Inheritance in Uzbekistan for a US Citizen: Parents' Apartment, Deadlines, Sale and Transfer of Funds

A US citizen can inherit a parent's apartment in Uzbekistan. Real estate is inherited under the law of the country where it is located (Art. 1199 of the Civil Code), and foreigners have the same civil legal capacity as citizens except where Uzbek laws or international treaties provide otherwise (Art. 1169). The current Civil Code sets no separate deadline for accepting an inheritance: the right arises on the date of death (Art. 1145), and six months is the period before which the notary, as a rule, does not issue the certificate of inheritance (Art. 1146). As of November 2026 we found no rule that bars a foreigner from keeping an inherited apartment, and none that expressly allows it: the foreigner rules in Presidential Decree No. UP-101 are written for purchases. Land is different: if a foreigner acquires ownership of a land plot, the plot must be disposed of within six months (Art. 33 of Law No. ZRU-728).

Key points

• Uzbek law applies. Real estate is inherited under the law of the place where it is located (Art. 1199 of the Civil Code; Art. 89 of the Law on Notaries).
• Deadlines. The Civil Code has no deadline for accepting an inheritance; six months is the period before which the certificate is usually not issued (Art. 1146). Waiting is still risky: the estate can be divided without you (Art. 1151).
• You can do it from the US. A notary accepts an application sent by mail but will ask you to have the signature certified or to appear in person (clause 23 of the Regulation). US documents need an apostille.
• Apartment and house with land are different cases. For an apartment we found no bar. For a plot owned by a foreigner there is a rule requiring disposal within six months. On purchases: buying property in Uzbekistan as a US citizen.
• Tax. An inheritance from a close relative is exempt under Art. 378 of the Tax Code, but a non-resident's tax base is calculated without tax benefits (Art. 366), so the point is open. A non-resident pays 12% on a sale (Art. 382).
• Moving money out. The transfer guarantee in Art. 17 of Law No. ZRU-598 is given to investors; the bank decides on the documents.

Which law applies

The place where the estate opens is the deceased's last permanent residence (Art. 1117 Civil Code). If your parent lived abroad, clause 21 of the Regulation (Annex 5 to Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 726) refers to Uzbekistan's international treaties on legal assistance; we have not checked for a treaty with the United States.

Who inherits

Heirs may be citizens alive at the moment the estate opens (Art. 1118); the article does not mention the heir's citizenship. Without a will, the first line of heirs by law receives equal shares: the deceased's children, spouse and parents (Art. 1135). Minor or incapacitated children and an incapacitated spouse or parents inherit at least half of their statutory share regardless of the will (Art. 1142). See the order of heirs by law. On division, heirs who lived with the deceased for three years before death may take the dwelling and compensate the others for their shares (Art. 1153).

Deadlines: what the law actually says

The idea that "if you don't accept within six months, you lose the right" is not in the current Uzbek Civil Code. The deadlines in the law are these:

The official Uzbek text of Arts. 1145 and 1146 says the same. The Law on Notaries (Art. 56) mentions "the period for accepting the inheritance established by law", but the current Civil Code names no such period.

What this means for an heir in the US:

• The Civil Code has neither a deadline for acceptance nor a procedure for restoring one, so missing six months does not by itself cost you the right. How a particular notary will handle a late application, we check in advance.
• The risk of waiting lies elsewhere: other heirs may get their certificates and register title, and the estate may be divided without you (Art. 1151); if the certificate has already been issued to someone else, the dispute goes to court as a claim (clause 18 of Plenum Resolution No. 05). So it is best to apply in the first months.

How to accept an inheritance from the US

The steps follow the regulation on issuing certificates of inheritance (Annex 5 to Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 726 of 18 November 2020, text in Uzbek) and the Law on Notaries.

• Notary: at the place where the estate opened (Art. 1146 Civil Code), that is, the deceased's last registered residence (clause 19 of the Regulation).
• Estate file. If no file is open, the notary takes an application to open one, naming the circle of heirs (clause 23). A foreigner is identified by national passport (clause 14), and the certificate states the foreign heir's citizenship, address and taxpayer number (clause 20).
• Application to accept. In person or by mail: a mailed application is accepted even with an uncertified signature, but the heir is told to have the signature certified by a notary, an Uzbek consul or an official named in Art. 26 of the Law on Notaries, or to appear in person (clause 23). The law allows certification by video conference (Art. 34); whether it applies is up to the notary.
• Documents. As a rule: the heirs' birth certificates (marriage certificates where a surname changed), the deceased's birth and marriage certificates, the death certificate, proof of residence and a cadastral certificate (clause 29). Foreign civil-status documents are valid with an apostille (Art. 1173 Civil Code; Art. 91 Law on Notaries).
• Apostille. The Apostille Convention has been in force for the United States since 15 October 1981 and for Uzbekistan since 15 April 2012 (Hague Conference); the US authority depends on the state and the document (list).
• Power of attorney. The notary checks the representative's authority (clause 17); the form and term of a power of attorney follow the law of the country where it was issued (Art. 1182 Civil Code); renunciation is possible only if the power of attorney expressly allows it (Art. 1147). See power of attorney for an inheritance case and power of attorney from the US.
• Certificate. If there is a prohibition, an attachment or a record of creditors' rights, issue is suspended until it is lifted; with a pledge (mortgage), the certificate may be issued with the pledgee's consent (clause 34).
• Registration. Acceptance of an inheritance is a real-estate transaction subject to state registration (Art. 111 Civil Code); plan registration of your title before a sale.

Names in US and Uzbek documents are often written differently (patronymic, transliteration, maiden name): find this out before the apostille.

Can a foreigner keep an inherited apartment

What we found in the acts.

• The Housing Code applies to foreigners unless a law or an international treaty provides otherwise (Art. 2), and lists inheritance as a ground for acquiring housing with no exception for foreigners (Art. 22). But the same article lists purchase without exceptions too, and Decree No. UP-101 restricts purchases by foreigners, so Art. 22 alone is not a permission.
• The Civil Code gives foreigners legal capacity equal to citizens except where laws or international treaties provide otherwise (Art. 1169). The notaries' regulation expressly provides for a certificate in the name of a foreign heir (clause 20) but says nothing about what happens to the apartment afterwards.
• Presidential Decree No. UP-101 of 8 April 2022 (clause 3) and clause 32¹ of the notaries' regulation concern the purchase of new property by foreigners; they say nothing about inheritance.

What the acts do not contain. We found no rule that bars a foreigner from keeping an inherited apartment, no express permission, and no duty to sell it by any date. This is the silence of the law, not a guarantee: the notary and the cadastral body decide, and we ask for their position on a US passport in writing before filing. The residence permit under Decree No. UP-5611 is tied to a purchase; the decree says nothing about an inherited apartment.

Apartment and house with land.

So for a house we first check in the register on what right the plot is held, and treat the six-month period in Art. 33 of Law No. ZRU-728 as a risk until the notary and the cadastre confirm otherwise. See also inheritance of a land plot and re-registering title.

Taxes in Uzbekistan

Receiving the inheritance. Art. 378(11) of the Tax Code lists income received from individuals by inheritance as non-taxable; the exception for real estate covers persons who are not close relatives, and children and parents are close relatives (Art. 60). But Art. 378 sits in Chapter 54 "Tax benefits", and a non-resident's tax base is calculated without tax benefits (Art. 366(2)). Read literally, this covers both clause 11 and clause 7 (sale of housing after 36 months). We found no official clarification, so we state neither taxability nor exemption and check the point before the transaction.

Owning. Property tax on apartments up to 200 sq. m is 0.36% of cadastral value (Arts. 420 and 422 of the Tax Code); for inherited property it is paid from the month in which the heir's ownership arose (Art. 423).

Selling. Income from a sale is the excess of the sale price over the documented acquisition cost; without documents, for real estate the income is the positive difference between the sale price and the cadastral value (Art. 375(4)). The rate for such non-resident income is 12% (Art. 382, item 3). The Code does not say what counts as the "acquisition cost" of an inherited apartment; we ask the tax authority to clarify before the sale. For the calculation see non-resident taxes on Uzbek real estate for US citizens.

Selling and moving the money to the US

Sale. A contract for the sale of an apartment or house is notarised and registered by the state (Art. 488 Civil Code), and the transfer of title is registered too (Art. 481).

Money in Uzbekistan. Non-residents may open bank accounts in Uzbekistan in foreign currency and in soums (Art. 13 of Law No. ZRU-573). Whether an account can be opened remotely depends on the bank: we find out its requirements in advance.

Transfer to the US. The sale of real estate is a capital operation (Art. 16 of Law No. ZRU-573), and banks carry out currency operations on the documents they require (Art. 20). The law does not name a general right of a non-resident to send sale proceeds abroad. The guarantee in Art. 17 of Law No. ZRU-598 is given to investors, that is, people who invest funds to earn a profit; an heir may not fall under that definition. So the transfer is not guaranteed: the bank will likely ask for the certificate of inheritance, the sale contract and proof of tax paid, and we learn its position in advance.

The US side. We do not advise on US tax: your US tax adviser handles the American part; we prepare the documents for that adviser. According to the IRS, a U.S. person who receives a bequest from a nonresident alien or a foreign estate reports it in Part IV of Form 3520 if the total for the tax year exceeds $100,000 (IRS). If a U.S. person's foreign financial accounts together exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, an FBAR is filed (IRS).

If you may still be a citizen of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan does not recognise foreign citizenship of its citizens (Art. 12 of Law No. ZRU-610); voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship is a ground for losing Uzbek citizenship (Art. 25(e)), but until the President decides, the duties of a citizen remain (Art. 12, part two), so Uzbekistan most likely still treats you as a citizen. See a former Uzbek citizen with a US passport; we establish your status before you see the notary.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the right is lost after six months, or filing nothing for years while the other heirs divide the estate.
• Sending documents without an apostille or with different spellings of a name.
• Overlooking the plot under a house and the period in Art. 33 of Law No. ZRU-728.

How Pactum helps

• We check the right to inherit and the property: the circle of heirs, apartment or house with land, attachments and pledges; we ask for the notary's position in writing.
• We prepare the list for the apostille in the US, the text of the power of attorney with a review before signing, and the application to the notary.
• We accompany the acceptance, the certificate, registration of title and, if needed, the sale through a representative.
• We calculate non-resident tax, prepare the file for the bank for a transfer to the US, and documents for your US tax adviser.

Pactum is a legal platform, not a real-estate agency: we have no properties for sale, and we work on the side of the heir and owner. The contract with a foreign client is bilingual, in Russian and English; the invoice is issued in US dollars and paid by SWIFT transfer; the contracting party is PACTUM-AI CA LLC (ООО «PACTUM-AI CA»). The price is given after we review your task. You can start with a lawyer consultation: 60 minutes, 300,000 soums, credited towards the cost of the service. The decision is made by the notary, the bank, the cadastral or the migration authority, and we do not promise a result. On purchases: buying property in Uzbekistan as a US citizen.

Phone +998 78 113 81 01, Telegram, info@pactum.uz, office: 21 Afrosiyob Street, Tashkent.

Frequently asked questions

Can a US citizen inherit an apartment in Uzbekistan?

Yes. Foreigners have civil legal capacity equal to citizens except where laws or international treaties provide otherwise (Art. 1169 Civil Code), and notarial acts for such property follow Uzbek legislation (Art. 89 Law on Notaries).

What is the deadline for accepting an inheritance?

There is no separate deadline in the Civil Code: the right arises on the date of death (Art. 1145), the certificate is issued no earlier than six months (earlier if there are no other heirs, Art. 1146), and the law sets no deadline for applying for it (clause 18 of Supreme Court Plenum Resolution No. 05). Still, don't wait: the estate can be divided without you (Art. 1151).

Can a foreigner keep an inherited apartment?

We found no prohibition and no express permission: Decree No. UP-101 and clause 32¹ of the Regulation concern purchases. The notary and the cadastral body decide; we establish their position before filing.

What if I inherit a house with land?

If the plot is owned, there is a direct rule: ownership acquired by a foreigner must be disposed of within six months, otherwise the plot passes to the state (Art. 33 Law No. ZRU-728). For a plot held in lifelong inheritable possession there is no direct rule, so we check case by case.

Is inheritance taxed in Uzbekistan?

There is no clear answer: for close relatives an inheritance is exempt (Art. 378(11) of the Tax Code), but a non-resident's base is calculated without tax benefits (Art. 366). We check before the transaction.

Can I transfer the sale proceeds to the US?

There is no guarantee: the bank decides on the documents. The transfer guarantee (Art. 17 Law No. ZRU-598) is given to investors, and a sale of real estate is a capital operation (Art. 16 Law No. ZRU-573).

Sources

• Civil Code of Uzbekistan, Part Two (Sections V and VI), in Russian
• Civil Code of Uzbekistan, Part Two, official text in Uzbek
• Supreme Court Plenum Resolution No. 05 of 20.07.2011 on the application of inheritance law, in Russian
• Civil Code of Uzbekistan, Part One (Art. 111), in Russian
• Law on Notaries No. 343-I, in Russian
• Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 726 of 18.11.2020, notaries' regulation (text in Uzbek)
• Housing Code, in Russian
• Land Code, in Russian
• Law No. ZRU-728 on privatisation of non-agricultural land plots, in Russian
• Tax Code, in Russian
• Law No. ZRU-573 on currency regulation, in Russian
• Law No. ZRU-598 on investments, in Russian
• Law No. ZRU-610 on citizenship, in Russian
• Presidential Decree No. UP-101 of 08.04.2022, in Russian
• Presidential Decree No. UP-5611 of 05.01.2019, in Russian
• Hague Conference: Apostille Convention status table
• Hague Conference: US apostille authorities
• IRS: Gifts from foreign person
• IRS: FBAR

Uzbek acts are cited from lex.uz; the information is current as of November 2026 and is not individual legal or tax advice.