Transit visa for Iran and Turkmenistan
 

Hi all,

I am trying to work up a plan to visit Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan this spring on my motorcycle. My outward journey will be via Turkey and the return through Russia and Ukraine.

I understand that because I am a UK passport holder there are issues with a tourist visa for Iran and Turkmenistan because a guide for these countries would be necessary.

I have looked into the ferry crossing of the Caspian from Baku in Azerbaijan to Aktau in Kazakhstan, but that looks like a whole lot of bother and Aktau is not really the place I want to be jumping off from anyway. If I go to Turkmenbashy in Turkmenistan there is still the issue (possibly) of the guide and a transit visa looks an unlikely option because the ferry does not run to a timetable, making it likely the transit visa will expire too soon.

Can anyone advise me about the possibility of getting transit Visa for Iran and Turkmenistan? Can I get one without having to have the guide?

Any comments, thoughts about anything relating to this proposed trip is welcome.

Thanks, Guy

I'm not an expert but I didn't think you are supposed to have a guide for Turkmenistan, where did you find that information?

You don't need to book a guide or anything to obtain a visa for Iran, yes you are supposed to have a guide with you but from what I've seen most people don't seem to bother with a guide and no problem caused by it (that I've read about anyway).

Sorry, but this is wrong on both counts :innocent:

A guide is necessary for obtaining a tourist visa for Turkmenistan. For a transit visa a guide is not required.

For Iran, if you have a UK, US or Canadian passport you need a guide to get a tourist visa, and I am 99% sure also for a transit visa, if you can even find an embassy willing to issue one. Call your nearest Iranian embassy to confirm this though.

With a vehicle you technically can get away without a guide, by not telling the inviting agency that you will travel with a vehicle. This loophole obviously doesn't work regarding nationality.

EO

Very useful, thanks for the clarification.

Guess for what I want to do I will just get a transit visa for Turkmenistan, I can't believe of all the hours of research I've done that I didn't realise that a guide was required for Turkmenistan.

Same here, I had been researching this route a while before I read on the Lonely Planet site that a guide is required.

Many thanks to you all for responding to my question.

I do not know for UK citizens, but in June/July 2014 we, as Croatian citizens, had a tourist Visa for Turkmenistan without a guide.
Try contacting Artem at Travelnotoria. He sent us letters of invitation, and, after we gave him our planned itinerary (Ashgabat-Kow Ata-Darvaza-Dashoguz-Konye Urgench), we were free to ride on our own. Excellent service from them, you just have to let them book your hotels.
It is quite possible to cross Turkmenistan in five days, especially the way we did it, but we wanted to be sure that in case something unexpected happens we have enough extra visa time.

The same was in Iran, no guide necessary, only nice and extremely friendly people, and, when we applied for the Visa at the Iranian Embassy, nobody seemed to care where we plan to go.

As I have mentioned in another thread, I would think twice before planning a ferry across the Caspian sea. We met some travelles who, once they boarded, have waited for almost a week at sea. That might be an exception, but sitting in a boat for days and not knowing what is going on seems like an experience I would rather avoid.

Wow, that is the first time I have ever heard of that. I suspect that the operator is bending the rules however; I don't think the rules have changed.

If you could arrange with this operatore to spend 10 days or so in Turkmenistan that would be fantastic though.