Visa Processing

Visa Processing for citizens of the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, & New Zealand:

Visa processing is included in all of our Central Asia tour packages. The cost of our tour includes all fees related to obtaining your visa, such as fees for Letters of Invitation, Consular fees, and visa processing fees.

Visa approval is determined by Consulate decision; therefore Central Asia Tours has no control over actual visa approval. What we do for you is apply for your visa in accordance with all the current rules and regulations of the Consulate.

Once you have made full payment on your tour package (not just a deposit) we will begin processing your visa. Processing can be initiated at any time between the day you book your tour and the minimal time frame needed for visa processing. For an additional fee, the processing time can be expedited to half the usual time. For your convenience we have listed the visa processing time, passport pages required, and price for expedited processing per person for each tour package:

TOUR NAME TIME NEEDED # EMPTY PAGES EXPEDITED PROCESSING
Uzbekistan Tour 3 weeks 1 empty page $150.00 US p/p
3 Stans Tour 4 weeks 3 empty pages $200.00 US p/p
5 Stans Tour 6 weeks 5 empty pages $300.00 US p/p
Caucasus Tour no need to mail your passport
3 Stans & Caucasus Tour 4 weeks 3 empty pages $200.00 US p/p
5 Stans & Caucasus Tour 6 weeks 5 empty pages $300.00 US p/p
China & 5 Stans Tour 8 weeks 6 empty pages $400.00 US p/p
China, 4 Stans & Iran Tour 8 weeks 6 empty pages $400.00 US p/p
4 Stans, Iran & Caucasus Tour 6 weeks 6 empty pages $400.00 US p/p
China, 4 Stans, Iran & Caucasus Tour 8 weeks 6 empty pages $400.00 US p/p

Australian and New Zealand tourists – please allow an additional 3 weeks to both regular and expedited processing times due to the extended transit/shipping times to your region.

Instructions for Visa Processing:

  • Make sure your passport has the required number of empty visa pages, and is valid for a period of at least 6 months after the first day of the tour.
  • Mail your passport to our visa processing agent, where we will complete your visa application forms, print photos, and obtain the necessary visas. The address of our visa processing agent is:

    • Central Asia Tours Visa Processing/Consular Assistance, Inc.
    Attention: Radu Bujoreanu
    6351 Burgundy Leaf Lane
    Alexandria, VA 22312
    Tel. (202) 498-0863

  • Please send us an e-mail notification when you have mailed us your passport. Your passport should be returned to you approximately 1-2 weeks before the tour starts. Before we send back your passport, we will e-mail you the FedEx tracking number for your reference.

    • Obtaining Visas While on the Tour:

    We at Central Asia Tours recommend obtaining your visas in advance of the tour. This is ideal in terms of convenience and expediency. However, if necessary in order to save time on visa processing in advance of the tour, it is possible to process visas for some of the countries while you are actually on the tour. In that event we would recalculate your cost and refund any processing fees that had been included in the original tour price.

    Please be aware that if you have your visas processed while on the tour rather than ahead of time, you can expect to spend extra time at airports or borders waiting to have visas issued. Delays may be up to two hours in some cases.

    For your convenience we have listed the ten countries on the Tour of Central Asia, along with each individual country’s visa processing requirements:

    COUNTRY REGULATION
    China visa must be obtained in advance with LOI*
    Kazakhstan visa can be issued on arrival with LOI* only at the airport
    Kyrgyzstan visa not required
    Uzbekistan visa can be issued on arrival with LOI* only at the airport
    Armenia visa can be issued on arrival at airport or land border crossing w/o LOI*
    Turkmenistan visa can be issued on arrival with LOI* at airport or land border crossing
    Iran visa must be obtained in advance with LOI*
    Azerbaijan visa can be obtained electronically without passport present
    Armenia visa can be issued on arrival w/o LOI* at airport or land border crossing
    Georgia visa not required

    *LOI - Letter of Invitation – an official document provided by Central Asia Tours free of charge upon issuance of your visa by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a given country. We do not need your actual passport in order to obtain your LOI; you need only supply us with a copy of your passport.

    Visa processing varies for each country on the tour and for whatever country the tourist may be a citizen of. Please feel free to contact us via e-mail or phone with any questions you may have regarding visa processing and your unique situation, especially if your citizenship is not included on our list. We will be happy to help you with anything you may be concerned about.

    Feel free to contact us at Central Asia Tours via e-mail or phone with any questions you may have. We understand it can seem complicated and we are here to help. We are eager to make your travel experience as simple and carefree as possible!