Uzbekistan

Visa speed

The processing time for entry visa documents is 10 days; for applications from enterprises with foreign investment 2 working days, for the "IT visa" and for tourist and transit visas 3 days, for authorisation of a visa on a citizen's invitation 15 days, and for entry for permanent residence the period may be extended to 30 days. The internal affairs bodies take fifteen working days over an in-country visa extension, two working days over an electronic visa not counting the day of filing, and fifteen working days over the confirmation of the right to work.

Language at work

The state language is Uzbek; Russian is widely used in Tashkent and in business correspondence. In IT Park resident companies the working language is often Russian or English.

Changing employer

The confirmation of the right to work is issued for a specific employer, and where the foreign national moves to another legal entity a letter of consent from the inviting employer is required to extend the visa (point 15³ of the Procedure, Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 408). Highly qualified and qualified specialists are given thirty working days to find a new employer if the contract is terminated early, and during that period the confirmation, visa and residence permit already issued remain valid; they may hold a second job without a separate confirmation. Investors who have invested at least 8,500 times the base calculation value work in their own organisation in any position without permit procedures, while holders of the "Vatandosh" card, holders of a residence permit and specialists of IT Park residents receive no confirmation at all.

Visa types: The IT visa — a multiple-entry visa of up to 3 years for foreign specialists, founders and investors in IT Park residents. It grants the right to work without a work permit, social rights on a par with citizens (healthcare, education), temporary registration for the life of the visa and the purchase of property at any price. The conditions: an IT qualification and employment with an IT Park resident, with income from IT work of at least $30,000 over the previous 12 months; for an investor, a stake from $10,000; for a founder, a company in the Unified Register of Residents · The category E (employment) visa is arranged by the employer; the foreigner needs a work permit, and the state checks that the vacancy was offered to Uzbek citizens first · Citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and a number of other countries need no entry visa — but visa-free entry by itself carries no right to work

Money inside Uzbekistan is almost nowhere named as money: duties and fees are expressed as multiples of the base calculation value, and no legal act prints the product of the rate and that value. That is why a numeric value appears in the records below only where the authority itself printed a finished amount: that authority is the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services (my.gov.uz), which for every service shows both the multiple and the sum in soum, and where filing through the portal lowers the rate by a tenth — 1 base value becomes 0.9, 89 per cent of the base value becomes 0.801, 2 per cent becomes 0.018. Entry is paid for twice and to different authorities: abroad the consular post charges a consular fee under the tariff set by the President, while inside the country the internal affairs bodies charge a state duty under the Law "On the state duty" (ZRU-600, Annex). The base consular fee tariff — Resolution No. PP-2095 of 24 December 2013 — has not been entered into the National Database of Legislation, and the rates for ordinary visas are nowhere to be found; the legal database shows only the electronic visa amounts (USD 20, 35 and 50) and separate amendments to the tariff. The duty is attached not to the visa category but to its term and number of entries, so most lettered categories have no price of their own, while for some grounds the rate depends on citizenship. Not everyone needs a visa: Annex No. 5 to Resolution No. 408 keeps an open-ended visa-free regime for nationals of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, up to 60 days for Kyrgyzstan and up to 30 days for some ninety more countries; visa-free entry does not by itself confer the right to work. Permanent residence in Uzbekistan is granted not for years lived but on a ground from the closed list in the Annex to Resolution No. PP-3924, and that list applies in Karakalpakstan and the regions other than Tashkent Region — for Tashkent and Tashkent Region the procedure is set by a separate regulation. Confirmation of the right to work is not required for fourteen categories, including holders of a residence permit, holders of the "Vatandosh" card, foreign specialists resident in the IT Park, accredited diplomats, journalists and staff of non-governmental non-profit organisations, teachers at Presidential schools and universities, founders and chief executives of foreign and joint ventures during the first three months and — since the version of 1 July 2026 — workers carrying out their activity remotely (online) from abroad. Investors who have invested at least 8,500 times the base value may work in their own organisation in any position without any permit procedures at all. Registration is compulsory: under Law No. ZRU-1074 of 10 July 2025 foreigners permanently resident in other states must register at their place of stay no later than three working days from the day of entry, and those permanently resident in Uzbekistan no later than ten working days from the day of arrival at a new place; the duty for registration at the place of stay grows with the term (free up to a month, then from 2 to 12 times the base value). Some acts can be read only in Uzbek: the Russian page of Resolution No. 86, which holds the certificate of the right to work with its whole ladder of rates, contains the single sentence "The text of the act is given in the Uzbek language", while for Resolution No. 593 only the body is printed in Russian, and a starred footnote states that Annexes Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 — that is, the regulations on the procedure for permanent registration themselves — are given in the state language.

Citizenship after

5 years

Language

Uzbek to the level needed for communication; how the level is assessed is set by Cabinet of Ministers decision No. 592 of 28 September 2020

Dual citizenship

not allowed

Dual citizenship: Multiple citizenship is not recognised. Renouncing the foreign citizenship is the first condition of admission (art. 19), and voluntarily acquiring a foreign citizenship is grounds for losing the Uzbek one (chapter 4 of the law). That makes naturalising in Uzbekistan a decision with an irreversible part, not an addition to the passport you already hold.

Absence limits: Residence counts as continuous if trips outside the country total no more than 183 days in any one year (art. 19 of the Law on Citizenship).

Law on Citizenship of the Republic of Uzbekistan (ZRU-610 of 13 March 2020), art. 19. The general-route conditions: a formalised EXIT from the foreign citizenship; five years of continuous residence — counted "from the day the residence permit for a stateless person is received", that is, AFTER giving up the previous passport; a lawful source of subsistence; an undertaking to observe the Constitution; command of the state language sufficient for communication (the level is set by Cabinet of Ministers decision No. 592 of 28 September 2020). So that nobody is left stateless for good, the law provides a guarantee letter promising citizenship: it is issued before the renunciation and is valid for a year, extendable by decision of the Citizenship Commission under the President. The five-year rule does not apply to a stateless person married to an Uzbek citizen who has lived with their spouse in the country continuously for three years (art. 19, part two, as amended by ZRU-696 of 14 June 2021). The simplified route (art. 20) is for compatriots with a direct ancestor who is a citizen of Uzbekistan.

Document certification

apostille

The country is party to the 1961 Hague Convention: a degree or certificate is authenticated with a single apostille in the country that issued it.

Limit

2

Quarantine

no

Antibody titre test

not needed

Preparation

~1 months

Veterinary requirements, chapter 15 (approved by decision No. 04 of the Chief State Veterinary Inspector of 28 February 2014): up to 2 dogs or cats for personal use enter with NO import permit and NO quarantine, on an international veterinary passport — which in this case counts as the veterinary certificate. The passport must carry a competent authority's note of a clinical examination within 5 days before departure. Vaccination no later than 14 days before departure, unless the animal was vaccinated in the previous 6 months: dogs against rabies, distemper, hepatitis, viral enteritis, parvovirus and adenovirus infections and leptospirosis; cats against rabies and panleukopenia. No antibody titre is required and the requirements list no banned breeds. More than two animals needs the permission of the Chief State Veterinary Inspector.

Bread, 500 g

$ 0,51

Milk, 1 l

$ 1,12

Eggs, 12

$ 1,63

Chicken breast, 1 kg

$ 3,80

Cheese, 1 kg

$ 7,55

Rice, 1 kg

$ 1,60

Potatoes, 1 kg

$ 0,56

Apples, 1 kg

$ 1,13

Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l

$ 1,42

Total

$ 19,3

The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.

Rent, 1 bedroom

$ 399 a month

Rent, 3 bedrooms

$ 882 a month

Utility bills

$ 68,4 a month

Home internet

$ 12,0 a month

Monthly transport pass

$ 10,8 a month

Single transport ticket

$ 0,20

Petrol, litre

$ 1,04

Cold medicine

$ 11,9 for a week

Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.

Life expectancy

72,5 years2024

Homicides

1,4 per 100k2021 · data lags behind

Road deaths

9,3 per 100k2021

Unemployment

4,6 %2025

Unemployment, ages 15–24

11,4 %2025

Inequality (Gini)

32,72025

Health spending per person

$ 192 a year

Air pollution, PM2.5

32,8 µg/m³2023

Access to clean water

97,3 %2024

Internet, fixed line

94,1 Mbit/s2026

Internet, mobile

62,9 Mbit/s2026

Governance

Political stability

below average · -0

Control of corruption

below average · -0,8

Rule of law

below average · -0,7

Government effectiveness

below average · -0,1

World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

7 out of 10

River floods

8,3 out of 10

Coastal floods

0 out of 10

Tropical cyclones

0 out of 10

Droughts

6,6 out of 10

Tsunamis

0 out of 10

Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.

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