of insurance policy valid in Russia + copy
- Copies of insurance card (recto verso)

[steven]

You're back!

Thanks for the detailed report, will add that to the site!

[juwanilie]

Hello,
is they any news from Tashkent Russian ambassy ? Is it still possible to apply for visa there, as in 2013 ?
Any info would be nice !
Thanks

[juwanilie]

We got it !

We are two french passeport holder, and it took 4 days and 128000 som. We ask the 30 days touristic visa (we have to ask the entry/exit dates) Here it what we needed to bring :

Passeport, of course. And a photocopy of the ID page. We had a photocopy of Uzbek visa, they didn't asked it.

Letter of invitation. We took it on internet, one costed 25 USD. We had to wait 10 days for this, so try to anticipate (not like us). We received a voucher, a confirmation paper and a itinerary. This itinerary was made by the agency, according to the hostels we booked before. We had to book hostels for every night we spend in Russia. We made booking.com reservations, without paying nether giving credit card number. Color print of those three papers wasi good, even if the women of the ambassy recognise some of them as print ! No photocopy was asked.

Insurance attestation. The dates accorded to the dates we asked for in Russia. Once again, a color print did it. We had a bad quality photocopy that they keeped, they gave back the color print. We assume they believed it to be an original. (For frenchs people, insurance tip : notre assurance est l'IMA, dont tous les bénéficiaires d'un contrat à la MAIF bénéficient. Nous n'avons qu'un contrat de responsabilité civile, 40€/an qui nous couvre tout les deux. L'assistance de l'IMA correspond, pour ce prix dérisoire, à ce qu'offrent les assurances "de voyageurs" à 500€ chacun ! Et fonctionne pour la Russie ! Renseignez-vous !)

One picture. Regular size, to stick in the form.

The one-line filled and printed form. You will find it here : http://visa.kdmid.ru

128000 som for regular (4 days) the double for express (2 days). Strangely, they didn't accepted USD.

Go to the ambassy. The entrance is on the other side of the main official door.
A lot of people wait, just go to the entrance line and say you come for visa, you should pass quickly. Take your money because you must pay when you ask the visa.

No refund if visa is denied.
You will keep your passport during the waiting time, not like before. So they will make you write a letter to ask the right to keep your passport during the process. An ambassy guy speaking english may come to help a little, sometime...

It's 4 days waiting but you must take an appointment for the visa recovery. If you are not free four day after, you can ask another day, after. The appointment will be at 12:00.

As far as we know, Tashkent was the only chance to get a russian visa in central asia for a foreigner, in june 2016... We are really glad !

Good luck !

[Travelphernalia]

Hello!

This is great news! We are actually in Uzbekistan at the moment and would love to obtain a tourist visa to do the TranSiberian in a couple of months.

Questions:
- Which agency did you use for the LOI?
- Did you need to show airplane tickets or train tickets or any type of tickets?

Thanks in advance. This is great news!

Gio

[Crazydre]

Did you need to show airplane tickets or train tickets or any type of tickets?

That would be extreme. Russian embassies do not normally require tickets for a Tourist visa, only for a Transit visa

[juwanilie]

Exactly.

They did not ask any ticket. I had heard about some possibility to get the visa easier, from europe, if you make a transiberian trip (so in those conditions the ticket was needed). But in Tashkent we just asked regular touristic visa.

For the LOI we passed by russieautrement.com, 25 USD for one LOI (even if we read 35 on the website) and the other LOI for free because we put a link of their site in our blog.

Don't hesitate if you have more questions.

[Travelphernalia]

Hello! Thank you both for the reply. This is really exciting. We were giving up on our Transiberian trip since we had read it was pretty much impossible to get a tourist visa in Central Asia. We got our transit visas in Tbilisi, Georgia and it was a piece of cake (only 5 days processing time) but we didn't want to go back there just for the Visa.

Thanks again for the info!

[Travelphernalia]

Hello again. We have our visas! Very easy place to get your Russian Tourist visa...and way cheaper than in Georgia thanks to the fact that you can pay in sums (read about the unofficial exhange rate).

Same process as described. We had to pay 160,000 sums each for the 30 day tourist visa. It was ready in 4 days and we also asked them not to keep the passports (so we can process another visa at the same time and use the metro without issues).
We used a different website to get the invitation letter. It was ready in one business day, slightly more expensive tho, $50USD each but didn't have to wait for 10 days to get it.
www.russia-travel.com

We brought our booking.com confirmations printed from the emails in black and white, no issues.

As an advice, bring your itinerary with the names and addresses of the hotels in a separate sheet of paper to serve you as a guidance to fill in a questionnaire they provide. We had to be asking back and forth for the paperwork we had handed in already. The lady was super nice to do it gladly... but just in case.

You can't bring in your phones or bags. Bring your stash of cash in a separate little bag or in your pockets to go inside. When you arrive go straight to the door and say tourist visa. Very little English spoken...if any.

Good luck!