Pakistan E-visa Q&A

[weissdergeier]

Here is my e-visa report since it may be of interest for others.
I am a EU citizen living and working in another EU country. I applied online, uploading a proof of of address (tax bill) and a hotel booking from bookings.com.
After a day I received an email requiring me to provide a letter of invitation and a residency permit/tax bill. I went ahead and re-upload the tax bill (all pages this time since I thought that might make a difference). I also uploaded a screenshot of their own website where it states that for individual tourists a hotel booking is sufficient and no LOI is necessary.
After another two days I received another email again requesting a LOI and a residency permit. I attempted to call the Pakistani number on their website (+92 (51)-9207290) at least 20 times in the following days but nobody every answered. I also wrote an email via the mask on their website explaining that I neither need nor have a residency permit (freedom of movement in the EU) and that their own website states that a hotel reservation is sufficient for individual tourists. I received a generic answer from ([email protected]) so I replied by asking them again to consider what is written on their own website. When I didn't get a reply for 2 days I sent the same email to [email protected] and [email protected]. I also went ahead and took a screenshot of the email, uploaded it to my visa application and re-submitted it. After another day I got a reply from [email protected] telling me that my request had been forwarded to the person in charge and after another day my visa was approved.

I think because this e-visa procedure is new and done by people in Pakistan rather than in the local embassies they are not fully up to speed with local laws and rules such as freedom of movement in the EU yet.

I hope this helps.

[bacca4]

their own website states that a hotel reservation is sufficient for individual tourists.

Thanks for your report!

For how many days did you book the hotel? For all the visa's duration or only the first few days were sufficent?

[weissdergeier]

their own website states that a hotel reservation is sufficient for individual tourists.

Thanks for your report!

For how many days did you book the hotel? For all the visa's duration or only the first few days were sufficent?

I only booked it for 2 days and mentioned that I will stay in guesthouses along the Karakoram highway that have not yet been booked.

[GJD]

Thought I'd post my experience, hoping it may help someone...

Anyway, I'm not particularly impressed. I've applied for an e-visa. British passport holder, born and resident in the UK. Not of Indian or Pakistani heritage. My plan is to enter at Sost, spend a few weeks around Gilgit/Skardu and then fly to Lahore, visit Lahore and Harappa and exit at Wagah. I applied on 30 June. I thought I'd be ultra-cautious and filled all voluntary boxes, got an LOI through Caravanistan and even uploaded a copy of my Indian visa (I can't enter India overland on an Indian e-visa). I'm self-employed and ticked the self-employment box. There's no option to provide further information on the form so I considered ticking "employed" and then filling in the details of my business. But I figured it couldn't be that important if there wasn't an option for further information.

On the tenth working day I received an email requesting further information, specifically, 1) a "letter of employment", 2) bank statement with my address to prove I live in the UK, 3) itinerary with hotel booking. So I've uploaded a letter from myself explaining that I am self-employed and the nature of my business, a copy of my last self-assessment tax return, an itinerary, a copy of my hotel booking in Gilgit (only), my last bank statement and a print-out showing my current bank balance.

So waiting to hear back. Not sure if the clock resets and I have to wait another 7-10 working days (it's been another two already). I wonder if the reason for the delay is because I ticked self-employed, or whether it's just the wheels of bureaucracy turning very slowly. I'm considering uploading a hotel booking for every night in Pakistan (although one night I am camping). The helpdesk are completely useless and just send me emails telling me what the standard processing time is. Haven't tried the phone number but from reading other posts it seems they don't answer.

If I'd arranged it through an agency in the UK dealing with the high commission in London I would have an answer by now. Doesn't look like NADRA have got the message that the Pakistan government is trying to encourage tourism.

[Martam]

Hi everyone!

I am Italian and a couple of weeks ago I applied for the e-visa. After 7/8 days without receiving any reply I started worrying a bit and contacted the Pakistani Consulate in Milan to ask if they had any news about it. They told me that in the past 10 days the website for the e-visa crashed and that I should start my application again or go directly to the Consulate since my trip was very close. Everything worked out and now I am on my trip...but I thought it would be useful to share this info. So: if you applied for an e-visa and you did not get any reply, check with your Consulate and make sure your application is pending or something, otherwise the risk is that you will never get your visa (I did not receive any email saying that the website was down nor on the website there e was any sign of it!

On a different - related - note: a friend of mine (Italian national resident in the Netherlands) applied for the e-visa earlier this year and had no problem.
Hope this helps

[hoffmanbrendan]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone's had this situation yet. I'm a US citizen living in Ukraine, with a temporary residence permit. According to Pakistani rules, I need to have permanent residency in order to apply for a visa at the embassy here. All well and good, there's now an e-visa.

I called the Pakistani embassy in DC to check and they said no prob, just apply, you don't need to send documents. I applied, though selected Kiev as the most convenient city in case I'm called for an interview (though I don't expect to be - I visited Pakistan two years ago, was interviewed before that trip, and there hasn't been much since then that would raise new questions).

No real surprise, I was informed that because I'm not a permanent resident, I can't get the visa here. I shouldn't have picked Kiev as that is what determined which embassy received the application.

OK fine, doesn't make a lot of sense, but the problem is thus: the application is now stuck in limbo. I would like to just cancel it and reapply, since there's no way to edit it. But there's no option to cancel or withdraw. The embassy in DC said it has to be the embassy in Kiev to do it, but after several calls there, they still haven't managed to do it.

Has anyone figured out how to cancel or withdraw an e-visa application? I can't apply again until this one's withdrawn, and I'd like to get it done ASAP. Is there some secret button I haven't seen or I just have to wait until the embassy finds the button?

[GJD]

Thought I'd post my experience, hoping it may help someone...

Anyway, I'm not particularly impressed. I've applied for an e-visa. British passport holder, born and resident in the UK. Not of Indian or Pakistani heritage. My plan is to enter at Sost, spend a few weeks around Gilgit/Skardu and then fly to Lahore, visit Lahore and Harappa and exit at Wagah. I applied on 30 June. I thought I'd be ultra-cautious and filled all voluntary boxes, got an LOI through Caravanistan and even uploaded a copy of my Indian visa (I can't enter India overland on an Indian e-visa). I'm self-employed and ticked the self-employment box. There's no option to provide further information on the form so I considered ticking "employed" and then filling in the details of my business. But I figured it couldn't be that important if there wasn't an option for further information.

On the tenth working day I received an email requesting further information, specifically, 1) a "letter of employment", 2) bank statement with my address to prove I live in the UK, 3) itinerary with hotel booking. So I've uploaded a letter from myself explaining that I am self-employed and the nature of my business, a copy of my last self-assessment tax return, an itinerary, a copy of my hotel booking in Gilgit (only), my last bank statement and a print-out showing my current bank balance.

So waiting to hear back. Not sure if the clock resets and I have to wait another 7-10 working days (it's been another two already). I wonder if the reason for the delay is because I ticked self-employed, or whether it's just the wheels of bureaucracy turning very slowly. I'm considering uploading a hotel booking for every night in Pakistan (although one night I am camping). The helpdesk are completely useless and just send me emails telling me what the standard processing time is. Haven't tried the phone number but from reading other posts it seems they don't answer.

If I'd arranged it through an agency in the UK dealing with the high commission in London I would have an answer by now. Doesn't look like NADRA have got the message that the Pakistan government is trying to encourage tourism.

I finally got my visa approval through (after 17 days). Not sure what the hold-up was. Seem to be a lot of growing pains with the e-visa at present.

[ChrissiK]

Hello to everyone. I am German and applied to the E-Visa (30 days, single entry valid from today - 18th October) one week ago and got my approval right now after 5 work days. Application on Friday 12th July in the evening, Approval Friday 19th in the afternoon. The upload process for the documents has been a bit shaky, because the website seemed to be a unstable. So I had to restart the website a few times my uploading. At the end everything went fine.

My Visa type is a Tourist Visa, my entry will be at the airport in Karachi and I got an inivitation by my friend who is oversea Pakistani living in Germany and will travel with me. I uploaded his invitation letter, his National ID Card, his Passport and the flight tickets booking as well as my passport and my photograph. I got no hotel booking. So and today my visa came via E-Mail.
Hope this helps and happy travel to all of you!

[Joss.quilty]

Hi all, I am a UK national, and I just had my e Visa approval. Took 10 days, I had an LOI from a guy in Pakistan and the visa cost me 60USD. Great service.

It was showing as 'receiving'on the website the whole time.

My application was to enter the land border at Wagah and exit through Taftan into Iran. I also had Balochistan on my itinerary, no problems.

Thanks

[fernfunkost]

Hey, don't know if it is still useful. We, German couple, filed our application in Kathmandu, Nepal. As others have already reported we could not indicate Kathmandu for an interview as they then listed a proof of residency in the documents required. We changed it to Berlin, application went through, no interview needed. Easy.

Also we asked for 60 days and provided three longish (fake) hotel bookings for approximately 40 days in three super inconspicuous places: Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi. We got our 60 days, 3 months validity. No problem at all.

We came from India over Wagah and left over Sost. This we indicated correctly, also no problem.

Good luck to everyone!