Caravanistan

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

Getting iranian visa at the Vienna embassy.

Scheduled trip to Iran on August the 9th.
Registered at the official iranian electronic visa system in the middle of July. Waited for 10 days, site was still saying "Waiting for verification", stress was increasing.

Decided to visit the embassy personally and maybe asked them to cancel it and go for VOA. As a Slovak citizen from Bratislava, it takes one hour to get to Vienna by train. 20 euros for a train ticket, which happily includes also public transport.

So...
1st. visit at the embassy - to be sure, I brought all documents - passport, the print from e-visa system with the code, flight tickes, insurance, scanned passport and two passport sized photos. Waited for almost 2 hours. When finally went to the counter, gentleman asked only for my passport, looked in the system on the computer and asked when is my flight scheduled. I answered "august the 9th" and he told me "come next week and I will tell you."

Good job.

2nd. visit – brought all my documents again. waited for only hour and a half, got to the counter and the gentleman asked me when is my flight scheduled. I answered "august the 9th" and he asked me to pay 77 euro and to leave my passport there. then he told me "come again august the 8th, your visa will be ready. bye bye."

At least I found a very good (but not cheap) indian restaurant on the way back to the train station.

Meanwhile the status at the e-visa page had changed to something like "Ready for issuing"

3rd. visit – to be very sure, brought all my documents again. went immediately to the counter and an iranian lady gave me my passport with visa.
5 minutes visit.

The status at the e-visa page had changed to "Issued"

3 journeys to vienna plus visa = 137 euro. (excluding fantastic Dal Makhni with Parata, Basmati rice and Tchai Masala at the indian restaurant).


Yes, kind of crazy and expensive experience. But it has been already 5 days I am back home from my iranian trip and finally I can say, it was worth it. I had a wonderful experiences in the country and I recommend you all to visit also Chabahar and the Pakistani border in the Baluchistan region. It is absolutely safe with wonderful people and breathtaking nature.

Similar story to kvint3, also a Slovak citizen.

1. Applied via e-visa (on my own) on Mar. 17th. No response, so I went to the embassy on Apr. 4 and they said Tehran hasn't responded yet and that they'll notify them to speed it up.
2. After around 4 days I got a refusal by email (apply via host). So I did that same day.
3. Got the "visa grant" from an agency and went again on April 11. The embassy didn't ask for anything except the visa grant and insurance (and passport ofc ). Paid 52 euros by card *only* and was given a pick up date two weeks later. Two Slovak girls that were there as well did not have insurance, but they were allowed to submit the application anyway and show insurance upon pick up. Oddly enough, they also self-applied, but instead of waiting forever/getting refused, they got a visa grant without any issues.
4. Went there today (April 25) and got the visa. It's just a print out, which is a bit of a disappointment for me as a passport stamp fundamentalist. Asked them like 3 times whether it was OK for land crossings and they confirmed. Hopefully it will be. Valid for 90 days. The embassy seemed fairly busy, so I'd go there early (I did, they're open 8.30 till 12.00).

Having to go to Vienna three times sure is annoying, especially when it's not even a sticker anymore... Not sure if it is relevant, but for the full picture: I tried the same process last year for the Warsaw embassy and it was similar, although I got a refusal(apply via agency) fairly swiftly without having to go the embassy. Agency worked. However, as it took forever to get the visa grant via the agency that time, I had to abandon my plans (didn't work out schedule-wise at that point), so while I did get the pdf visa grant in the end, I did not go to the embassy to get a visa.