Turkmenistan Visa
 

We are world touring with the bike parked actually in Georgia.
Next stage would be jump to India through Armènia Iran and then follow the old silk route.
Anyone knows if it’s possible to cros to Turkmenistan then Uzbekistan …… enter Pakistan and end the stage in India?
I’ve heard it’s very hard to get a Turkmenistan Visa and also riding with your own bike in Pakistan…
All information will be welcome

Anyone knows if it’s possible to cros to Turkmenistan then Uzbekistan

Pre covid, yes it was. Both countries have closed their land borders as fasr as I know

…… enter Pakistan and end the stage in India?

Yes, but you missed out Afghanistan. Not impossible but not the safest of places - Jalalabad seems prone to ISIL attacks since the Taliban takeover. Pre-covid, most people went through Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang (China) to Pakistan and on to India. China is currently closed as far as I know.

I’ve heard it’s very hard to get a Turkmenistan Visa

It's not very hard, but people are sometimes refused, so have a Plan B in mind, e.g. Russia - Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan or Azerbaijan - Kazakhstan - Uzbekistan, though Russia and Kazakhstan are currently closed to overland entry as far as I know.

and also riding with your own bike in Pakistan…

What did you hear was hard about riding a bike in Pakistan? You just need a carnet de passages and visa to enter. I would say it's the most rewarding country to travel in of all in the region.

Afganistan??
 

Thank you for the info
Concerning Afganistan if I’m not wrong I can cross Iran then Pakistan then India so I can skip Afganistan…..which make sense with the current things happening there…

That is the usual route from Europe to India. Iran has certainly re-opened its borders, not sure about Pakistan or India.

The situation in Afghanistan is interesting. I drove across in 2009/10. In those days places in the north were often fairly safe, whereas the south was no-go due to the Taliban presence. Now, with the Taliban in power, it seems the south is quite safe and a well-connected friend tells me that journalists are visiting places like Kandahar, Helman, Khost which would have been very risky just a few months ago.

EO

With incoming new omicron strain x5 times more contagious than delta things are likely to change within days all bets off.

In pre-pandemic you couldn't get Turkmen visa but you could get transit visa and they were giving you a GPS tracker to make sure you wouldn't stray off direct route and don't stop for long time.

This is not exactly correct.

You could get a Turkmenistan visa.
And I know that for sure, because I got one.
Actually, we were 5 people, and it was to unsafe to ask for transit visa. If just 1 of a group gets denied, the group must split or cancel.
So we asked for Tourist visa over an agency.
Easy and no problem.

And the year before we tried to get a transit visa and were refused.

And for the thing with the GPS tracker:
I met travellers with cars with this GPS trackers but no motorbike rider got one.

Over reaction. Media hype.

All posters please make an effort to stay on topic, i.e., visas and routing possibilities relevant to the OP's plans. Discussion about the perils (or not) of the new COVID variant can happen elsewhere. Where the two topics intersect--questions about how the new variant may or may not affect the issuing of visas or the closing of borders--it's appropriate to offer your opinions here, but kindly don't try to debate the variant itself.

Hope that's clear, and thanks for your cooperation.

Mark

May I ask you which agency you used for the tourist visa to Turkmenistan? :helpsmilie:

Ayan Travel in Ashgabat

https://ayan-travel.com

Hi Klaus,


how many days you applied for and did you need a guide?


2019 we got a transit visa without problems and had a GPS tracker in the car.



regards
Bernd

We applied for 5 days, but just needed 3 days.

2017 we also applied for a transit visa in Vienna and did not get one.
We even tried in Teheran at the Turkmenistan embassy with any others, nobody of us got one.

So 2018 we used the travel agency for a tourist visa.
The guide came with us in a car, but actually this was ok and helpful.

And we got a extra day in Ashgabat with a guide to visit the city.
No gps.

And we met a few travellers who got their fotos erased on camera, laptop and flash storage.
Because the customs ment, with a transit visa you dont need to take pictures.

We could get out without this problem.
But i got all th pictures stored twice on different backups anyway.

Turkmenistan Visa
 

You got the Turkmenistan Visa in Teheran ??

I forgot to ask if having a Visa of Kazajistán or Uzbekistan is mandatory to get a Turkmenistan Transit Visa. Hi

Yes, or you need to prove that you are eligible for a visa on arrival.

eurasiaoverland already covered it well.

A few considerations (some of it might be out of date, but perhaps helpful in general):

Have you worked out your route yet fully? Sounds like you are still at an earlier planning stage?

From your original post it sounds like Armenia - Iran - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - ... In that case, note that you cant cross from Uzbekistan into Pakistan, nor can you from Kyrgyzstan, nor Tajikistan. Taking the silk route option with the Stans is beautiful and rewarding, but it will include either crossing China (Xinjang!) which is it's very own hassle (I speak from experience, I took this route). A fallback can be air freighting Bishkek to Delhi or Almaty to Delhi. If you go this way, it may also be possible to get a transit visa for Turkmenistan, which is significantly cheaper than the tourist visa. However, it requires you having the visa for the two neighbouring countries (Iran and Uzbekistan) in your passport at the time when you apply for the Turkmeni visa. In addition, the transit visa will have fixed dates on it and give you only 3-4 days, so you need to be on time. It is possible to apply for the transit visa in Tehran and pick it up in Mashad (I did that), but there might be some hoops to jump through to get the Turkmeni officials to play ball and let you do that. I think I had to go to the Turkmeni embassy in Tehran at least three times, and in the end had some help from another embassy.

You then mention Iran - Pakistan. Many have taken that route and you will find a lot of info on there. In that case you would either need to go North from Georgia, with Abchasia, Russia, Kazakh etc... or skip the idea of the Stans. I'd think if you go Iran - Stans - back to Iran, that would be A LOT of visa hassle to get visas twice for many places that can be quite an effort.

In any case, once you get to Pakistan, you definitely want to take the time to travel the full length of the Karakoram highway, and perhaps budget some time to branch off into some of the side valleys (eg Skardu). It's some of the most beautiful riding I have seen on earth.

For the transit visa, yes you need the visa of both countries in your passport (ie Iran and Uz). I am not sure if they will grant you a transit visa from Kazakh to Uz, because they share a direct border. On that route, you would likely need the tourist visa.

For the tourist visa (which costs more and might require an agency and a guide that travels with you), there is no requirement on neighboring visa as far as I know.

Just saw this https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...borders-102461 - important to check

No, in 2017 we got denied in Teheran.

And also we met lots of other travellers, which got denied there.
Some waited for several weeks

Not entirely correct, Iran does not stamp visas in passports, for UZ you require only proof that your nationality is approved for VoA.