Acquiring visas for all the countries we’ll be traveling through has probably been the biggest headache in partaking in the Mongol Rally. I think today in the morning we finally conquered them all (seeing that we just got our invitation codes for Iran), but what a nightmare!
Turkey
Visas will be issued at the border.
Iran
We applied for an invitation code for Iran on April 14, 2011. Today, July 4th, we finally received them. That took more than 11 weeks, but we’re all tremendously excited to be visiting that country. All we need to do now is trade in our invitation codes for visas in London. This will have to happen just a week before the launch!
Many thanks to Mitra from Iran Traveling Center for all her patiente and help during the process.
Turkmenistan
Our Turkmen visas were processed by The Visa Machine. All Mongol Rally participants traveling through Turkmenistan were required to apply for their visas via The Visa Machine, but with the following warning:
There is no guarantee that the Ministry will grant the LOI to everyone that has requested one; if any name is missing from the final list, no explanation will be given.
Uzbekistan
Doubly Entry Visas for Uzbekistan have been received by the three of us!
Tajikistan
Single Entry Visas for Tajikistan have been received by the three of us! However, since we’ll be traveling through the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province we need a special permit which is currently being processed and which we’ll pick up in Dushanbe.
Kyrgyzstan
Enrique applied for his Double Entry Kyrgyz Visa through the embassy in Washington and got it issued without trouble. However, when it came time for my visa, the passport was returned and I was asked to re-apply with a letter of invitation (LOI) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Kyrgyzstan. So I contacted the people who had been issuing LOIs for us and was informed that “the MFA won’t even ACCEPT an application for an LOI for countries that don’t need one, like Mexico”. I was advised to re-apply in hopes that another consul would see my application and issue the Visa. Unfortunately, my passport was returned without a visa AGAIN and for the same reason – LOI needed.
Why did Enrique get his visa without any problems but I couldn’t? No idea. After trying to reason with the embassy and with the MFA, I decided to try a different route: send my passport to the Kyrgyz Embassy in London. That seemed to work, although the process will take 3 weeks, with my passport finally being released on June 14th, just 9 days before the launch in London.
Kazakhstan
Single Entry Visas for Kazakhstan have been received by the three of us!
Russia
Single Entry Visas for Russia have been received by the three of us!
Mongolia
Single Entry Visas for Mongolia have been received by the three of us!