Free import
• Goods for personal or family use and gifts brought in with the traveler are free of customs duties if their total weight does not exceed 60 kg, including up to 1 kg of jewelry. Above these limits, duty is USD 10 for each extra kilogram and USD 0.20 for each extra gram of jewelry.
• 1 L of alcoholic beverages and 2 packs of tobacco products for personal use, free of excise duty.
• Goods brought in for sale or profit are commercial imports and are always subject to duties and taxes.
• Use the green channel if you carry only personal-use items (you may be asked for a verbal declaration) and the red channel if you have goods that must be declared in writing, such as restricted goods or goods above the duty-free limits. Travelers in the green channel can still be inspected.
Currency
• There is no limit on the amount of foreign currency you can bring in, but it must be declared to customs on arrival. Keep the customs declaration: you need it to take out more than USD 10,000.
Prohibited
• Narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, and equipment for making or using them
• Weapons of any kind for personal protection, including pepper sprays, stun guns and knuckle-dusters
• Toy air guns and other toy guns that fire plastic or other pellets
• Military weapons, ammunition and military equipment; explosives
• Fireworks, firecrackers and flare guns (sparklers are allowed)
• Pornographic material and printed or audiovisual material that could harm the political or economic interests, state security, public health or morals of Turkmenistan
• Poisons and toxic substances; nuclear materials and radioactive sources
• Right-hand-drive vehicles (including those converted to left-hand drive), vehicles more than 5 years old (not counting the year of manufacture), high-speed sports cars and cars with an engine over 3,500 cc
Restricted
• Firearms (other than military weapons) and ammunition, starting pistols and gas pistols need a permit from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• Radio transmitters and other high-frequency equipment (including radio microphones, radio stations and satellite or other radio telephones) need a permit from the Interdepartmental Commission for Radio Frequencies under the Cabinet of Ministers.
• Medicines: prescription medicines for your own treatment may be brought in with a copy of the prescription and do not need to be declared. Without a prescription, some medicines (such as strong painkillers) may be treated as narcotics.
• Pets and plants are subject to veterinary and phytosanitary control; customs clearance is completed only after approval by the relevant state authorities.
• Valuable items that you will take out again (such as cameras, laptops and professional media equipment) should be declared on arrival; the declaration is used to take them out again.
• Foreign-registered cars may be brought in temporarily with a written obligation to take them out again; they must leave Turkmenistan when the permitted period ends and may not be sold in the country.