Update September 2021: tourists had to pay 2 million sum fine for not registering. No further details so far, looking for more info. Not registering means not getting a SIM & potentially not being able to use a train or Airbnb. Situation is confusing.

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When travelling in Uzbekistan, you need to be registered by hotels or other licensed places to stay, or need to register yourself in an online system called Emehmon.

If you fail to do so, you might have to pay a fine. Officially, the fine is 10 times the price you should have paid if you registered properly, which currently is around 10 000 som / night.

You have to register within 3 days of your arrival, both with the hotel option and the DIY option. When registering at hotels, officially, you have to register at least every third day. When registering yourself, your registration is immediately valid for the whole duration of your stay in Uzbekistan.

All reports, questions and answers are welcome in this forum Q&A. A separate article deals with questions about the Uzbek visa.

Registration is set to disappear on the 1st of July 2020, which you can discuss in this forum thread.

Do I actually need to register?

Previously, people would occasionally get arrested and deported for not having enough registration slips, but we have not seen this happen in 2018 or beyond.

Nowadays, the rule of thumb is that border guards are very friendly. Most people are waved through, regardless of the number of registration slips they have. We even heard of one girl who overstayed her visa for a week and got waved through. Absolutely unthinkable in the past!

We have only one report since 2018 of a person who was missing registration slips and got called out on it. The old medicine of arrest, deportation and a fine were threatened. In the end he went back to the border the next day and as the border guard was not there he was waved through as well.

It seems to have been an exception.

In short: if you are not staying in hotels and do not want to register with the eMehmon system, you don’t have to. The chance that you will be called out on it by border guards is small.

Registration at a hotel

Your hotel will give you a registration slip free of charge, a little piece of paper saying you are staying there. Keep it and show it at the border if they ask for it. You need to stay in a hotel at least every third night offically to stay registered. If you would rather not, use the Emehmon registration.

Airbnb hosts or others do not have the option to give you this type of registration slip.

Emehmon system

A new DIY registration system is in use since July 2018. The website is called emehmon.uz. There is also an Android app. If you do not want to stay in hotels, but couchsurf or camp instead, this is what you should be using. You can also register through a hotel.

The price for registration is around 10 000 som per night.

Online

• Sign up to create an account with a local phone number (it can be any number, you won’t need it except for creating your account)
• At MY LIST, fill in the form (don’t forget to fill in More Informations, it is also necessary). The KPP number doesn’t seem necessary.
• Once completed you click on the little green circle beside your name in the list and click pay.
• You have to pay on line with an Uzbek credit card. You will need the help of a local for that.

Uzbek credit cards are linked to a phone number. To confirm the payment you have to enter a code received at that number. You need to pay within 30 minutes of saving your details, so make sure you have arranged a payment method beforehand.

Hotel

Hotels should also be able to do this for you, but most are too scared to tackle the issue. 5-star hotels are your best bet, and we know that at least one receptionist at the Grand Mir in Tashkent now knows how to do it. Best is to get in touch with Maruf Kamolov (+998-93-474-7774, +998-91-418-0778), who knows how it works and is happy to talk receptionists through the process. He is based in Bukhara and can help you there directly.