Anyone got experience getting hold of a visa for Baku? My brother’s working out there at the moment and my dad wants to go out and visit him, but needs a visa.

The embassy website isn’t helpful, nor do they appear to offer tourist visas. Sadly this is going to re-affirm my pet theory that the more difficult a country is to get into, the less you’d want to visit.

Cheers,

Dave.

There are a number of companies that will do all this for you such as Visaswift. Having looked at that site the only thing that might be a problem is a letter of invitation although your brothers company might be able to help with that. Likely to cost somewhere in ther region so £150. If you want to deal directly this site looks like the place to go

http://www.visaforazerbaijan.org.uk/

Sadly this is going to re-affirm my pet theory that the more difficult a country is to get into, the less you’d want to visit

That’s certainly not my experience. There are plenty of countries that are a bit of a hassle to get visa for that are absolutely fascinating.

I’ve been to Baku and just applied as per the application on the embassy website. Can’t remember the details but had to send my passport off for a couple of weeks. Baku itself is quite nice in the main areas of the city, the main area is quite attractive with plenty of restaraunts and bars. If you get off the beaten track into the sidestreets its really run down, real Borat stuff, and get outside of the city its pretty bleak. Lots of very attractive women walking around draped in designer gear, so pretty good for people watching if you’re sat in a cafe having a beer or coffee. I was warned that there is a petrochemical smell in the air and a rainbow sheen to the water as it laps up onto the shoreline, but I didn’t notice that. Sorry I can’t be more specific on the visa application process, but from what vague recollection I have it was pretty straight forward once you sussed out what you had to do.

I’ve always used these folks for visas – http://cibtvisas.co.uk/

OK, so you pay a premium to get them to process/handle it, but it’s always worked very well for me, even for things like a short notice trip to Moscow.

i used visaforazerbijan as above

how ever that was for a business visa – tourism visa id imagine is a different beast.

the process once i had the letter of invitation took a week

It’s an interesting place to go I’d imagine. On of my best mates has just beenb posted there, have a vague hankering to go and visit “just to see”..

Visa Swift or CIBT will sort it out for him.

Thanks for the advice. Will pass it on.

I’m going with him but fortunately don’t need a visa. 😀