The Visas

So many visas....

In the initial stages of contemplating this trip, the main concerns revolved around what visas were necessary, how could we obtain these visas whilst living in Ulaanbaatar and would we actually be able to negotiate the bureaucratic minefield of embassies, consulates and the like.

After many, many hours trawling the web researching what was required, it became apparent that for many of the countries, Gerle and mine visa requirements were different. Several of the countries we wanted to traverse en route were also not what could be described as 'tourist friendly' with seemingly ludicrous requirements. It still confuses me why countries that would appear to so desperately appreciate the influx of tourism dollars maintain such tedious and absurd tourist visa application requirements...

Anyway, enough ranting. Now for the tips for other travelers contemplating a similar voyage. Firstly, there have been two main companies that we have relied upon for assistance.


Visa applications - the easy way!

The first of these companies is an outfit based in London called Travcour (www.travcour.com). Their speciality is attending the various embassies and consulates based in London on your behalf, for a fee, to enable the visa application(s) to be processed. This may sound a little strange, given that most embassies and consulates will accept visa application forms by post, however the service provided by Travcour has two main advantages:

  1. They do this often, and are aware of the tricks and traps of application - if you miss something required with the application they will point it out to you before submission and usually this can be rectified by e-mail / fax, and;
  2. You can submit your passport and visa applications by post to Travcour, and they can then attend multiple embassies - a lot easier than trying to co-ordinate the embassies to forward on your applications daisy-chain style. 

We used Travcour to apply for Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan visas for the trip, and would have used them also for Azerbaijan (if the Embassy of Azerbaijan in London accepted applications from non-UK residents) and Turkmenistan (if we were able to get a Letter of Invitation) in time to allow processing prior to requiring our passports back for departure.

The Travcour website is also a pretty good resource for anyone wanting to know what their visa requirements are by country of destination, regardless of citizenship. The internet is full of conflicting information regarding visa requirements, however I found that overall the Travcour website was the most reliable. From Travcour, I would particularly like to thank Amanda Wooders for her assistance.


STANtours make the 'stans easy easier!

Probably the most daunting section of the trip for a number of reasons, including visa application, includes Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan are a little tricky, but far simpler for us (as an Australian, tourist visas are relatively easy to come by and as a Mongolian, tourist visas are not required except for Tajikistan).

Again, amidst the hours of web trawling researching the trip, one company appeared again and again in various blogs and company websites that was touted as great assistance to travelers in these parts. The company is called STANtours (www.stantours.com) and is run by David Berghof.

Through STANtours we were able to organise Letters of Invitation from tourism companies in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan (in process at the time of writing) and Uzbekistan and during the course of probably 100 e-mails back and forth (sorry David) were very helpful with regard to a whole range of travel issues throughout the region.

Getting a visa to Azerbaijan from Malaysia...

The visas for Azerbaijan were actually the first visas obtained. This one seemed the most convoluted, as the Embassy to Azerbaijan in London wouldn't accept applications from non-UK residents and the 'friendliness' of the other embassies scattered about the world seemed highly variable based on our research. This 'friendliness' was mainly in regard to whether the Letter of Invitation required with the application had to be 'official' (i.e. endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) or not.

In the end, at the recommendation of David Berghof we obtained 'unofficial' letters of invitation, and applied via post to the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Kuala Lumpur. Initial contact with the embassy wasn't promising, but Mr Karikov Vusal was more than helpful once he received our application. I guess the accompanying information regarding the planned journey excited him too. In the end, we had our passports and visas back in Ulaanbaatar within 10 days of sending them... amazing!

Schengen mysteries

Initially in planning our voyage, we had planned around Gerle joining me after I had left Europe and entered Turkey, where no visa is required for Mongolian citizens for stays of up to 90 days. This was to do with the difficulty and risk in obtaining a Schengen visa.

Our initial enquiries at the German Embassy in Ulaanbaatar regarding the application process were a little daunting. To be honest, the environment inside the Embassy itself is nothing short of hostile... it is as if the place is run to the tune of a Mongolian based Gestapo!

Anyway, after a bit of too and fro, some shitty delays and obstacles due to some overly hyped up bureaucratic officials we were very luck in obtaining a tourist visa beyond which we had even hoped for. Initially the application was for 21 days and single entry; what we received was for 45 days and multi-entry. Contacts... that's how things work in Mongolia.

Turkmenistan dilemma

With everything organised for Travour to submit many of our tourist visa applications in London, in what was a carefully choreographed order around the various UK and other public holidays affecting embassy opening times in London, the late mail came through that it was unlikely we would receive approval for an Letter of Invitation to Turkmenistan if we submitted it prior to 'Constitution Day' in Turkmenistan.

The result of this was both positive and negative. The positive was that I would not be nearly so nervous about getting our passports back to Ulaanbaatar prior to departure, the negative was that we would need to now obtain the Turkmenistan tourist visa en route. Thankfully, by the time that this news broke, I had already been successful in obtaining a double entry tourist visa to Kazakhstan which was the back-up plan if the Turkmenistan tourist visas were denied.

As a result, we will now attend to the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Ankara, Turkey to submit our application. Depending on the speed of this service, we may travel around Turkey before returning to Ankara to collect the visas - however reports online suggest that it may be a quick process with the right supporting information. Fingers crossed.

Gerle's Visas


A multi-entry unrestricted Schengen visa... worth at least it's weight in gold!

Tourist visa to the Republic of Azerbaijan

Tourist visa to the Republic of Uzbekistan

Tourist visa to the Republic of Tajikistan

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO) region permit for Tajikistan

Tourist visa for the Russian Federation


Sam's Visas



Tourist visa for the Republic of Azerbaijan (I believe the photo expression is 'stunned mullet')

Tourist visa to the Republic of Uzbekistan
Tourist visa to the Republic of Tajikistan
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO) region permit for Tajikistan
Tourist visa for the Kyrgyz Republic
Double entry tourist visa for the Republic of Kazakhstan
(Double entry is backup in case we're rejected visas to Turkmenistan)
Tourist visa for the Russian Federation



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