BOOKING: Letters of Invitation (Five Stans Product)

As part of the product setup for the Five Stans package, the customer will be asked through their Traveller Hub account to provide additional information that we will need to apply for their LOI for Turkmenistan with the ground operator.  

• An email notification is generated to the customer 7 days after booking to prompt this and explain the process email is here

• Another reminder email is sent at 90 days before departure 

• Then a text reminder at 80 days before departure 

• The final step is when the pre-departure CS check task is created at 75 days 

• We must have all information loaded by 70 days before departure 

We’re now empowering MNL CS to validate and inspect customer-submitted photos before uploading them to Perseus. This aims to reduce back-and-forth and enhance the overall LOI experience.

Please see below the key photo validation parameters that need to be checked before submission:

What Makes a Photo Copy "High Quality"?

When officials refer to "high quality," they're looking for several key attributes that ensure the image is a true and uncompromised representation of you, and that it can be processed effectively:

1. Resolution (DPI - Dots Per Inch):

   • This is often the most critical technical specification. For scanned passport photos or documents, a minimum of 300 DPI is commonly required, and often 600 DPI is recommended for better detail and clarity.

   • High Quality: High DPI means more detail is captured, resulting in a sharper, clearer image.

   • Low Quality: Low DPI (e.g., 72 DPI or 150 DPI, common for web images) will appear pixelated, blurry, or "blocky" when printed or zoomed in, making it difficult to discern fine features.

2. Clarity and Focus:

   • The image should be sharp and in focus throughout, especially on your facial features.

   • High Quality: All details are crisp, and there's no blurriness.

   • Low Quality: Blurry areas (motion blur, out-of-focus camera, or poor scanning) are a definite sign of low quality.

3. Color Accuracy and Tone:

   • The colors should be natural and accurately represent your skin tone and hair color.

   • High Quality: Natural skin tones, no color casts (e.g., green, blue, yellow tint), and good contrast.

   • Low Quality: Discolored images, washed-out colors, overly saturated colors, or significant color shifts indicate poor quality.

4. Lighting and Shadows:

   • The lighting should be uniform across your face, with no harsh shadows or overexposed/underexposed areas.

   • High Quality: Evenly lit face, no shadows on the face or background.

   • Low Quality: Shadows on the face (e.g., under the chin, from glasses), red-eye, glare from glasses, or areas that are too dark or too bright (blown out).

5. Lack of Imperfections/Defects:

   • The copy should be free from any physical or digital defects introduced during the copying process.

   • High Quality: No lines, streaks, smudges, dust spots, creases, tears, or holes on the image. The paper should be clean and unblemished.

   • Low Quality: Any of these physical defects, or digital artifacts like compression distortion, indicate poor quality.

6. Background:

   • A plain, uniform white or light-colored background is usually required, free from shadows, patterns, or objects.

   • High Quality: Smooth, consistent background that contrasts well with your face.

   • Low Quality: Shadows on the background, visible textures, or objects in the background.

7. Paper Quality (for physical copies):

   • If you're providing a physical photocopy of a passport photo, the paper itself matters. It should be a good quality, heavy-weight photo paper (often glossy or matte photo-quality paper, not regular printer paper).

   • High Quality: Durable paper that resists creasing and smudging, and allows for accurate color reproduction.

   • Low Quality: Flimsy paper, paper that absorbs ink unevenly, or paper with a visible texture.

How to Test/Determine Quality:

1. • Zoom In (for digital copies/scans): If you have a digital copy (e.g., a PDF or JPEG of the photocopy), zoom in to 100% or 200%. Does it look sharp and clear, or can you see individual pixels or fuzziness?

   • Check for Fine Details: Can you clearly see your facial features (eyes, nose, mouth), the texture of your skin, and the details of the passport numbers/letters?

   • Rule of Thumb: If you have any doubt, it's safer to err on the side of caution and get a new passport photo copy and ensure a high-quality scan or copy. 

• Letters of Invitation for our Five Stans product cannot be issued earlier than 30 days prior to departure.

• The process is detailed in the online Wiki (please refer to it for full details), but briefly:

  • Approximately 65 days before departure, the Ops team sends a secondary list (along with the naming list) to the supplier.

  • The supplier then creates the Letters of Invitation for the group and returns them to us approximately 45 days before departure.

  • We then upload these to each booking during the documentation stage, approximately 30 days before departure.

• Requests for Letters of Invitation earlier than 30 days prior to departure cannot be facilitated.

• Update as of 21/04/25

  • LOI concerns will be handled by the MEL CS Team. 

  • There is an automation in place that if the concern of the customer is about the Letter of Invitation for the Stans packages, it will be automatically categorized as MEL CS Escalation and will be removed from the CS MNL bucket. MNL CS agents should not be actioning these tickets. Any tickets regarding LOI must be actioned by MEL CS.

  • For any calls about LOI, please coordinate first with a MNL CS TL for the availability of MEL CS Team.  If they are available, MNL CS must transfer the call.  If they are not available, please raise a task. 

Update as of August 15, 2025

• • Effective immediately, guests will no longer be permitted to wait in the hotel lobby without a booking. If arriving before the official check-in time of 2 PM (which is common due to flight schedules), they must have pre-tour accommodation booked. This is non-negotiable and is required for us to obtain the LOI.

  • MEL CS has compiled a list of impacted bookings and has added the pre-tour accommodation cost. An email will be sent shortly to guests with departures up to 22 September advising them of the change and the reason. We are still waiting for flight details for later departures and will action those as details come in.

  • Responses will be routed back to MEL CS, but you may still receive calls regarding this. Please note: guests are required to pay for this – it is not negotiable. If you encounter refusals or issues, please raise a task to MEL CS for follow-up.

  • Please do your best to explain to customers who are following up that the delay is outside of our control but assure them the documents will be shared before they are needed. There is no need to raise tasks to Ops.

  • If a customer cannot be reassured, please raise a task to the MEL CS Team.

Marketing email link HERE. 

Subject: Inspiring Vacations - Travel Documentation Update

Dear traveller,

We hope this message finds you well.

This email has important information regards your Five Stans Documentation and Letter of Invitation.

Thank you for your continued patience as we finalize your travel documentation for your upcoming Five Stans journey.  We understand the anticipation and want to be fully transparent with you about the process and current anticipated timelines.

What to Expect

• Final Travel Documents: These are typically being released around 14 days before departure.

• Turkmenistan Letter of Invitation (LOI):  This is issued by the Turkmenistan Ministry of Tourism and we are currently seeing it being issued 3-10 days before departure.  Unfortunately, this timing is completely outside of our control.

Why It Takes Time

The LOI process is strictly managed by the Turkmenistan Ministry of Tourism. Even if you are departing your home earlier, this does not enable us to accelerate the issuance process.  In rare cases, you may need to print this document while abroad (hotels and airlines are often very helpful in this regard, and we will support you however we can too).

Next Steps

• As soon as your documents are ready, you will receive an email and SMS notification with instructions to access them in Traveller Hub.

• In the meantime, you can review the general itinerary on our website and explore our new Five Stans Information Hub for helpful trip insights.

Important Note

We know this waiting period can be stressful, but please be assured that follow-up with our support teams cannot influence the timeline and only slows down our ability to support all travellers effectively.  Rest assured, we are doing everything possible to ensure documents are provided as early as possible and we will notify you the moment your documents are available.

We deeply appreciate your continued patience and look forward to providing you with a memorable journey to this extraordinary part of the world.

Kind Regards,

The Inspiring Vacations Team

Please be reminded that Marketing is sending out automated email notifications to customers for delayed travel documents, particularly Letters of Invitation (LOIs) and Final Documents.

To ensure alignment and awareness, note the following timeframes for document release:

• Final Documents – sent 14 days before departure

• Letters of Invitation (LOIs) – sent 3 to 10 days before departure
  
  

These timelines are critical to avoid triggering unnecessary follow-ups from customers receiving the automated messages.

Update:
As of 30 September, per Loren Mosetter, all LOIs for departures through the end of the year have been received.

Keywords: invitation letter, visa document, five stans support, letter request, travel visa help, MEL CS Team, escalate to MEL CS