Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes its visa rules in English on gov.uz. Its visa-free provision is narrower than the phrase “visa-free” suggests once it travels around the internet.
The visa-free list
The ministry states it in one sentence: “Citizens of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and China are granted a visa-free regime for a period of 10 days, provided they have a flight ticket to their home country or a third country.”
The page does not name the United States, or any other nationality, in this provision, and the ministry’s text offers no substitute exemption for anyone else.
If your passport is one of those five, ten days with a ticket out already in hand is an itinerary question rather than a paperwork one. Ten days reaches more than one city. A fixed multi-city route is the quickest way to see whether two cities fit in the window or only one, and the multi-city tours are where to compare the options.
Everyone else: a standard visa
Applications go through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the ministry states a timeline: “written applications from legal entities and individuals submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan in accordance with the established procedure are considered within 4 working days.” For these applications, “the validity of these documents must be at least 3 months longer than the visa”. Your passport needs headroom past whatever visa length you are granted.
What a visa costs
The ministry publishes tiered pricing.
- Standard tourist visa: “for 30 days - 40 USD,” and “the tariff rate increases by $10 for each additional number of entries.”
- Electronic visa: “for a single-entry electronic visa - 20 USD; for a double-entry electronic visa for up to 30 days - 35 USD.”
The page does not say whether e-visa eligibility depends on nationality, as the visa-free provision does. Confirm that on the application portal before assuming it applies to you.
If there is no Uzbek embassy where you live
The ministry addresses this directly: “citizens of countries that do not have a diplomatic mission or consular representation of the Republic of Uzbekistan and stateless persons can obtain a visa upon arrival in Uzbekistan at the visa service sector of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Tashkent International Airport.”
It is a narrow fallback that applies only where there is no mission, and the ministry’s text attaches nothing else (no sponsor, no advance approval), and it covers arrival through Tashkent International Airport only.
The six-month passport rule
The ministry separately states that “the validity of which must be at least 6 months from the date of issuance of the visa” applies to visa-free entry. That sits awkwardly beside the visa-free provision, because a visa-free stay has no issued visa to date the six months from. We give the rule as the ministry wrote it. The inconsistency is in the source text, and we have not resolved it.
No application channel is named for US citizens
The ministry does not say how American citizens apply for a standard tourist visa: by written application, through the e-visa portal or by some other channel. It does not say which is faster either. Confirm with the ministry before you plan a timeline around it.
Tours in Uzbekistan, for the ten visa-free days (affiliate link)