Hi all,
I recently received my LOI to Turkmenistan and am going to ASB from DXB. Just curious for those with experience - is this sufficient for staff at DXB, or will I have to go an embassy somewhere to get the Visa?
I'm fairly sure I will get the Visa sticker on arrival, but I've got like a day in Dubai so curious if its worth it to go to their consulate there for the Visa prior to leaving.
Happy to be corrected on anything I'm incorrect on though!
Who are you flying with from DXB? If T5 I’d expect this to be sufficient- note if you’re on an LOI with other people you have to print all the pages of it and it was examined in great detail (at FRA but on T5). If FZ I can’t advise
Based on what I know about Turkmenistan generally, I can’t imagine going to an embassy will be more painless than doing it at the airport
Note you will need to go to the visa (“Wiza”) window, hand over your LOI and passport, then to the bank where you pay ~$110ish for the visa $31 for a covid test (you can generally just dodge the testers but still have to pay), and $14 I think is airport tax that everyone pays regardless
The bank window will generally process the Turkmens paying their $14 first but that’s fine, it won’t be a long wait regardless
When you have your visa in passport, go to the automatic fingerprinting machines before passport control- if you skip this, you’ll be sent back. There are eGates off to the left but the story goes they don’t work at all, I certainly didn’t see anyone using them and neither did any of my compatriots
Treat the immigration queue as part of the spectacle- as far as I can tell the Turkmens returning get far more scrutiny than inbound tourists
Lastly if you have any Russian language ability at all it will be useful to you, especially outside of Asgabat
Finally, do not attempt to photograph the golden horses!!
