Tajikistan... is more than 15 days possible?
 

In 2007 I entered Tajikistan in my car and was aware of an old rule, not always implemented whereby any stay over 15 days in a temporarily imported vehicle was subject to a tax based on each extra day. Becasue of this I decided to stay for only 15 days. On entering and exiting, nothing was mentioned about this 15-day period.

Now I had assumed this old rule was long gone (and I heard it was only enforced at the Penjikent border with UZ), but just now I have heard from a biker from whom the authorities at the Tursonzade border gave only 15-days entry clearance, and tried to charge him $70 for each day over this limit.

I was planning to spend a few months in Tajikistan this summer by car (entering at the Isfana border from Batken in Kyrgyzstan), I even endured the scrum at the Tajik consulate in Moscow and bribed the consul $145 for a three-month double entry visa, and I hear this.

Has anyone entered Tajikistan with a vehicle lately? Anyone stayed longer than 15 days with a vehicle? Is this rule, legitimate or otherwise only enforced at the Tursonzade border?

I'm hoping to spend more than 15 days in the place this time!

Thanks

Daniel

We are currently in Tajikistan on motorbikes. Yesterday we were stopped at a police checkpoint for registration (happens every so many kilometre here), and the cop misread my visa entry date. He was telling me that I was over my 15 days, so it appears that this rule still exists, although nobody mentioned anything at the border. We are not going to try and leave before day 15 :)

Good luck,
Wanderer

Tajik Stuff
 

Hi Daniel
I'm back in Tajikistan at the moment. When I was here in 2009, we stayed for more than 15days and didn't have any problems or questions asked when we left. This time travelling more quickly and so I don't know, but I'll try asking.

Hey Wanderer
whereabouts are you guys? I'm in Dushanbe until Thursday then heading down to the Pamirs - do you want to meet up?

cheers
Tiffany

We left Tajikistan a couple of days ago. The customs guys were counting the days two or three times to make sure, and looked a bit disappointed when they noticed we only stayed for 14 days :)

To Tiffany, we travelled the other way around, from Osh to Dushanbe. We're in Tashkent right now. Have fun, the Pamir Hwy is stunning!

Wanderer

Hi,

which route do you take from Osh to Dushanabe? how were the passes in the mountains?

Do you know anything about closed border points?

thanks
Adrian

Does this rule apply for Carnet as well??
Thanks
Kamil

Carnets are not recognised for passenger vehicles by any of the former Soviet countries. I think it is a matter of which border is used. I will check a few out and report. There also should be a way to register your vehicle with customs, no idea how easy this is though.

Daniel

Hi asilindean,

we rode the Pamir Hwy from Osh to the Wakhan turnoff, then the Wakhan road to Khorog and then the (summer-) road via Tavildara to Dushanbe.

Weather was sunny in the Pamirs (end of May) and the passes were fine. We only had a problem on the Tavildara road. It had been raining for days and the road over the Sagirdasht Pass was very muddy, plus we were caught out in a hail storm. A few tricky river crossings also. So, if the weather is bad, I'd recommend taking the longer southern route to Dushanbe.

We were told by a couple of Swiss bikers that the border point on the direct route between Osh and Dushanbe is closed.

-Wanderer

re >15 days in Tajikistan
 

Hi there,

Yesterday I crossed from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan (Sariosiyo in south, the closest border to Dushanbe and apparently the only one open at the moment between the two countries).

Since I have a 45 days visa for Tajikistan, the very pleasant customs man said that after 15 days I must go to Goomrook in Dushanbe (the customs office, I assume) and extend my vehicle customs form for another month. The 15 days on entry is $20 and his best guess for an extra month is $40. This way you should avoid being fined.

If it turns out to more complicated than this, I'll report back.

I'm not sure if there are other goomrook offices outside of Dushnabe where you can do this. I doubt it. Would be nice if there was one in Chorug.

P.S. Re the visa for anyone interested, 45 days is the maximum length I could get from the embassy in Ankara - a great place to get a Tajiki visa. If I remember correctly, the usual one month visa was around $20, the 45 day visa around $30. I was the only one there, so collected the visa within an hour, having made the payment at the bank down the road. London in contrast is much more expensive and takes several days.

Cheers,
Bob

Bob,

Thanks very much for your post; good to hear you got somewhere. I'd be very interested to get the address and hear about your exerience at customs in Dushanbe. I take it you speak Russian to some degree?

Out of interest, Moscow is THE place to get Tajikistani visas; the consul is totally corruptible and will issue any visa providing you pay. You have to haggle with him to get a good price. I got a 3 month, double entry visa for $145. Sounds like a lot, but it's cheaper than the regular fee, and no hassle with invitations etc (and you would definitely need an LOI for a 3 month visa normally).

Just a tip, in case you don't know, if you have any type of visa other than 'T', 'Turist' or 'Turistik' (i.e. tourist) you still need to register. You also need to register if you are staying longer than 30 days on any type of visa.

All the best

Daniel

re extending your 15 days vehicle document
 

Hi Daniel,

As promised, here’s the info re extending your Tajik vehicle document beyond the standard 15 days given on entry.

To extend it, you go to the Goomrook (Customs) office, 5 mins ride west of the centre.

From Maydoni Ayni (the bottom of Rudaki, the principal north-south high street, just before the train station), ride west along Ayni Kucai, carrying on across the first junction (WWII tank monument), over the river, and take the left at next big junction (labelled Circus on my map). About 0.5 km down that road, at the second main traffic lights, do a U-turn and you should pull up next to something of a tree lined square with several government buildings.

All are labelled in Russian, but ask for Goomrook and you should eventually find it. On the first floor up from ground, in one of several offices, you should meet a chap around 30 years old called Firdows Mirodo. He speaks good English and is very helpful. He's your man.


Today he helped me extend my 15 days for a further month, so that now it matches my 45 days visa. While there, you’ll be asked to write a brief letter to the chief explaining who you are, that you’re a tourist, and why you wish for an extension. This letter is then translated into Russian (for a cost of about 20 som / $4). This process took a few hours, since we had to wait for a translator, but all in all, it was painless.

The cost for an extra month was $45 (compared to the $20 you pay on entry for 15 days).

I asked re a friend of mine who hoped to spend 3 months in Tajikistan. He said as long as you have a 3 mth visa it shouldn’t be a problem to extend your vehicle document to the same period of time. Insha'allah, of course. Simply go to his office once the 15 days is up. I imagine 3mths might raise an eyebrow, however, so it might be an idea to have any supporting documents you can think of as to why you wish for longer.

Cheers,
Bob