In this section we will provide more details about applying for our Kazakh visa in Bishkek, our three month Mongolian visa in Almaty and Martin’s Russian visa. Remember that this is about us and our passport from Denmark and The Netherlands. For our Chinese visa in Bishkek, Ulaanbaatar ánd Seoul we made a separate post.

Visa for Kazakhstan, applied in Bishkek in November 2014

The visa for Kazakhstan was relatively easy. Susanne didn’t need a visa for 15 days, but Martin did. As we didn’t know how long we would be in the country we both applied for a 30-day tourist visa at the following office:

Kazakh Embassy in Bishkek
95-A Mira prospekt
Bishkek 720044, Kyrgyzstan

They do need to keep your passport for the application process so can’t do it at the same time as another application. It took three working days for the processing of the visa, we paid 30$. The documents we needed were:

  • Application form (got this at the embassy, bring a pen)
  • Valid passport for six months or more
  • One passport photo
  • Copy of passport

Visa for Mongolia, applied in Almaty in November 2014

Beforehand we had read about the possibility of acquiring a three month tourist visa. Still there was not a lot of information on the process to acquire this visa. We asked several touring companies in Kazakhstan and Mongolia but there was not a lot of information available. Until we spoke with Tsetseg from Idre Guesthouse in Ulaanbaatar. She could arrange for us to get a number with which we could pick up our visa at the Mongolian embassy in Almaty. It was 25$ per person for the visa and we also booked two nights accommodation at her guesthouse.

In Almaty we went to the embassy on Aubakerova street (note this is the same street as Musabaeva street just old and new names) in the southwest of the city. The building is an old soviet era building which doesn’t promise a lot. We rang the doorbell and suddenly a man came out. He had heard about us and our visa would be ready in 20 minutes. We were amazed! (We cannot recall how much we paid but it was in the area of 40-60$)

  • Two passport photos
  • Application form filled in at embassy
  • Valid passport for 6months or more
  • Copy of passport
  • Copy of itinerary provided by Idre Guesthouse

Visa for Russia, applied in Ulaanbaatar in March 2015

Martin had planned a side trip to Russia. Luckily Denmark is one of the countries that Russia provides a visa for in Ulaanbaatar (not for all, e.g. if you are German or British you need a Mongolian residents card). It was possible to arrange a letter of invitation through UU hostel in Ulan Ude: http://uuhostel.com/info/visa-stuff/item/204-getting-the-visa-to-russia for 1000 Russian Roebels (check the dates because these were wrong in first instance which made Martin have to go to the embassy again). Standard processing four days is 46$, express processing is 92$ for two days

  • Invitation letter/tourist voucher
  • Application form filled in from website
  • Passport valid 6 months
  • 1 passport photo
  • Copy of passport
  • Staff at the embassy are friendly and helpful.

We still have more visa to arrange along the way so there will definitely be more visa information coming up. Good luck if you are arranging visa and let us know if information has been hepful or if situations have changed!