We (4 German passport holders) have been succesful on applying for an Iranian tourist visa in Batumi in September 2016.
- Documents needed: Two filled in application forms (you get them from the consul)
2 passport pictures (he asked for a picture with scarf)
One hotel booking (which we canceld after it)
- No LOI needed!!!
- We had to wait for 2 weeks, the consul wrote us an email that we can come and pick up our visa
- We had to pay 75 EUR to an Georgian bank account
- We could keep our passports
The procedure was quiet easy and the consul was friendly but you need some waiting time. There is no express visa. When you pick up the visa you should check the date and passport number. Unfortunetly on one visa he put a wrong passport number.
Embassy Report: Iranian consulate Batumi
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Before asking a visa question, make sure you have read the relevant visa article about the country. Overview page: http://caravanistan.com/visa/
Before submitting an embassy report or question, have a look first to see if a topic already exists. Relevant topics are linked to from the visa pages on the site.
Thank you!
Re: Embassy Report: Iranian consulate Batumi
I (German cyclist) went there 28th of November and applied for a visa (wanted one month). You need some hotel booking (booking.com) and that's it.
There were two French guys who applied 3.5 weeks before. The same day the consul said, one would get a visa, the other was refused. After some discussing, cause they were travelling together, he "called Tehran" and in the end also the other one got his visa - so be a bit persistent, look sad and astonished.
I can't say how long processing time is, cause I flew back to Germany for one month - you can keep your passport. However when I came back on 6th January in the morning, he said I need to pay and can get the visa in the afternoon (after opening hours at 3.30pm). Unfortunately I got only 15days - "in Tehran they decided about the length" was what I was told. Maybe it's because I already had 3 different Iranian visa in my passport (2 student and one airport). Cost was 75€.
There were two French guys who applied 3.5 weeks before. The same day the consul said, one would get a visa, the other was refused. After some discussing, cause they were travelling together, he "called Tehran" and in the end also the other one got his visa - so be a bit persistent, look sad and astonished.
I can't say how long processing time is, cause I flew back to Germany for one month - you can keep your passport. However when I came back on 6th January in the morning, he said I need to pay and can get the visa in the afternoon (after opening hours at 3.30pm). Unfortunately I got only 15days - "in Tehran they decided about the length" was what I was told. Maybe it's because I already had 3 different Iranian visa in my passport (2 student and one airport). Cost was 75€.
1 x
Consulate report - Iranian visa in Batumi
My friend (Polish) and I (Dutch) first tried to start the visa procedure via the e-visa system, as we thought it was obligatory. None of the Georgian consulates were in the list on the website, so in the end we chose Almaty as the place to pick up our visas, although we didn't intend to travel there. We thought that maybe at the consulate in Batumi or Tbilisi, they would be able to change this.
On 11 April we were at the consulate in Batumi. Note that it has moved from Dumbadze street to 83, Parnavaz Mepe Street. Many websites still give the old address. Opening hours 9.30 - 13.00, but this doesn't mean that the consul is available all the time during these hours. If he isn't there, you can just sit inside and drink some tea and wait until he returns.
We asked about the online procedure, but we were told that they don't use this procedure here and it doesn't matter if we started it or not.
We filled in the paper form, and one of the things that is obligatory is to have a hostel or hotel reservation, including reservation number and room number. If you don't write those, but only the address of the hostel, the consul won't accept the form. A French guy who was there at the same time as us tried this - didn't work. However, we just started to make a hostel reservation and never finished it, and we wrote only "female dorm" and "male dorm" instead of a room number, which we didn't get, and we were asked to explain what a dorm is, but it was accepted.
Apart from the form, a colour copy of our passports and a passport photograph was needed. No LOI, no questions about insurance.
They send the application to Teheran to be processed and the consul told us it would take 1-2 weeks before they get the answer. They got it exactly after two weeks. We called a few times earlier and it is difficult to reach them by phone, because half of the time nobody is there.
When we came to pick it up, we got a little paper with their bank account number, and we had to pay €75 each (Dutch and Polish citizen) to that account at the TBC bank which is a few hundreds of meters away. (Paying was tricky, because exactly this day the whole banking system went down... We couldn't pay at any other bank because "Teheran" wouldn't accept such a paper from a different bank.) We handed in our passports and the proof of payment around 2 pm (after waiting for the consul to return from some break for an hour, and after the consulate should officially have closed). We received the passports back with the visas the same afternoon (we rang the front door and a lady came to give them to us).
Our online application still has the status "waiting for verification" after 3.5 weeks.
We also spoke to a Russian guy who was still waiting for his visa, who told us that since about 3 weeks, no visas on arrival are given anymore at the Armenian-Iranian border. Everybody who arrives there without visa is sent back to Yerevan apparently. He read this on the AVP group at V Kontakte. Here is the account of one person (in Russian) https://vk.com/wall-57929980_2229. Apparently more people experienced the same.
On 11 April we were at the consulate in Batumi. Note that it has moved from Dumbadze street to 83, Parnavaz Mepe Street. Many websites still give the old address. Opening hours 9.30 - 13.00, but this doesn't mean that the consul is available all the time during these hours. If he isn't there, you can just sit inside and drink some tea and wait until he returns.
We asked about the online procedure, but we were told that they don't use this procedure here and it doesn't matter if we started it or not.
We filled in the paper form, and one of the things that is obligatory is to have a hostel or hotel reservation, including reservation number and room number. If you don't write those, but only the address of the hostel, the consul won't accept the form. A French guy who was there at the same time as us tried this - didn't work. However, we just started to make a hostel reservation and never finished it, and we wrote only "female dorm" and "male dorm" instead of a room number, which we didn't get, and we were asked to explain what a dorm is, but it was accepted.
Apart from the form, a colour copy of our passports and a passport photograph was needed. No LOI, no questions about insurance.
They send the application to Teheran to be processed and the consul told us it would take 1-2 weeks before they get the answer. They got it exactly after two weeks. We called a few times earlier and it is difficult to reach them by phone, because half of the time nobody is there.
When we came to pick it up, we got a little paper with their bank account number, and we had to pay €75 each (Dutch and Polish citizen) to that account at the TBC bank which is a few hundreds of meters away. (Paying was tricky, because exactly this day the whole banking system went down... We couldn't pay at any other bank because "Teheran" wouldn't accept such a paper from a different bank.) We handed in our passports and the proof of payment around 2 pm (after waiting for the consul to return from some break for an hour, and after the consulate should officially have closed). We received the passports back with the visas the same afternoon (we rang the front door and a lady came to give them to us).
Our online application still has the status "waiting for verification" after 3.5 weeks.
We also spoke to a Russian guy who was still waiting for his visa, who told us that since about 3 weeks, no visas on arrival are given anymore at the Armenian-Iranian border. Everybody who arrives there without visa is sent back to Yerevan apparently. He read this on the AVP group at V Kontakte. Here is the account of one person (in Russian) https://vk.com/wall-57929980_2229. Apparently more people experienced the same.
2 x
Watch the videos that we made about our bike trip from Poland to Central Asia in 2017: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW1Mus ... TMQ/videos
Re: Embassy Report: Iranian consulate Batumi
We applied for a 30 days Iranian visa in batumi in March 2017. As it was before Noruz, we were told that the waiting period was going to be around 15 days. We waited for 25 days, calling and going personally to the consulate to enquire about our visa. Our visa application was finally approved after 25 days, but the 3 of us (1 from France and 2 from Spain) only got a 15 days visa (the fee remained 72 euros) instead of the usual 1 month visa. The visa officer had a very strange behaviour (asking in a very insistent way, when I was not accompanied by my (male) travel companions, questions such as: does your piercing (a facial piercing that I have) bothers you when you have sex. I however heard from fellow travelers that it was very easy to apply from Tbilisi and Baku.
2 x
Re: Embassy Report: Iranian consulate Batumi
Hi everyone,
We are a couple of French travellers. We applied for e-visa in Batumi on the 5th of July. After many mails, visits, phone calls, our visa status is still pending.
When your e-visa status is pending you can't do another request to another ambassy. You can't go via Reference number either. The request are automatically rejected.
So we are trapped waiting for this visa, the consul says he can do nothing to update the status / accelerate the process. He can't cancel the request either.
We recommand not using evisa but going with travel agency/reference number instead.
We also did a French report here : Parcours chaotique vers le e-visa Iranien
Good luck
We are a couple of French travellers. We applied for e-visa in Batumi on the 5th of July. After many mails, visits, phone calls, our visa status is still pending.
When your e-visa status is pending you can't do another request to another ambassy. You can't go via Reference number either. The request are automatically rejected.
So we are trapped waiting for this visa, the consul says he can do nothing to update the status / accelerate the process. He can't cancel the request either.
We recommand not using evisa but going with travel agency/reference number instead.
We also did a French report here : Parcours chaotique vers le e-visa Iranien
Good luck
2 x
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