Staying Longer in Uzbekistan: Extensions, Work, Residency
Day 31 in Uzbekistan: why visa-free stays can't be extended, how border runs work, overstay fines in som, work permits, IT Visa and investor residence.
It's day 31. You crossed into Uzbekistan visa-free on a British or EU passport, Tashkent turned out to be easier to live in than you expected, and you're now standing at the exit desk with a stay that ran one day past its limit. The officer doesn't need to ask anything. The dates are in the system, and under Uzbekistan's Administrative Code even a short overstay carries a fine of five base calculation amounts, which since 1 September 2026 works out at 2,200,000 som, roughly $180 (last checked: September 2026).
That's the cheap version. Staying longer in Uzbekistan legally is possible, but every route (extensions, border runs, work permits, the IT Visa, investor residence) has to be set up before the clock runs out, not after.
How long you get before any of this matters
Your starting allowance depends entirely on your passport. The broad tiers, per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs list as summarised by Tashkent law firm Tax & Legal (last checked: September 2026):
- No fixed limit: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.
- 60 days: Kyrgyzstan.
- 30 days: more than 80 countries, including the UK, every EU state, the US (since 1 January 2026), Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea.
- E-visa nationalities: a $20 single-entry e-visa gives up to 30 days per entry inside a 90-day validity window.
The 30 days start the moment you cross the border, not the morning after. The per-country detail and the e-visa walk-through are in our main Uzbekistan visa guide; this page picks up where that one stops.
Can you extend a visa-free stay?
No. Visa-free entry can't be extended in-country, and neither can an e-visa.
What can be extended is a proper visa, the kind issued through an embassy for a stated purpose. Since October 2025 that application goes online through the state services portal (my.gov.uz, "Citizenship" section), Kun.uz reported at launch. The conditions are strict: a document proving why you need more time, submission no later than 10 days before the visa expires, and a review by the Ministry of Internal Affairs' migration department that takes up to 15 working days. You then hand your passport to the local migration office within three working days of paying the state fee, and the extension sticker follows within two days (last checked: September 2026).
"I like it here" isn't a documented reason. Medical treatment or a pending work permit is what the procedure is built for. Our guide to working remotely from Tashkent reaches the same conclusion: don't plan a stay around an extension you may not get. The same question comes up for anyone planning a long Uzbek language course.
Leaving and coming back
This is how most people actually stretch a stay. Leave, re-enter, and a visa-free passport gets a fresh 30 days.
There's no published "30 days out" rule and no 90-in-180 cap of the Schengen kind. Caravanistan, which tracks Central Asian border practice closely, says it knows of no limit on how many times you can exit and re-enter visa-free and no minimum time outside, so a same-day run should work (last checked: September 2026). Kazakhstan near Tashkent or Kyrgyzstan via the Fergana Valley are the usual targets; our notes on Uzbekistan's land border posts cover which ones foreigners can use.
So how many runs is too many? Nobody publishes a number, so the decision sits with the officer in the booth. One run in the middle of a two-month trip looks like travel. Three back-to-back runs with an apartment address on your registration record starts to look like residence without a permit, and an officer is entitled to refuse entry. Our view is that a single border run is a reasonable tool and a series of them is a plan with no fallback.
Each new entry also opens a new three-day window, and the rules on registering where you stay apply from scratch.
If you want to work there
Taking a local job means two separate things: a work-category visa (category E, or A-2 for teaching) and a work permit from the Migration Agency. The employer applies online, the review takes 15 working days, and you can't convert a visa-free stay into work status from inside the country.
Costs vary sharply by category, according to Tax & Legal's September 2026 breakdown. The application review fee is 440,000 som. Issuance then costs 440,000 som for a highly qualified specialist, 880,000 som for a qualified specialist and 13,200,000 som (around $1,100) for most other foreign workers. Highly qualified status requires a degree from a top-1,000 university, five years' experience in the field and a salary of at least $60,000 a year, and it buys a permit of up to three years instead of one.
The IT Visa
For tech workers, this is the route that actually gets used. The IT Visa is a multiple-entry visa of up to three years, issued on IT Park's recommendation, it covers family members, and it lets you live and work without a separate work permit. Applications go through IT Park's IT-visa portal, it-relocation.uz (the old itvisa.uz address redirects there).
According to Tax & Legal’s summary, rules amended on 7 March 2026 widened who qualifies. An IT specialist needs at least $30,000 of IT income over the previous 12 months and a job with an Uzbek-resident company. Investors need to put at least $30,000 into a resident company, the same threshold as founders of IT Park resident firms. Digital Startup Program participants and IT academics with a PhD or DSc were added too. Confirm the current criteria on the IT-visa portal before you apply, as the thresholds are set by government resolution and can change.
One practical detail from a founder's account on IT Park's own site: the board reviews applications at its end-of-month meeting, so an application filed just before the cut-off can clear in about ten days, and one filed just after can wait a month.
Investor residence permits
Uzbekistan's so-called golden visa comes from a presidential decree of 18 April 2025. It offers a five-year, extendable residence permit for a $250,000 investment, with parents, spouse and children eligible at $150,000 each. The Ministry of Justice first published $200,000 and $100,000, then corrected itself, Gazeta.uz reported, and a lawyer it quoted stressed the scheme does not lead to citizenship.
A separate, older track gives investment-visa holders a 10-year residence permit for an investment of $3 million in production of goods or services. Both are for people moving capital, and both deserve a local lawyer's review first.
Registration is not residence
Long-stayers often assume months of registration at an apartment address build towards residency. They don't. Registration only records where a temporary visitor sleeps; a residence permit is a separate application through the migration units that ends in an identity card for foreigners.
What an overstay really costs
The Ministry of Internal Affairs notice for foreign citizens sets out three tiers: 5 base amounts for up to 10 days, 10 for 11 to 30 days, and 20 beyond 30 days. At 440,000 som per base amount, that's 2.2 million, 4.4 million and 8.8 million som. Tax & Legal's 2026 table gives higher figures for the upper tiers (6.6 million and 11 million som), so the real number past day 10 may be above the ministry's older notice. Unpaid fines can lead to expulsion and a one-year entry ban, and a repeat within a year can mean three years (last checked: September 2026).
Rules here change almost annually. Confirm your own case with the nearest Uzbek embassy before you commit to a long stay.
And if you do hold a regular visa and think you'll need more time, count backwards now: the online extension must be filed at least 10 days before expiry, and the review alone can take three working weeks. Put a reminder in your phone for the day you're three weeks from the end of your visa, because that's the last day the extension route is comfortably open.