Do Germany passport holders need a visa to visit TM?

German ordinary passport holders need a visa to enter Turkmenistan. There is no visa-free or true visa-on-arrival channel: you must first secure a Letter of Invitation (LOI) from a licensed Turkmen tour operator, get it certified by the State Migration Service, then collect the visa at a Turkmen embassy or on arrival at Ashgabat airport. An eVisa decree was signed in April 2025 but the platform is still not operational as of mid-2026. Turkmenistan operates one of the world's most restrictive visa regimes. As of 30 May 2026, German citizens with ordinary passports have no visa exemption. The standard route for a short tourist visit requires a Letter of Invitation (LOI) arranged by a Turkmenistan-licensed travel agency and certified by the State Migration Service of Turkmenistan; the LOI is valid for 3 months from certification (an extended 6-month advance window was introduced in mid-2025). With an approved LOI you either obtain a visa sticker at the Embassy of Turkmenistan (the nearest mission accredited to Germany), or pick up the visa on arrival at Ashgabat International Airport or designated land borders. Tourist visas are typically issued for 10 days and can be extended once for another 10 days; tourism is normally conditional on a fixed guided itinerary. A presidential decree of 18 April 2025 promised an electronic visa system that would eliminate the LOI requirement, but the implementing decree (categories, fees, validity) had not been published and the e-visa platform was not live as of early 2026, so travelers must continue using the LOI process. Turkmenistan is not in the Schengen area, so the Schengen 90/180 rule and ETIAS do not apply.