TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

Well I almost have all the visas I need for my trip along the Old Silk Road through Central Asia, and think it's time to provide a rundown of what's required incase anyone else has the crazy idea of following this route.

My trip is from Istanbul to Hong Kong through the following countries, all information relates to a British passport unless otherwise stated.

Turkey: three-month multiple entry visa on arrival for £10.

Iran: Most difficult to obtain! Visa will only be issued after you obtain an authorisation number from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a travel agent. I used iranianvisa.com who charged me €32 and it took 4 months to get the authorisation! I have also heard from a lot of people who have either been denied outright or told they have to go on an expensive tour to get a visa. Americans can only apply if they go on a tour with a set itinerary and Canadians don't seem to be able to get a visa at all at the moment. Once you have the code you can collect the visa in 1 day from the consulate for £85, or if you're prepared to wait 3 days it'll cost £68. Only single entry visas seem be available for tourists and for a maximum of 30 days but that's dependant on the decision of the MFA (some people are given less).

Turkmenistan: Tourist visas only available if you go on a tour and the guide has to meet you at the port of entry. Transit visas are available though for 3-5 days which will let you travel independantly, but only on the direct route between your entry and exit points. I'm getting a transit visa which takes 2-3 weeks to arrange and can only be applied for once you have tourist visas for two neighbouring countries in your passport. Visa costs $46 to be paid on collection and I was granted 5 days.

Uzbekistan: Letter of Invitation required which can be bought from stantours.com for $37 and takes 10 days to arrange. They e-mail this to you which needs to be printed and taken to the consulate with two application forms. A 30 day single entry visa then costs £47 and takes 3 days to issue. I have heard from people who have been denied or messed around by the consulate (demanding proof of employment or proof of financial means and then taking weeks to process the application), but my application was pretty straightforward.

Kyrgyzstan: Fairly simple one to get, just an application form and 3-5 days to issue, costs £45 for one-month single entry.

China: Costs £30 and takes 3 days to issue, or £50 to have it issued same-day. Has to be applied for in person at the consulate and for same-day issue you need to submit your application before 11am, but the queues in London can be very long so I recommend you get there by 9am (which is the time it opens) if you want to make sure you submit the application in time. I arrived at 8:40am and didn't get seen until just gone 10am. Prices for a 30 day visa single entry visa.

Hong Kong: Just a stamp in the passport in arrival :).

All apart from Turkmenistan have websites from which you can download the relevant application forms. For Turkmenistan you either have to collect one from the consulate or call them and they will fax you one. Also the Iranian site is all in Farsi, but if you do a search for "r1-r2 form" it will come up with a page in English from which you can download it.

UPDATE: I'd just like to add, the visas for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan can be applied for up to 6 months in advance of your trip and are valid for a specified 30 (or 3-5 in the case of Turkmenistan) day period. Iran and China are valid for entry anytime within 3 months of getting the visa and then allow up to 30 days in the country (or however many days you're given).

UPDATE2: You cannot use cash machines (ATMs for you yanks) in Iran as they are not hooked up to the international networks. In addition, the black market exchange rate in Turkmenistan is 5 times higher than the official rate for hard currency and cash machines in Uzbekistan are apparently amost always empty as their largest bank note is worth about 80 cents. Therefore, you will need to take a large amount of cash with you, preferably in dollars. To make this even more problematic, I've heard reports of banks in Central Asia only accepting recently printed notes that are in perfect condition, and giving better exchange rate for larger notes. The good news however is that I found an amazing bureau de change called "Link FX" right next to Victoria station in London. Not only do they give a fantastic rate ($1.96 to £1, when the post office were offering $1.89!), but they also gave me freshly minted $100 notes.