Category Archives: bureaucracy

bureaucracy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

Border crossing Kazakhstan-Kyrgistan (Taraz)

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You get a small paper at the entry, fill it out as of the following example. I got help of some locals, as it’s not in English.

Leave your bike on the right side and go into the building on the left with the pedestrians for the passport control.
After you’ve got your stamps (passport and the paper mentioned above), you can go back and get your bike and drive to the customs booth besides the building.
He will check the stamps on the paper and the passport. Now you can go the exit. There they will take the paper and let you out.

On the Kyrgizstan side you also have to leave the bike and go into the building on the left for the passport control. He spoke English this time, so no issues there.

They refused to give me a ‘temporary import’ paper. I still have the one from Russia, so there won’t be a problem to leave.

bureaucracy, Kazakhstan, Russia

Border crossing Russia-Kazakhstan (Saratov to Oral/Uralsk)

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Long queue of cars at 9 in the morning already in front of the border area. But they let me in front again, I sure saved at least 30min. The Russian police guide each vehicle into a lane (again waiting in queue of cars) and notify you when you are allowed to go to the booth. After the passport is cleared they make a security check of your vehicle (open all doors, hood, trunk, panniers). In the end you are supposed to get a ticket to show at the exit. I didn’t get one, but a quick radio call of the officer at the gate and I was free to go. I guess it was about 30min.

Again a queue in front of the Kazakh border area, they only let about five cars in at a time.
No skipping here, waited about 15min. Two booths with two officers are available. You have to leave your vehicle and go to one of them. They didn’t seem to have seen a Swiss passport or vehicle registration ever! Even with the passport in his hands he needed to ask where I’m from! His colleague helped him out and together they finally managed to type everything into the computer. I asked about the temporary vehicle import form like in Russia (as I’ve read it’s needed in Kazakhstan), but he declined. But he’s English was not really existent and my sign language may not be good enough…
Took about one hour, so 1.5h for the whole border crossing.

There are some containers just 50 meters after the border. The first one was open and just looked like a mini market. But they also sell vehicle insurances and do change money. I paid 3000 rubles for a 30 day insurance (overpriced?).

bureaucracy, Georgia, Russia

Border crossing Georgia-Russia in Kazbegi

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Nothing special on the Georgian part. Just the booth, show your ID or passport and you are free to go.

On the Russian side I waited about 30min in line to enter the area.
A police officer went through the waiting line to hand out the immigration card to fill out.
I was allowed to cut the line (by about 10 cars) with my bike.
At the first booth it’s the usual passport, visa and immigration control. I didn’t have any hotel reservation, so I’ve just written the hostel name in Volgograd on the immigration card. I was planning to stay there anyways.

At the second booth you are supposed to fill out the passenger and vehicle import declaration. In my case the booth was not occupied and I almost went through customs without it. An officer talked to me while I was getting ready to drive off and asked if I know about this declaration, so he guided me to another booth to get the paperwork.
You can download and print it out beforehand here (two copies required!).
There was no defined waiting line at this booth, just a few people in front of it. I waited until the small window opened and quickly handed the paper in, before any other one had time to react. It takes them 10 minutes per declaration, so I really saved time here.

When leaving the area there’s another passport and immigration card control.
It took me about 1.5h to get through the whole crossing.

After about two kilometers there were a lot of small container buildings. I tried some of them which had an English sign with ‘insurance’ written on it until one could sell me a motorcycle insurance. It was 900 rubles (about 15 CHF) for 15 days. They didn’t speak English, but we managed it anyways. Not sure if I really have a correct insurance, though…

About 4-5 kilometers later there was a police control. They put me on a fake alcohol test and wanted to keep my drivers license. I had to pay 5000 rubles bribe to get my it back!

bureaucracy, Georgia, Turkey

Border crossing Turkey-Georgia at Türkgözü

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I crossed the border from Turkey to Georgia. The Turks are complicated! So this may help someone in the future on this border.

after the first checkpoint (passport/ID, vehicle registration check) you enter the area. Go to the left to the building and park there. Enter the building and go to the right side to the police counter and get your ‘leaving’ stamp on the white paper you’ve got while entering Turkey (not sure if you get this paper when entering with the passport, I’ve used my Swiss ID).  Now go to the left side of the building to the customs (I took the right hand counter, it was not labeled) and they will type your info into the computer. Insist on your place in the line, the Turks will try to get in front of you!

now you can take your bike and go to the exit checkpoint. You may need to find a way between the trucks. They don’t have a line for incoming and outgoing, just one big chaos. I’ve been greeted on the checkpoint with my name before showing my ID (only motorcycle there), so they obviously check the computer.

After the exit there’s the Georgian part which is straightforward: go to the first booth, show your stuff without getting of the bike. Maybe the customs a few meters later want to have a look at your luggage, but it took only a minute.

it was about 20min on the Turkish part and 5min on the Georgian part. Don’t expect the Turks to know English…