Iran coronavirus travel restrictions Q&A

[Valentin.vak]

Just passed the border with iran. Esendere / Serow. No probs but a big wait for carnet to be stamped. The guy was absent.

The wait was for the verdict. And i had to go back to the hospital to get the papers.

[uncle_sam01]

Agency managed to get the visa the second time around luckily. Picked it up today in Yerevan - got it right after paying the fee at Bank Mellat, so same day service for the usual fee, ie. 50 Euros. Didn't want to see anything except my passport. Crossing the border on Sunday, so I'll report back.

[Eltjo1966]

Arranged our visa in Erzurum. Only passport and 50 euro paid at a nearby bank. Before they returned our passport the second time we recieved our visa by email. In total a 2 hour job. So there is no necessity anymore to apply for fast visa. The people at tye cobsulate in Erzurum, in contrast to earlier remarks, are very nice and helpfull. Btw, we heard that it is not posible anymore to recieve/pay at the cunsulate in Trabzon.

[Eltjo1966]

Bordercrossing @ esendere was quite smooth. Turkish exit side was even more easier then kapikule or ipsala. Only thing different was the seperation of drivers and passengers. On the Iranian side they collect our english pcr test and looked into our yellow vacination passport for the vacination. Pfizer and Jansen where ok. Most of the time was spend on the CdP part of the formalities. So no props.

[njorka]

Is it possible to get visa without vaccination?

[Eltjo1966]

Is it possible to get visa without vaccination?

Yes you can get a visa but at the border you must show a valid and negative PCRtest and a proof of your vacination in combination with your visa.
But then: who want to travel without a vacination.

FYI:
There are some rumours that a planned and booked itenarery is necessary again sinds last monday when trying to apply for a GN.
Some allready aproved GN's got invalid.

[elliotmitchell01]

Hey all!

My wife and I are travelling East from the UK via land and sea, currently in Turkey, and thinking about going to Iran > Pakistan > India.

Having read some info it looks like the Turkey/Iran border is open, all you need is vaccine and a tour guide to help with the visa.

Can somebody please confirm if this is the case?

Thanks!
Elliot

[travelerthomas]

FWIW, I tried flying into Bandar Abbas with the Grant Notice, but was deported because they don't allow visa-pickuo for my citizenship(Norway/Schengen). They further specified I needed a Return ticket.

Online information leads one to believe it's possible to pick up the visa in Bandar Abbas, but that was not the case for me. In spite of heavy protests and lamentations, the message from the top brass was clear: There is no way to pick up the visa in Bandar Abbas with my Schengen passport. When I got in touch with 1stQuest afterwards, they also said it was very weird.

Your mileage may vary, but definitely something to keep in mind if you get some idea to start your journey in Iran from the South.

[elliotmitchell01]

Sorry to hear about your experience. It sounds relatively easy to get a visa using a travel agency before travelling, which is what we will try do!

[travelerthomas]

I get the impression it's fairly straight-forward to get a Grant Notice via the travel agencies. Then once you're granted the Notice you need to pick up the actual visa, either at one of the Iranian Embassies, or on arrival at the airports. Except, at the airport in Bandar Abbas, they were unwilling/unable to let me pick up the visa, in spite of the official document(Grant Notice) which said I could. So I'm not sure what's going on. Only to say for future readers stumbling upon this post; be careful with selecting Bandar Abbas as your arrival point. They flat out refused and deported me with no questions asked.

Enjoy Iran though!