Kermanshah: Iran visa extension

[steven]

Please read and post reports on the visa extension process in Kermanshah below.

We summarize all info in the Iran visa extension page.

[loop_1]

I extended my 30-day extension in May 2016, one day before it expired (Hungarian passport, 30-day single entry tourist visa). You can do this in every provincial capital of Iran. I happened to be in Kermanshah. The place to look for is the Police Main Department: a search in Google Maps will locate it. In Kermanshah, it’s on Bent-ol-Hoda: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Polic ... 78,17.76z/

1. Go to the Police Main Department as early as you can: they open at 8 AM. Make sure you have photocopies of your passport, your Iranian visa, and your existing visa extension, if you have one. Have a couple of passport photos on hand. The department takes up a whole city block, the entrance for visa extensions is in the southeastern corner at 34°19'32.8"N 47°04'48.8”E. Don’t worry if you pick the wrong entrance: staff will guide you to the right one.

2. You will have to check you mobile phone at the entrance with the guard. You get a chit to reclaim it when you’re done.

3. They’ll direct you to the second floor, which is correct, and to office #2, which isn’t, and people don’t speak any English, but don’t worry: tourists don’t really go to Kermanshah and you will most likely be the only Westerner in the building. Be friendly and patient and you will be guided to the right officer in a few minutes.

4. Someone will eventually be found who speaks some English, in my case it was an Iraqi engineering student waiting for his own visa extension.

5. I asked for 15 days on top of my 30-day extension, and told them I’d like to see the sights of Western Iran. They said no problem, and, curiously, they also said that if I need further extensions, I should just go to the provincial capitals en route (Sanandaj, Tabriz, etc.), and ask for extra 15 days in each. I didn’t have time to check but perhaps this is a sign that you can extend your single entry 30-day visa more than twice?

6. From then on, it’s the standard procedure: go to the nearest Bank Melli with the slip they give you and pay the 34,500 tomans ($10 at the time of this writing). Just give the slip to a bank officer, they’ll know what to do, then return to the police building with the receipt.

7. For some reason they then asked me to fill out the English-Persian bilingual extension form in Persian, which I couldn’t do, but another Iraqi guy came to my help and filled it out for me. He got the fields completely mixed up but of course nobody cared. I was staying at a friend’s house but looked up a hotel’s name and address and gave them that.

8. They asked for 3 passport photos and they didn’t ask for the standard administrative fee of 500 tomans.

9. I got my extension in little more than an hour. The two Iraqis then took me to a copy shop to make a copy of the extension and take it back to the police, which might be some Kermanshah-specific procedure.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer.

[zaaac]

I tried to extend my visa in Kermanshah in July 2017. The location mentioned above hasn't changed at all, however I was unable to extend my visa because it turned out you can only extend visas on arrival in Tehran. Anyway thought I'd share some info which might help someone, even though I had the wrong type of visa.

Firstly the staff speak no English and are a little bit impatient, even first thing in the morning. However there are usually a few English-speaking Iraqis around who are happy to interpret for you. I visited twice, at different times of day, and this was the case both times.

The guy at the visa extension desk also said that he only extends visas on their last day of validity. I'm not sure if this was because I had the wrong type of visa and he just wanted to get rid of me, or if this is their official policy, or if he's just a bit stingy, but it might be worth planning to extend elsewhere if you don't want to ruin your itinerary like I did haha. The guy also suggested I try extending in Urmia or Tabriz instead.

The guards in the foyer are very friendly and helpful too!

[radellos]

We extended our visa in May 2018 but it was a total desaster an took five hours,.
We were there one day before our visa expired. At the beginning they did not want to do it. Then they wanted a confirmation from the hotel we are staying. the one we brought was not good enough. so we walked to the hotel again, we did that three times. then they only want to give us 15 days, but in the end we got 30. they want 3 pictures, 2 copies of passport and visa, an orange envelope to put everything. we had to pay 345000 rial each at melli bank on azadi square.
without a really nice guy from the military guards, who spoke good english and helped us a lot, we would have failed.

So we suggest to go elsewere if you have the chance.

[nomadistan]

I extended my visa in Kermanshah in October 2019. Saturday morning, arrived just after 8am. Location same as listed above. Still leaving phones, chargers, cigarettes and lighters at the door.

Total process time was probably 80 minutes. We had a translation chain of Farsi-Arabic-English with two Iraqi guys helping me. I was on the second last day of my 30 day visa and asked for two weeks. I had photocopies of passport (took two) and passport photos (took all four because they were together). The fee was 30 toman (2,4€), paid by card by another man in the line. Photocopying occurs across the road for 5000 rial a page. They also requested I bring back a Manila folder for them because I guess they don’t want to pay for that.

Officials were as friendly as they could be without a common language. I didn’t have a card for the hostel I wasn’t staying at and had only written the address down in English (my mistake). Initially they really wanted to know where I was staying and didn’t believe the hostel I stated existed. In the end they didn’t care and probably wrote as much on the form. I didn’t have to write anything except signatures on a couple of documents and have my phone number ready. I also stated my occupation as student (no problem).

I haven’t seen many reports from of people who arrive without visas and renew. I am an Australian with VOA and given there is no stamp in my passport the only thing I am able to show is my receipt for payment made at IKA. This was a bit confusing for the guys in the other offices, but no problem. They gave me a new paper visa stamped and read by half the people in the building.

By 9:30 the offices were busy but not to the level of queuing outside that I saw in Shiraz at 8am. Overall I can reccomend Kermanshah for renewal, given my lack of paperwork everything went very smoothly.

[biristefan]

Me and my girlfriend extended today 18.12.2021.
Initially we already tried to extend on the 15.12, but as the visa was still valid till 19.12 they first said we should do it in Teheran. After we explained that we are cycling and prefer to do it here he said we should come back on 18 or 19.12.
We got there very early 8:15, shortly after they opened and 2 people were already waiting. This was actually not too bad as we needed help in translation, as actually nobody there speaks proper English. They made us wait and first wanted us to go directly to the chief to ask if we can apply today. After that we could start with the paperwork. Take with you 2 copies of the passport, 2 copies of the existing visa and 3 recent passport pictures. We let the pictures take here in the city, which was quite cheap. My girlfriend had to wear a hijab on the picture, which they had there at the shop to borrow free of charge.
We had to make copies of a specific form (which we got in the office and the copy shop is just opposite of the office) and fill it 3 times the same page. We also needed to get a folder to put everything inside. With the help of our translator (an Iraqi guy who was there just helped us with everything) we filled in the form in Farsi and also paid the fee with his card. He actually didn't let us give him the money, but the cost was 50 Toman (1,6€/person).
As they had asked another tourist we got to know why she hadn't done 60 days extension at once, we asked if we could get 60 days. Asking for it he said he normally just gives 15 days, but as he has good contacts and is willing to help us, he will exceptionally give us 30 days. In our opinion he just wanted to show that he is the one with the power and we should just be grateful for his mercy .
Luckily they didn't ask for a hotel confirmation as we stayed at a CS Host. (Which is also possible, but it could be that they ask stuff from the host; this happened to the other tourist)
The whole process took a bit more than 2 hours.