Obtaining a Pakistani Visa in Central Asia

[davidmc]

Has anyone had any experience lately getting a Pakistani visa in any of the Central Asian countries?

I am a bit nervous about this visa as we tried to get one in Ankara but they said we needed a letter of introduction from our embassy. The American Embassy in Ankara does not issue this letter of introduction so it sounded like a Catch-22 to me. Also they would only issue a visa for a 3 month entry period, which was too early for us.

Would it help to get a letter of invitation in advance from a tourist agency in Pakistan and does anyone have a recommendation on this? If an LOI can guarantee a visa (well, as much as possible) I will gladly spend the money.

From my experience getting visas so far, its pretty much impossible to know what each embassy requires until you get there in person. Calling in advance has been unsuccessful for us in almost every case. I am trying to be prepared as best as we can and the Pakistani visa procedures seem to vary at random.

Any advice on getting the Pakistani visa in Central Asia would be much appreciated. We will make our first attempt in Tashkent.

BTW, obtaining the other Central Asian visas has been much easier than expected and most of the Central Asian embassy officals in Turkey were friendly and helpful.

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

[This message has been edited by davidmc (edited 31 July 2005).]