Caravanistan

Hello,

Did anyone apply for a visa at the embassy of India in Yerevan in Armenia or somewhere in Iran lately? How long does it usually take to get it? We already have visa for Iran and Pakistan. India is now the only one missing. We would want to get a 6 months multiple entry and have German passports.

We know, you should not tell, that you drive with a car, so what does one do about showing the return flight ticket when applying for the visa? Is there a flight company that will refund all your money when you book a flight with them?

Thanks for sharing any experiences.

Let us know if you find out elsewhere!

Went to the embassy in Yerevan this Friday and they said no-no. Only for residents (Georgia or Armenia). Waiting for my man in Tehran to check there before I plan the next move Where did you get the pak visa ?

Got several reports from people who applied for an Indian visa in Tehran. It IS possible as a foreigner but if they never have seen your nationality before it will be difficult/lengthy. I dont think they will ask for a plane ticket, just say you're coming by bus from Pakistan.
I'm going there next week to apply and will post a report and link here.

Would e-visa be a possibility for you? (sorry not an India expert at all)

Just applied for an indian visa in Tehran last week, it is possible (French passport). Here is how it goes.

The embassy outsources the whole application process to a company whose website is indiavisairan.com
BEWARE the advertised opening hours, address, phone number and email are all outdated on the english version of the website.
The correct address is 145 Beheshti street, exactly in front of the Metro Sohrevardi entrance and near the cross with Sohrevardi street.
The application submission time is 8-12, Sundays to Thursdays. I came around 9.30 and if I had come any later my number would have turned out too late. The are lots of people. The whole process is quite lengthy, I came out shortly before 12.

1) Fill in the online application form at indiavisaonline.gov.in and print out.
--> Make sure to give an address in Tehran in "present address", the phone number should be iranian also. I gave my friends address and phone number, I guess hotel/hostel could also work.
--> Make sure to write the full name of your father and mother in the relevant fields, I had written only their last names and had to have the form refilled for an additional fee (100,000 rials or something).
--> If you have visited india before, you will be asked to enter the details of the previous visa. If it is not available to you just write NA in the relevant fields.
2) Print out the form, bring 2 photos (indian format 5*5 cm / 2*2 inches), photocopy of passport (main page, and all stamped and visa pages), your physical passport.
3) I was asked for a return plane ticket but as I said I was travelling by land they said it was not necessary.
3) Additional documents required : if you have visited India before, a photocopy of the previous indian visa and the old passport if it was in a different passport. In my case it was not available because I had to return the old passport to French government when applying for a new one. The agent just asked me to write an introduction letter stating why the old visa was not available and that was it. I still had a photocopy of the main page of the previous passport and also gave that.
In the introduction letter, on agent's recommendation, I also roughly explained my itinerary, why I needed a double entry visa and why I was asking for 6 month. (Indian visas start from date of issue so if you want to have enough time to reach India it's better to ask for a 6 month visa, they dont issue more than 6 month in this embassy as far as I understand, but maybe it depends on your passport). I did not write anything about how I was planning to leave India or where I was going next.
4) Total fee at time of writing : 3,840,000 rials (roughly 92 usd). Turnaround 8 working days. The fee is the same regardless of your passport I think.

Will edit the post when I get the result in 2 days.

Edit: Got 6-month double entry

We have been applying for the Indian Visa in Tehran lately. We went to the travel agency in Sohrevardi street from where we have been sent to another agency after telling them we are German and want to apply for a 6 month Indian Visa. Possibly, there are other Visas issued in Sohrevardi street, we don't know.
Anyway, we were sent to another agency in Amin tower (located in Anahita dead end off Nelson Mandela Street). After arriving there at around 11 someone took care of us (opening hours are 9 to 12.30). We handed in our Visa application form but they found some mistakes and filled it in for us again (for 400.000 Rial each). If you want to avoid this extra cost pay attention to filling in every field in the online form, not only those mandatory (i.e. current and past nationality of the parents - in my case German in both fields). We put double entry into our application form which they told us needs to be multiple - I don't know if they issue single entries as well. Also you will need to hand in two 2*2 inch ID photos. After finishing the application we were sent to a waiting room next door and received a number. It took less than half an hour and we were called to a table separately. Here we needed to hand in copies of all pages of the passport which have a stamp or Visa information, including the picture page. They checked the application form again and took our fingerprints. We paid 53 USD each for the Visa and where told to come back after 8 working days to pick it up.
We came back the day before yesterday at 4 pm as we have been told to pick it up after 4 pm. We were told to sit down and after one our we asked again, they told us they were still waiting for the passports to arrive back from the embassy. Shortly before 6 they finally arrived and we got our Visa as promised.

We also tried to apply for the indian Visa in Tehran. Our experience was a bit special, so i thought i share it with you. For european or other passports it might not be necessary to worry, but if there is someone else with a taiwanese one, this story might be helpful.

So, me (german passport) and my partner (Taiwan passport) applied for the Indian Visa in Tehran. We planned to enter from Wagah Border Crossing (Pakistan) since we are travelling with bicycle. The process of filling in the online form was very tedious, with the site crashing several times. I think it took us like 3 hours in the end.

The adress at Sorevardi Street doesn't seem to be right anymore! Instead the visa agency is now located in Nelson Mandela Boulevard/Anahita Dead End. The entrance is in the Anahita dead end, after the Melli Bank. So we went there and the woman was nice, she mentioned my partner was the first taiwanese application they received, but she didn't say anything that it would be a problem. With the form we both had some mistakes, but she helped us correct them. In almost all reports i read online people had a mistake in the form, take care! But it's no wonder, because for example my partner left the field "former nationailty of parents" free because their parents never had any other nationality. Seems this has to be filled aswell
Photos seemed to be fine in either format. They didn't ask us for copy of all passport pages either. The simple one of the data page was fine.
They asked us to put down an itininerary by hand right there, confusingly they wanted it from Tehran to India, rather than IN India.

They asked us for some money, 600.000 Rial each, it was split in several fancy sounding fees on the bill, but no idea what exactly it was for. But they said the 100$ visa fee go directly to the embassy, this money is for them. Also, make sure you have the Visa Fee in crispyclean US-Dollars, they don't accept any other currency and the lady next to us they refused her bills because they were not fresh... They even asked us to exchange it for her (But we couldn't help her).

So, after figuring out all the stuff, they told us our visas will probably finish in 7 workdays from there. At that date we called them, they told us my visa (german passport) will be finish after the weekend but hers might still take some time. After the weekend we picked up my visa, the people at the agency couldn't tell us much about my partners visa. They told us to ask for a Mr. Sink at the embassy. They also told her something like "Don't worry, India is not so special, if you don't get it, just go somewhere else "

In the following weeks, my partner was calling the embassy, going there (they initially slammed the door in front of her, before letting her in) always with the answer that they can not tell her much. Then after many inquiries they told her that they are still waiting from the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry or something, to tell them her passport is real. After asking in Taiwan, they told her that they already answered the request two days after we applied for the Visa. So we asked again the Indian Embassy and they just said they are still waiting for the answer from the "ministry", no more details. Several days later, said Mr. Sink called my partner and asked her if she is Chinese or Taiwanese. Because her passport says "Republic of China"... WTF? Republic of China is the official name of Taiwan, everyone can know that with 5 minutes of Google, and especially somebody working in an embassy could be aware of it. And India recognizes the passport of the Republic of China (Taiwan), what's the matter? She explained him and he just told her to wait more. Wait more. We continued to call them and inquire, also telling them that we are in a hurry, our iranian visa will be expired soon and we still didn't apply for the Pakistan Visa. But no chance. So two days agao, they told her to call her on that days at 2 PM to tell her "some news". Of course nobody called, and after calling them several times that afternoon and always been told to call back in an hour, they finally told us the "news": They can not tell her if or when the Visa is finished, but she is freee to pick up her passport. That was basically the same they told us the last two weeks...

So she finally decided to pick up her passport after more than 3 weeks waiting. We are now considering our options. We probably will fly from Dubai to Nepal or Myanmar. Sad, because i already have the Visa, and we didn't plan to fly. But yeah, if you are Taiwanese, or another nationality that you think might not be so common to apply in Tehran you might wanna think about it.

PS: Upon googling the indian embassy in Tehran we read many bad reports about them...