Relocating to Tashkent as an IT Professional: Visa, Costs, and the First 90 Days (2026 Guide)

Five years ago, “relocating for IT” in Central Asia meant leaving. Today the traffic runs both ways: engineers from Russia, India, and Pakistan arriving on IT Visas, remote workers choosing Tashkent for its costs, and — the largest group by far — Uzbek developers from Samarkand, Fergana, and Nukus moving to where the offers are. This guide covers the practical layer nobody puts in job postings.

The paperwork: easier than the region's reputation

For foreign specialists, the IT Visa program run through IT Park is the headline: a multi-year visa track for IT employees, founders, and investors, with a straightforward application and none of the border-run choreography common elsewhere. If you hold an offer from an IT Park resident, the company usually drives the process. Citizens of many countries can also simply enter visa-free and formalize after arrival. The one rule everyone underestimates: temporary registration at your address is mandatory and the landlord must participate — settle it in the first days, not the last week.

What living actually costs

Numbers move, so treat these as mid-2026 orientation rather than gospel: a one-bedroom in a decent Tashkent district rents for roughly $400–700, dinner for two runs $15–25, a monthly metro pass costs pocket change, and a coworking desk $50–100. Against Almaty, Tbilisi, or Dubai — the cities competing for the same remote workers — Tashkent is the budget option by a wide margin. The trade-offs are real too: summers are hot, air quality dips in winter, and imported goods carry import prices.

Banking, money, and the som

Opening a local account is routine with a passport and registration; Visa and Mastercard issuance is standard alongside the local Uzcard/Humo rails, and the payment apps — Payme, Click, Uzum — make daily life nearly cash-free. Foreigners keeping foreign income streams usually pair a local card for spending with Payoneer or a home account for savings. Watch the exchange rate the way locals do: salaries in som feel different when the som moves.

For regional developers: the move nobody writes guides for

The largest relocation flow into Tashkent is internal, and it has its own math. Capital salaries for the same role run meaningfully higher than in the regions — but rent eats much of the difference in year one. The honest calculation is not this month’s budget; it is access. The capital concentrates the product companies, the fintechs, the international offices, and the interviews. A year of Tashkent experience reprices your CV in a way three regional years often do not. IT Park’s regional branches are slowly changing this — but slowly is the operative word.

The first 90 days, compressed

• Week 1: registration sorted, local SIM, bank account, Payme/Click installed.
• Month 1: pick a district after visiting at rush hour, not on Sunday; join the IT Park events calendar and two or three developer chats.
• Months 2–3:if you are job-hunting locally, calibrate to the market: interviews here are more structured than the region’s reputation suggests, and export-oriented companies will test your English early. A few mock interviews in your target language — before the offers you actually want — is the cheapest relocation insurance there is.