Visa guides

Guides

• Azerbaijan e-visa: what it costs and how long it takes
• Schengen Visa from Baku: Documents and Process
• UK Visa from Baku: Application Guide

If your passport or destination is not covered yet, ask. We will tell you what the official rule is, or say plainly that we do not know.

Entering Azerbaijan: the numbers

Which guide you need

There are two different readers here and it is worth knowing which one you are. If you are travelling to Azerbaijan, you want the e-visa guide: it covers the fee, the timing and who is eligible.

If you live in Baku and are travelling out, you want the Schengen or UK guides. Those describe a different process with different documents and a different decision-maker.

The two have almost nothing in common except the word visa, which is why they are separate pages rather than one long one.

The mistakes that cost people their trip

Applying on the wrong passport. If you hold two, the e-visa must be issued on the one you actually travel on. A mismatch at the border makes the visa invalid, and it is the single most common failure.

Leaving it to the last day. Three working days is the standard timing, and a weekend does not count as working days. The three-hour urgent option exists, but it costs three times as much.

Using an unofficial site. Several sites resell the e-visa at a markup, and some collect passport data with no reason to. The official portal is the one linked from our guides.

Assuming a visa guarantees entry. It does not, anywhere in the world. A border officer makes the final decision, and having a return ticket and an address to give them is the practical answer.

What we do and what we do not

We explain the rule that applies to your passport and point you at the official source. When the wording on the form is unclear, we tell you what it is asking for.

We do not submit an application on your behalf. Nor do we charge a fee to fill in a government form you can complete yourself in ten minutes. There are agencies that do; we would rather you spent that money on the trip.

What we do sell is the ground arrangement once you are here: the transfer, the driver, the route. That is where an agency in Baku is actually worth having.

Arriving in Baku

The drive between Heydar Aliyev International Airport and the city centre takes about 30 minutes, and a large share of arrivals land between midnight and 05:00. Passport control is usually quick; baggage is less predictable.

If you are booking a transfer, give us the flight number. The driver tracks the landing time, so a delay does not leave you paying for a car that left without you.

Have your accommodation address written down before you land. It is asked for on arrival and searching for it on a phone with no local data is a slow way to start a trip.

If your dates are around a busy weekend

The Formula 1 Grand Prix in September fills Baku completely: hotels, drivers and restaurant tables. Applying for an e-visa is unaffected, but everything on the ground needs booking weeks ahead.

Novruz in March and the New Year period are the other two windows where the city is at capacity. Both are public holidays, which changes what is open.

If your trip falls in one of those, tell us early. We would rather say no in advance than let you arrive to a car that does not exist.

Related pages

• Azerbaijan travel guides
• Airport transfers and routes
• What RH Travel arranges
• Contact

Common questions

Ask before you book anything

Send your nationality, travel dates and how many of you there are. We answer with the rule that applies to you.