Visiting Kyrgyzstan: visa-free stay and tourist visa

The e-Visa portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lets travellers check their status by passport: choose the country of your passport and the page shows whether entry needs a visa, the length of any visa-free stay and which visa options are available, sometimes separately for ordinary, service and diplomatic passports. Residents of Hong Kong and Macao SARs and citizens of the Maldives have 30 days visa-free. Nationals who need a visa can see on the same page which visa mechanism is available to them.

Passports must remain valid for at least six months after the end of the requested Kyrgyz visa, contain at least two blank pages and be undamaged, without unofficial marks. Supporting documents must be in Kyrgyz or Russian or translated into one of these languages.

The TS tourist visa is issued for short tourist stays with a validity of up to 30 calendar days, on the basis of a written statement whose sample is published on the portal. Visitors invited by state authorities or local self-government bodies, including for tourism on the basis of a personal application, a tour operator's application or a Kyrgyz citizen's application, can receive the Sapar visa (J) for up to one year, extendable, which also does not allow employment.

Applications on evisa.e-gov.kg are completed in English with scanned passport pages and a digital photo, and paid by card, which need not be in the applicant's name. Review takes five working days from the moment the application is complete. Fees depend on visa category, type and period and are not refunded after a refusal or for unused visas.

After arrival, foreigners must register at their place of stay within five working days, unless their country is on the government list of nationalities exempted from registration for a stated period.

Travellers who overstay a visa or the visa-free period receive a leave visa (L), valid for up to 10 days, to depart after the violation has been regularised. Airport passengers who do not leave the international transit area need no visa.