Embassy report: Iran visa in Ankara

[steven]

Please read and post reports on the embassy of Iran in Ankara below.

We summarize all info in the embassy reports on the Iran visa page.

You can get a letter of invitation/visa authorisation code here.

[laura]

After much confusion about whether or not a guide was needed Touranzamin supplied our authorization code for 50 euro. Don't believe the agencies that will tell you you need a guide (unless you're from the US).

Once we had this we applied for our visa in Ankara with one passport photo, one copy of passport, and a completed application form. We paid 80 euro at the bank around the corner and collected our visas the next morning. Much easier than we'd anticipated!

[walthi]

if you have the reference number (MFA code) it's a piece of cake to get the Iran visa in Ankara.
1) Opening hours of the embassy: Monday - Thursday 8.30 am - 12.00 Friday 8.30 am - 11 and 3.30 pm - 5.00
2) MFA code, copy of your passport, 1 passport photo needed
3) Fill out the application form in the embassy, they will tell you how much you have to pay. Go to the bank (5 minutes walk) and lodge the correct amount of €.
4) Bring the receipt to the embassy (now they will keep your passport)
5) Pick up the visa the next working day

[roro]

Thanks a lot for this info!
HAve you the the adress of this embassy/consulate ?

[walthi]

here the coordinates:
39.901464, 32.863293

[jordi_casas]

Update for iranian visa application in Ankara APRIL 2016

Process started 31th March 2016 by filling caravanistan form to ask for my LOI for iranian visa. The tour operator contacted me after 2 days on the 2nd of April 2016. They tell me that after filling a form in their web page and once I had payed them 30€ they would start the process to request my LOI or Reference Number (RN). They had problems with their payment system so we agreed that I would pay them once I arrived in Iran. This chatting took two more days but after 'close the deal', they told me the request for my LOI started this same day, 4th of April, and told to expect the LOI 10 working days after. The tour operator usually replyied to my mails fast but sometimes not as clearly as a dump as me could understand perfectly, so I always had more questions to ask.

After that I just went traveling enjoying the mountains in the country and some days later arrived to Ankara. I recieved the LOI on April 18th, that's 14 natural days. The 10 working days really confused me because I didn't know if they were taking in account the iranian weekdays (sunday to thursday) or the weekdays I am used to (monday to friday). It came out to be this last one.

This was monday. I read in many places that it was a good practice to call to the embassy to ask if they had your RN in their system and that it was also good to wait some days to do that. I just waited until next day, 19th of April and didn't call. The embassy wasn't too crowded at 10 o'clock. I took my turn and waited for 10 minutes. I was given a form to fill and a little card with the bank data to pay my application, 50€, IŞ bank. I was also asked for a copy of my passport and a picture of me for the form. The guy behind the glass was very kind and spoke english correctly.

I went out the embassy and asked a guy where was the nearest office of the bank. Just 5 minutes down the main street. While I was waiting my turn to pay in the bank I started filling the form. They ask for an address in Iran and the countries you are going to enter/exit the country. For the address I just googled 'Iran hotel tehran' when I found wifi in a nearby cafe and after paying the 50€ (in euros, but also could pay in turkish liras) and get my receipt. I just wrote the first address I saw.

I went to a little shop also near to make a copy of my passport and asked for some tape to glue my picture on the form. The copy was a very bad one and it wasn't in a standard size, just cropped to the size of the passport. It didn't matter.

With all this done I went back to the embassy. More or less 45 minutes. Waited my turn again and after giving all the documents and my passport to the guy behind the glass they made me enter into the embassy to take my finger prints. 5 minutes. At this moment the guy told me I could come back to pickup my passport with the visa in one week, that was today, April 26th. I asked if I could pick it up before but I was told that there was a holy day in Iran and that it was impossible to get it done before... I did not push him anymore.

After enjoying some climbing festivals and hichhicking to Izmir I went today to the embassy again and after waiting 5 minutes I was given my passport back with the iranian visa sticked in it!!

Hope it helps somebody.

[Zevla]

Hi guys, my friend and I (Czech passports) have just received our visas in Ankara with LOI (50 Euros per person, 3 days turnaround, we have 30 days in the country and 3 months to enter). This is how it went:
We applied for the LOI through Caravanistan and its recommended Key2Persia agency (it was a 3-step process: 1) we applied through Caravanistan and waited for the agency to contact us – they did so the next day, 2) we filled in a form at their website (a passport scan and a photo of a specific size required - hijab not necessary -, itinerary may help), 3) we received the info for payment and paid the fee). The agency worker was very helpful throughout the whole proces and able to communicate on the Iranian week-end. We received the LOI within the advertised timeframe (they started processing our request on January 10, we got the number on January 19). We were told to contact the embassy in 3 days.
The embassy's website was down and it was impossible to find anywhere what the working days were. Eventually, the agency helped again. (So if you are interested, it operates on the Turkish weekdays, not the Iranian ones. The opening hours were Monday through Thursday 8:30 AM-12 and on Friday 8:30 - 11 AM and 3 – 5 PM.)
We needed 1 photo (with hijab, the size you can easily google for Iran), a passport copy (black and wite could do). We had to pay 50 euros each at a bank whose address the embassy gave us and to fill in a form that was mostly identical with the one we had already provided for the LOI, but there were some new questions. The trickiest ones were the relation to the fellow travellers (we said „friend“ even though we were a girl and a guy and it was fine), the amount of cash we wanted to bring to the country, and the countries visited in the past (I had a brand new passport so I entered some random EU Shengen countries since my country also is a Shengen member, I suppose they just want you not to put Israel in there).
The embassy kept our passports and we were asked to come in 3 days (we came later since we were traveling in the meantime, and it was fine). Eventually they took our fingerprints (and gave me tea and cookies while I was waiting, yay). The embassy was usually crowded (especially on Monday) but it went fast. The clerks spoke english. Visitors wore headscarves in there, but mostly very symbolical ones.

[arestlesstraveler]

Hi,

I applied for the E grant through Key2persia 2 weeks ago with my Portuguese passport. I got the egrant number within 3 days

Then this Monday I went to the Iranian embassy in Ankara with : the Egrant printed out; 2 coloured photocopies of my passport; a photo (not wearing a scarve) ; and my passport.

There they gave me a simple form to fill in, told me to go to the bank to pay 50E and return with the receipt. There's a bank really close by so that was easy.

After returning with the bank receipt, they gave me a handwritten receipt and kept all the documents and passport and told me to return to collect the visa on the Friday. I dutifully went Friday morning to collect it and they handed me the passport with the visa printed on an A4 piece of paper. valid for 30 days within the the next 90 day period.

According to the visa it was approved and stamped/signed on the Tuesday!!! so I'm not sure why they told me to only return on Friday. But either way it was easy and successfull!

[Tepezcu]

- Day 1 (wednesday) I send application through travel agency "1stQuest". Thursday and friday is the ministery in Iran close, so 1stQuest contact me first to send them my itinerary.

- Day 5 (sunday) 1stQuest send the application to the iranian ministery.

- Day 7 (tuesday) I received from 1stQuest the approved authentification code.

- Day 8 (wednesday)

* 8:20: arrived to the embassy in Ankara and they let people wait inside a room until the office opened (8:30).

* 8:40: the officer called me, asked for my passport and LOI, and asked me about the reason of my trip (turism) and how I will travel to/in Iran (public transport/land border). Everything in english and friendly way. He asked also for me covid vaccination state (I gave him my certificate and wait inside the room). After checking everhthing, he asked me if I prefer the standard procedure (1 week waiting time / 50€) or express (immediatly / 75€). I paid directly there 75€ in TL with credit card and wait in the room.

* 9:05: he called me again, gave me the e-visa in a single sheet of paper and told me I must just show it at the border together with the covid certificate (no PCR required).

[Hugues]

Great, how many days is the visa for after entry, and how much time they give you to enter Iran ?