Iran Visa

How to Get an Iran Visa?

Iran visa is permission to enter Iran and the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) ordains Iran visa policy. All nationals except the ones who are exempt from obtaining Iran E-visa need to get an official authority from MFA. Nowadays travel permit to Iran becomes electronic, which is called Iran E-visa. Accordingly, there are two ways for obtaining Iran E-visa; the first and the best one is applying through an official visa or travel agency of Iran. These agencies are experts in getting travel permits to Iran. They have connections to get your visas faster and easier.

The second way is to get an Iran E- visa from Iran ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) website. Sometimes after applying through this website, you are asked to restart the process through an official travel agency. It is important to know that Canadians, Americans and the English must apply their visa code only through an official travel agency that arranges all the services of their Iran tour package.

How to Get Iran Tourist Visa Step by Step

Fill in the Iran visa application form

Pay the visa code assistance service fee

Receive your visa tracking code within 2-7 working days

Get your visa stamp at the designated Iran embassy or Iran international airport

Who Needs a Visa for Iran?

Iran Visa-Free Countries

This is the first and the most important question to ask before planning for the Iran tour.

The citizens of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Bolivia, Georgia, Malaysia, Venezuela, Armenia, Egypt, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Iraq (Updated October 2021) can travel to Iran without getting a visa. All other nationalities have to obtain a visa before their Iran tour.

On the other hand, All foreign tourists can travel to Iran’s visa-free zones, Kish and Qeshm islands. You can visit the mentioned islands without getting a visa and enjoy a segment of Iran’s natural and historical landscapes. Moreover, you can stay on these islands for up to 14 days without a visa.

Finally, it is important to know that the citizens of Israel cannot travel to Iran due to political issues.

Iran Tourist Visa Requirements

The below documents are the same for all nationalities.

1- A scan of your a passport that has at least six months validity and 2 blank pages

2- New taken personal photo with the all-white background that shows full-frontal your face without smile, glasses, and hat (ladies do not need to wear head covers.)

3- Visa application form through an official travel agency

Canadians, Americans, and English, in addition to the mentioned above documents, are required to have the below documents:

1- Fixed tour plan escorted by a licensed full-time guide that should be arranged by an official Iranian travel agency

2- Your resume containing contact, education (since high school), jobs and all kinds of work experiences information

Iran Invitation Letter (Visa Authorization Number, Visa Tracking Code)

Once filling out the Iran E-visa application form, you should determine the place where you intend to collect your visa. It could be one of the Iran embassies located in your country or any other country or one of the Iran airports. Please note that some nationals cannot collect their visa stamps at the airport.

After sending the documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) or an official travel agency, your visa tracking code or authorization number would be issued in 2-7 working days. Iran’s authorization number is valid for 30 days.

Please mention that sometimes, due to the Iran holidays such as Nowruz, this duration may become a little longer. However, there is an exception for the UK, US, and Canadian passport holders which their visa code is issued in 30-45 working days. To get more information about getting visa for these citizens please take a look at Iran Visa for Americans, English, and Canadians.

Regulations of Traveling to Iran during COVID

Iran has reinstated the issuance of the Iran tourist visa on October 23, 2021.
The general instructions of the new rules of traveling to Iran during COVID-19 are as per below:

1- All passengers over 12 years old can travel to Iran by presenting a COVID vaccination certificate (at least two doses) in English, that the last dose belongs to at least 14 days ago, and the travel insurance that covers COVID. (Updated March 2022)

2- In addition to the corona vaccine card, foreign tourists must book accommodation before applying for an Iran tourist visa. Also, before entering Iran, they must receive travel insurance, including Corona insurance.

3- If there is a change in the corona outbreaks trend in neighboring countries that require the reinforcement of restrictions, these restrictions will apply.

4- The entry of tourists from high-risk countries, which the World Health Organization has announced, is prohibited.

5- Monitoring of tourist facilities, including hotels, restaurants, transportation companies, etc., is also on the agenda of the relevant institutions.

6- All employees and service providers of Iran tourist facilities and tour guides must receive the corona vaccination card.

Iran Visa Stamp

It is important to know that the visa code is not your visa. In a few days after receiving the visa code, you should refer to the Iran embassy that you have determined in your visa application form. Paying visa stamp fee, you will get Iran tourist visa stamp on your passport or a separate piece of paper regarding your nationality.

Please note that the visa code would be expired after 30 days. If you would not stamp your visa within this time limit, you have to start over the visa process. The visa stamping process duration at the embassies varies from one day to 14 days or more in different countries. So, be careful to have got plenty of time for stamping your visa before your travel. In the case that you want to collect your visa on arrival, you will pass the stamping process at one of the Iran airports upon your arrival.

Iran visa stamp is valid for 90 days. You can enter Iran once in this interval and stay up to 30 days. If you intend to stay more than 30 days you can extend your visa by referring to Iran police offices. You can find these police offices (NAJA) in some of the major cities. You should refer to NAJA about 3 days before ending this 30-day.

Iran On-Arrival Visa (VOA)

Can I Get Visa on Arrival in Iran?

Most of the travelers to Iran can get their Iran visa on arrival. If it is hard for you to refer to an Iran embassy, you can stamp your visa upon your arrival. However, the citizens of the below countries cannot get VOA stamp:

America, England, Canada, Somalia, Colombia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, and Iraq.

The mentioned above nationals have to get their visas at one of the Iran embassies.

If you have permission to get a VOA stamp, you need to determine the international airport from which you enter Iran in your visa application form. It is too risky to enter Iran without a visa code because you might be deported at the airport.

Getting Iran Visa on Arrival Process

When you arrive at Iran airport, you should hand over the below documents to the Visa-On-Arrival counter:

1- The printout of visa grant notice containing visa tracking code

2- Passport (with at least 6 months validity and 2 blank pages)

3- Visa stamp fee in euros

4- Travel insurance

5- Return ticket and a brief itinerary based on request

You should determine your accommodation contact information in Iran, pay the visa stamp fee, and get your visa stamped. The process is not hard but you have to wait in the line for a while. Consequently, with the on-arrival Iran visa stamp, you can stay in this country for 30 days and this time could not be extended.

To get more information about Iran VOA, you can take a look at Iran visa on arrival guide.

Getting Iran E-Visa in Advance Benefits

On the internet, Some former visitors to Iran shared their experience about entering Iran without the visa code and just collect their visa stamp at the airport. We advise not to do that. Here are 3 reasons that explain why you should get your Iran E-visa code before your Iran trip.

First: You can experience a stress-free journey to Iran

Without a visa code, the risk of becoming rejected at the airports are higher.

Second: you can get your entering stamp faster

You may have to stay in visa lines and were asked many questions about your Iran visit at the airport.

Third: stamping visa at Iran embassies and consulates are cheaper than VOA

You can Save up to 30% to 50% on your visa stamp fees when you collect it in advance.

Iran Transit Visa

Iran transit visa is issued to the passengers who intend to travel by land and cross the border into Iran. These passengers can cross the Iranian borders by land in a maximum of seven days.

Requirements for Iran Transit Visa

1- Filling the transit visa application form

2- Valid visa of the country from where the passenger intends to travel to Iran

3- Personal photo (with white background, without retouching, without glasses and hat)

4- Paying for Iran transit visa fee

5- Passport with a minimum validity of 6 months and at least two blank pages

Iran Multiple-Entry Visa

One of the visas issued by Iran is the multi-visa. With this type of visa, you can travel to Iran several times, with one visa that is valid between 90 days to one year. However, an Iran multiple-entry visa is only available to people traveling to Iran for business. In other words, there is no Iran multiple-entry tourist visa. The Iran multiple-entry visa is issued according to the applicant’s number of trips and travel destinations in the past years and has different validities. The validity of an Iran multi-entry visa varies between 3 months, six months to one year, depending on the traveler’s nationality and the number of trips he made.

The minimum number of trips to Iran required to obtain an Iran multiple-entry visa is as per below:

Requirements for Applying a Multiple Entry Visa to Iran

1- Invitation letter (invitation letter must contain the seal and signature of the CEO of the host company, and the host must submit the request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran.)

2- Host profile form (including complete company and company manager information)

3- Establishment announcement and the announcement of the latest changes in the company

4- Guest Profile Form

5- Scan of the first page of the passport

6- Scan of the personal photo (with all-white background, without retouching, without glasses and hat)

7- Photos of Iran visas in the past year

Essential Points about Iran Multiple-Entry Visa

1- People who intend to obtain an Iran multi- visa should pay attention to the following points:

2- The traveler can not extend his/her Iran Multiple-entry visa.

3- Citizens of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States are not eligible for obtaining an Iran Multiple-Entry visa.

4- Each time a passenger enters Iran, he/she can stay in Iran for the pre-determined duration. At the end of this specified period, he/she must depart Iran.