Kazakhstan Visa From London (JAN 2015)
We obtained our Kazakh visa before we left from the Kazakh embassy in London via mail. We didn't use an agent but dealt directly with the embassy. It can be pre-dated for travel and the whole process took 6 days and cost £35 each. If you are staying for less than 15 days you don't need a visa. You'll find all the info you need here.
Russia To Kazakhstan Border (MAY 2015)
We crossed from Russia (Astrakhan) to Kazakhstan at the Zhanaul border. When you approach the Russian border you are given small piece of paper with your car Reg no. on, we queued for about 15 minutes in the car then drove to a passport control window where they put the exit stamp in your passport and stamp the small piece of paper. You then drive to the customs barrier - the customs officer wasn’t interested in checking our car or any documents, he just stamped the small piece of paper. He told us to keep our vehicle temporary importation document so the car wasn’t stamped out of Russia. The entire passport control exit and customs took only 5 minutes.
You drive for around 7km through no-man’s land then a guard on the bridge checks and collects the small piece of paper (complete with two stamps) from exiting Russia.
We joined a queue of about 35 vehicles, trucks and cars together- they only let a few vehicles through the entrance barrier at a time. Queued for just over an hour, when near the front we went to the barrier and collected a small piece of paper with car Reg no. on. At this point try and get migration forms to fill out in advance- they are half in English (see photo below).
When you are called through, park up and join the queue for passport control inside the building on the right. They stamp your immigration card, put the entry stamp on your visa in your passport and stamp your small piece of paper. Keep the migration card safe and make a photocopy - you will need the migration card to register your visa (within 5-days of entering) and when you exit the country. Your migration card should look something like this...
You drive for around 7km through no-man’s land then a guard on the bridge checks and collects the small piece of paper (complete with two stamps) from exiting Russia.
We joined a queue of about 35 vehicles, trucks and cars together- they only let a few vehicles through the entrance barrier at a time. Queued for just over an hour, when near the front we went to the barrier and collected a small piece of paper with car Reg no. on. At this point try and get migration forms to fill out in advance- they are half in English (see photo below).
When you are called through, park up and join the queue for passport control inside the building on the right. They stamp your immigration card, put the entry stamp on your visa in your passport and stamp your small piece of paper. Keep the migration card safe and make a photocopy - you will need the migration card to register your visa (within 5-days of entering) and when you exit the country. Your migration card should look something like this...
We were told (reliably translated by a very helpful Russian lady also travelling overland) that the vehicle temporary importation declaration document issued when we entered Russia also covers Kazakhstan, something to do with a mutual tax agreement within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.
We drove the car to the customs area where two customs officers did a few minutes basic search of the car; roof tent, fridge, kitchen box and peer inside front and behind the seats- they then stamp your small piece of paper. You drive to the final exit barrier where they check and collect your small piece of paper- you’re in.
We stopped at one of the insurance huts on the right to buy 3rd party vehicle insurance for Kazakhstan. One guy hanging around in the office spoke English. The insurance broker started filling in the details on the computer, the English speaking guy told us it would cost 2,000 Rubels (7,000 Tenge) for a month. We asked him how he knew the price when we hadn’t even given the make, model or year information yet (this affects the cost) and he looked a bit embarrassed. Before we signed the insurance form we asked how much it was, the guy translated “6,500 Tenge”, we said that was a lot as our car was old… he said “5,000 Tenge”… we said “our friends came in a newer Toyota Prado with a larger engine and paid 4,000 Tenge” (information from post on forum)… the insurance guys said “OK, 4,000 Tenge”. Basically, they were far too friendly and a bit rubbish at negotiating to rip us off, the insurance is cheap anyway (4,000 Tenge is only $21) but it never feels good to be cheated as soon as you enter a new country so make sure you check the price before you sign.
We tried to buy Tenge currency in Russia but it wasn’t possible so we carried Rubels through the border - the insurance broker would accept these, he also changed our remaining Rubels to Tenge for us. The alternative was a group of money - changers circling outside, descending on you when you pull cash out, all trying to snatch it from you to get your business. You need to be careful as police can ask to see receipts for changing money so we just got enough to last us until the first town with an ATM (Atyrau, 300km). The first fuel station is 35km from the border.
The whole crossing took just under 3 hours, most of that was queuing in the car waiting to be let into the Kazakh border area.
You can find information about leaving Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan here...
IMPORTANT- if you arrive by land or sea you need to register your visa within 5-days (get a second stamp on your migration card - see below for more details).
We drove the car to the customs area where two customs officers did a few minutes basic search of the car; roof tent, fridge, kitchen box and peer inside front and behind the seats- they then stamp your small piece of paper. You drive to the final exit barrier where they check and collect your small piece of paper- you’re in.
We stopped at one of the insurance huts on the right to buy 3rd party vehicle insurance for Kazakhstan. One guy hanging around in the office spoke English. The insurance broker started filling in the details on the computer, the English speaking guy told us it would cost 2,000 Rubels (7,000 Tenge) for a month. We asked him how he knew the price when we hadn’t even given the make, model or year information yet (this affects the cost) and he looked a bit embarrassed. Before we signed the insurance form we asked how much it was, the guy translated “6,500 Tenge”, we said that was a lot as our car was old… he said “5,000 Tenge”… we said “our friends came in a newer Toyota Prado with a larger engine and paid 4,000 Tenge” (information from post on forum)… the insurance guys said “OK, 4,000 Tenge”. Basically, they were far too friendly and a bit rubbish at negotiating to rip us off, the insurance is cheap anyway (4,000 Tenge is only $21) but it never feels good to be cheated as soon as you enter a new country so make sure you check the price before you sign.
We tried to buy Tenge currency in Russia but it wasn’t possible so we carried Rubels through the border - the insurance broker would accept these, he also changed our remaining Rubels to Tenge for us. The alternative was a group of money - changers circling outside, descending on you when you pull cash out, all trying to snatch it from you to get your business. You need to be careful as police can ask to see receipts for changing money so we just got enough to last us until the first town with an ATM (Atyrau, 300km). The first fuel station is 35km from the border.
The whole crossing took just under 3 hours, most of that was queuing in the car waiting to be let into the Kazakh border area.
You can find information about leaving Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan here...
IMPORTANT- if you arrive by land or sea you need to register your visa within 5-days (get a second stamp on your migration card - see below for more details).
Registering a Tourist Visa in Kazakhstan (MAY 2015)
It is essential to register your visa within 5 days of arriving in Kazakhstan - the arrival day, even if late at night, counts as day 1. Your options are to get a hotel or travel agency to register for you, or find the migration police (usually located in the Department of Internal Affairs) and do it yourself. We read that hotels and agencies can charge high fees for this so we decided to try ourselves. Arriving on May 1st, a public holiday, we then had to wait until Monday (day 4) for an office to be open. Weekends and public holidays are included in your 5 day period. As we had a couple of days we drove through Atyrau to Uralsk (a longer route to Aktobe but the roads were very good).
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The Department of Internal Affairs is located here in Uralsk. People are generally very helpful even if there is no common language- we wrote Туристическая виза Регистрация (Tourist Visa Registration) on a piece of paper which was very useful to find the correct building and person to speak to.
Prior to registration you need a confirmation paper/receipt from a hotel which clearly confirms where you are staying. We went into the city and found a cheap hotel for one night. Once we had checked in and paid the hotel receptionist gave us a small card and cash receipt as confirmation of us staying there - we asked her to stamp it too as nothing says official like a rubber ink stamp! |
We arrived early (about 10am) at the Department of Internal Affairs armed with passports, passport photos, copies of passports, etc, etc. But soon discovered all we needed were our passports and our migration cards, along with the hotel confirmation/receipt. No-one spoke English but the receptionist (wearing camouflage) understood from our Cyrillic note what we needed and asked us to wait while he filled out some visa registration forms for us (the forms are all written in Cyrillic) while simultaneously dealing with several other people waving documents and forms. There was some sort of order to the waiting room although we didn’t fully understand what it was!
It may be wise to get someone to fill out the form for you before you go, or at least write the information needed in Cyrillic - we were lucky that the receptionist was so helpful. Here is our form, it may differ between regions, but the information must be fairly standard.
It may be wise to get someone to fill out the form for you before you go, or at least write the information needed in Cyrillic - we were lucky that the receptionist was so helpful. Here is our form, it may differ between regions, but the information must be fairly standard.
We waited for about half an hour then went through to another room with several offices (ours was room 101!). The police migration chief entered our details in an archaic ledger book the width of his desk, scanned our passports and scrutinised our visas and then put the all-important second stamp on our migration card, smiled and we were done. Your migration card on completion of registration should look a bit like this...
Registration cost us nothing at the Department of Internal Affairs, with the exception of the hotel room which was actually worth it for the shower, Wi-Fi and some time spent in Uralsk which is a great city. I think this procedure depends massively on who is willing to help you but having a formal hotel reservation confirmation, all your details written in Cyrillic (plus some phrases) and arriving early with a smile and lots of patience will help enormously.
Kyrgyzstan To Kazakhstan Border (AUG 2015)
We had no choice but to arrive at the border (Bishkek to Almaty (Korday)) late afternoon around 3pm- big mistake as queued for 2 hours just to reach the first barrier- come much earlier and avoid weekends if you can, this is a really busy crossing. There are gangs who take money from cars arriving then help them to push-in at the front of the queue- even moving the concrete lane bollards and blocking vehicles in the queue! Frustrating, annoying and slow. They let several cars through the first gate at a time.
We eventually passed the first barrier, reached Kyrgyz passport control, parked and queued briefly at the passport window where they stamped our passports with the exit stamp. There was no customs checks at all- no-one looked at the car, importation documents or Ecology Tax receipt. I asked the guard, showing him the document, and he just did a gesture to rip it up!
We eventually passed the first barrier, reached Kyrgyz passport control, parked and queued briefly at the passport window where they stamped our passports with the exit stamp. There was no customs checks at all- no-one looked at the car, importation documents or Ecology Tax receipt. I asked the guard, showing him the document, and he just did a gesture to rip it up!
We queued another half an hour through no-mans ‘land’ (a fenced section of the road on a river bridge with barriers at either end).
We stopped at a passport control kiosk on the left where we had to show our car registration document and our passports, they gave us migration cards and a small piece of paper with our registration number written on and directed us to another building around 50m away on the right- we drove and parked there. The passport control officer was very friendly and spoke good English- he issued us with a 15 day visa-free entry stamp in our passports and on the migration card (which we had to keep). He told us there was no need to register and we didn’t need any temporary car importation declaration paperwork for the car. He then stamped our small piece of paper and sent us back to the customs area.
We stopped at a passport control kiosk on the left where we had to show our car registration document and our passports, they gave us migration cards and a small piece of paper with our registration number written on and directed us to another building around 50m away on the right- we drove and parked there. The passport control officer was very friendly and spoke good English- he issued us with a 15 day visa-free entry stamp in our passports and on the migration card (which we had to keep). He told us there was no need to register and we didn’t need any temporary car importation declaration paperwork for the car. He then stamped our small piece of paper and sent us back to the customs area.
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We drove back to the customs area where cars were being basic-searched but were re-directed down a side road to a huge warehouse where 5 cars were in a queue in front of us. We waited for about half an hour and one car came out. A customs officer waved Andy into the warehouse (without car) - he stamped our small paper ticket and waved us on to the exit gate. We were incredibly lucky- inside the warehouse, the cars were being stripped completely, including engine parts and door panels!
We drove to the final exit barrier, showed the small paper ticket (now stamped twice) which they kept and left the border. The entire border crossing took about 4 hours, 2.5 of which was just queuing to enter the border. We paid nothing to either exit Kyrgyzstan or enter Kazakhstan, no money was asked for at all. In hindsight we think we should have been given temporary car importation declaration paperwork as we were asked for it on our departure to Uzbekistan.
We drove to the final exit barrier, showed the small paper ticket (now stamped twice) which they kept and left the border. The entire border crossing took about 4 hours, 2.5 of which was just queuing to enter the border. We paid nothing to either exit Kyrgyzstan or enter Kazakhstan, no money was asked for at all. In hindsight we think we should have been given temporary car importation declaration paperwork as we were asked for it on our departure to Uzbekistan.
This information is about our experience applying for visas and crossing borders. Obviously please try and find the most recent information you can as visa application and border information changes daily. If you have any questions please feel free to email us.