Before you start

Passport and, in practice, a residence permit for a full-service account
Registration at place of stay
Local mobile number for OTP
Taxpayer identification number (TIN) where the account is tied to employment or business

Step-by-step

1
Sort the registration and the residence permit first
Azerbaijani banks want to see that your presence is regular. That means your registration at place of stay is done and, for anything beyond a basic account, that you hold a residence permit. Attempting a full account on a tourist e-visa is possible at some banks but is decided case by case and often declined. The order that works is: register, get the permit, then bank.
In personWho: All applicantsFollows the permit timelineFree
2
Get a local SIM for the OTP
Banking apps authenticate by SMS to a +994 number. Buy a SIM from Azercell, Bakcell or Nar with your passport before the bank appointment. See the SIM guide — registration is mandatory and takes minutes.
In personWho: All applicants15 minutesFrom a few manat
3
Open the account in branch with the full document set
Kapital Bank has the widest branch network and is the default for salaried employees; PASHA Bank and the International Bank of Azerbaijan are the other mainstream choices. Bring your passport, residence permit, registration confirmation, local number and employment or business documents. Expect questions about source of funds. Applications are more paper-heavy than in Georgia or Armenia and less likely to be completed in a single visit.
In personWho: All applicantsOne to several visitsFree to open; card and maintenance fees vary
4
Add the m10 wallet for daily payments and transport
m10 is the dominant local payment wallet and handles transfers, bill payments and BakıKart top-ups. Link it to your account once open. Card acceptance in central Baku is good — better than in most of the region — but the wallet covers the utility bills and transport top-ups that cards do not.
Mobile appWho: AllImmediate once the account is liveFree

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Residence permit (for a full-service account)
Registration at place of stay confirmation
Local mobile number
Employment contract or business documents, and source-of-funds evidence

Things most newcomers don’t know

Azerbaijani banking is gated on immigration status in a way its neighbours' is not — the residence permit usually comes first.

In Georgia and Armenia you can bank on a tourist stamp with a good source-of-funds story. In Azerbaijan the mainstream banks want a residence permit for a full-service account, and because the permit itself requires an employer, the whole financial life of a foreign resident here is downstream of the job. Plan the sequence accordingly: employer, permit, registration, bank.

The manat is pegged to the dollar, which removes a whole category of currency risk that shapes budgets elsewhere in the region.

Georgia's lari, Armenia's dram and Kazakhstan's tenge all float, and rents quoted in dollars against a floating local currency create a monthly conversion problem. Baku's peg has held for years, so a manat salary is effectively a dollar-linked salary. It also means your local costs do not fall when the currency slides, because it does not.

Source: Central Bank of Azerbaijan

Card acceptance in central Baku is genuinely good, but the m10 wallet is what covers the gaps.

Utilities, transport top-ups and small vendors sit on the wallet rail rather than the card rail. Newcomers who arrive with only a foreign card manage fine in restaurants and shops and then discover they cannot top up a BakıKart or pay a gas bill without a queue at a kiosk.

Source: m10

Expect more paperwork and more visits than the regional norm, and bring originals of everything.

Azerbaijani institutions run on stamped originals and apostilled translations. Photocopies and digital PDFs that would be accepted in Tbilisi are frequently refused. Carry the original residence permit, the original registration confirmation and the original employment contract to the first appointment rather than assuming you can email them afterwards.

Common mistakes to avoid

Trying to open a full account on a tourist e-visa and being declined case by case
Going to the bank before completing registration at place of stay
Arriving without a +994 number and being unable to activate the app
Bringing copies rather than originals of the permit, registration and contract
Relying on a card alone and having no wallet for utilities and transport top-ups

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.