Uzbek Immigration

“How is the immigration procedere at your place?”
“You show your passport, that’s it.”
“I hope we’ll have that too, soon.”
Even the Uzbek customs officer ist annoyed by the immigration procedure.

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were a slight disappointment when it came to post-soviet burocracy but we experienced our full share at the border post in Osh:
The immigration form consists of three pages and has to be filled in properly. No mistakes allowed. You’re supposed to declare all currency so I counted all my souvenir money the day before: 300 Bengali Taka, 250 Indian Rupees, 3 Romanian Lei, 40 Chinese Yuan… But at the border I just declare Euros, Dollars and Uzbek Soms. And they don’t check me. But you have to count the declared money in front of the costums officer, he musn’t touch it. That our Uzbek Soms are obviously from the black market doesn’t matter either. Sometimes I worry too much.
All computer equipment has to be declared: one SD card, two USB sticks, one Laptop, one external hard drive… they don’t check what’s on them.
Some more Uzbeks and Kyrgyzs start their immigration procedure with more routine than us but with the same annoyance.
One answer on the form was wrong, I have to fill in the forms again. Really? Yes, everything has to be spotless. Their superiors will probably check and suppose that they fiddled with the forms.
I come back with the second version.
Another mistake: Entry or Transit. Well, we’ll leave again so ✔ Transit. No, we only enter. Do I have to fill another form? The young man relents and grabs a small bottle of Tippex. Sigh, lucky me.
The costums offical asks Antje for oral hygiene tips, she gives him some dental floss, he admits to her how much he’s annoyed by these formalities.
We are free to enter. Welcome to Uzbekistan!