Report: Tehran, Chinese VIsa

[MerijnM]

Hi there! Also success here, two Dutch guys traveling overland.

Got a 46-day single entry visa (It matches our itinerary).
Applied on: Thursday June 13th
Received on: Tuesday June 18th

Costs: 40 USD per person

We handed in:

• Passport (they keep it)
  Color copy of your passport
  Two passport photos (but, we got one back when we picked up our visa). We had bigger sizes according to the Embassy rules: 34mm (w) x 48mm (h).
  The Chinese Embassy application form. (Use capitals!)
  Color copy of your Iranian visa
  Your itinerary of your stay in China
  Hotel reservations (booking.com) (we did it also in colour, just to be sure)
  Flight reservation (From agent.ru).

We had fake flights from Tehran (IKA) - Doha (DOH) - Beijing (PEK) with Qatar Airways (QR).
Return Beijing - Amsterdam with KLM.

Notes:
All copies on A4 format, no other size!
You will probably speak to the lady with the glasses, she's okay!
Do know your itinerary (!!), the lady asked me personally about it and checked if it matches with the written itinerary.
Pay with crispy fresh USD bills as mentioned before. They have change.

I attached my itinerary, feel free to download it via the following link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFDtc4 ... sp=sharing

[xaza]

Another success story from two people from the Netherlands.
Applied on Tuesday morning, visa was ready on Sunday morning.
Submitted everything mentioned on Caravanistan and the previous success-stories on this forum.

IMPORTANT PHOTO INFO: NO EARRINGS ARE ALLOWED IN THE PICTURE.
She first handed my application back to me because I had (small) earrings in on the picture. Near the copy place mentioned earlier on this forum there is a photoshop that does pictures. Walk from the embassy down on Boustan street, turn left on Pasdaran Ave, cross the busy street and around coordinates 35°47'52.0"N 51°28'30.4"E there is the photoshop. It might be a bit more up or down the street, but just ask and everyone knows it.

The rest went smoothly! We didn't got any questions about our itinerary or whatever, but did see some Iranians being grilled and after not knowing the answers to the questions hearing "this is not acceptable". So know your itinerary/flights etc, just in case.

Good luck everyone!

[JulienFR]

Hi there!

Success for two French!

We gave the papers as mentioned in other posts. If you can follow this particular order, it will make the lady happy :
- Form application (glue your picture at the embassy -their is glue at disposal on the counter- if the lady decides your photo complies with their rules)
- Passport copy (colour)
- Iranian visa (colour)
- Itinerary (you must write in the main form "SEPARATE PAPER" in the itinerary section). As always, never mention Xinjiang...
- Flights
- Bookings (we did it in colours)
And of course your passport (they keep it for the time needed) and 2 passport pictures.

- We applied on Tuesday the 23rd/08.
- We picked it up on Sunday the 28th/08
- We asked for 28 days, we got 30 days.
- You must pay 40$ each in clean dollars bills above 2009 to the embassy directly (no need to go to the bank anymore apparently).

She really checks the dates of your itinerary and your bookings, don't mess up

The lady with the glasses was apparently breefing her new bloke when we gave our file: The guy with the glasses! We don't know if she's retired, but upon picking our visas it was the guy solo without the lady!

Apparently the guy is really picky on the compliance of the pictures, some guys had to go make new ones even though it was suppose to follow the rules...

We met a lot of other successes these days at the hostel (60 days double entries, 30 days single, Germans, Netherlands, cyclists, hitchhikers...)!

NB: The metro station "Aghdasiyeh" was closed for construction works when we went there 23/08/19 (don't know the duration). Next station "Nobonyad" is at 2.2km away from the embassy.

Regards
Sarah and Julien

[eversmango]

Success for two cyclists (couple), Swedish (M), Norwegian (F). Tourist visa for 60 days, 90 day validity. Many of our friends at the hostel also got their Chinese visas whilst in Tehran.

Applied on Tuesday 23/7, was told to collect on Sunday 28/7 as we did.

Talked to the lady with the glasses, at first my girlfriends photo wasn't approved because she had a too bright shirt. Had to get another one at the nearby photo studio.

We got back 40 minutes later and she asked no questions and was just smiling and flipping through the papers really quickly (barely looked). She asked zero questions. I think your chances are increased if you have papers in order. She was talking to her colleagues and laughing, we suppose she was happy that all the papers were in order and we were the last ones 5 minutes before the lunch break Put the hotel reservations in correct date order!

Things needed:

• Passport (left at the embassy)
  Chinese application, digitally typed, in color, all capital letters
  Passport copy in color
  Iran e-visa copy in color (we didn't copy the original with the border stamp, just printed a new one but it nobody noticed)
  Passport photos x2, used whatever size we had, one is glued to the first application page and they had glue there
  Itinerary for 60 days with 5 hotels and 5 cities
  Flight reservation from Yatra in and out (hold option)
  Hotel bookings for all nights from booking.com (free cancel/no card hotels)

Paid 40$ per person on pickup with fresh 100$ bill

[esther]

Success story for two Dutch overlanders! (couple). Tourist visa for 30 days (matching our itinerary), 3 months to enter. We applied on Sunday 21 July and picked it up on Thursday 25 July. Process went smoothly. We handed in our paperwork, the famous lady with the glasses checked it (I am wondering if she is also reading this forum?!) and asked zero questions. Nothing about the itinerary or the documents. We handed in the following papers:

Passport (they keep it)
Color copy of passport
Two passport photos (we got one back when we picked up our visa). Photos were taken in the Netherlands and they were fine (no issues with the sizes)
Color copy of Iranian visa
Letter of No Objection from the Dutch Embassy (the lady with the glasses checked this letter three times, but made no comment about it. So it was fine, but I am not sure whether it was really needed)
Our itinerary of our stay in China (in word, with the addresses of the hotels, phone number of the hotels and transportation)
Hotel reservations (booking.com, we canceled it after we got our visa)
Flight reservations (From Yatra, booked with the Free Hold option).

We paid 40 dollars per person on pick up. Make sure to bring notes after 2009. Also get there early (before 9.00), when handing in the application and picking it up. The Embassy is quite busy, lots of Iranian people.

Best advice I can give you: keep it simple. Make sure that you have your paperwork neatly organised and do not add documents that are not needed. For instance, we talked to a French girl and she also handed in a Letter of Invitation and it seemed that this only complicated things. Stick to the necessary documents.

I want to thank everyone on this forum. The instructions for the visa process were really helpful!

[Worldhitchhiker]

Another success story of a Dutch overlander. I applied around the 15th of July 2019.

This is what I handed in:
- Passport
- Passport copy in color
- Chinese application; digitally filled out with capital letters (I found out dat Adobe Acrobat works better dan Google Chrome to fill it out, otherwise it doesn't adjust the letter size according to the letter box).
- Iran e-visa copy in color (I didn't got a stamp at the border, so I handed it in without stamp)
- Passport photos 2x, my Dutch photos where not accepted as the background was a bit grey. Within 50 minutes I was back at the embassy with new ones from a shop a bit further. Ask the security guy at the embassy where you can make photos, he will give you a paper with an address of the shop. It was like €2 to €3.
- Itinerary for 54 days with 8 hotels and 8 cities.
- Flight reservation from Opodo (Tehran to Beijing) and Expedia (Shanghai to Amsterdam). I canceled both for free via internet directly after I received the confirmation e-mail. You can't use Expedia for the flight from Tehran, cause for some reason Tehran is not available on there.
- Hostel bookings for all nights from booking.com (free cancel)

After 4 normal days (not working days) I could pick it up. I paid 40 dollar, they didn't except the old bills (before 2009) as mentioned before. They gave me a 54 days visa, I expected it will be 60 days anyway, but apparently they really give you the days according to your itinerary.

[Kanter]

Obtained a simple entry visa, 30 days, French citizen, applied 8th, picked up 13th.

- Color copy of passport

- Color copy of printed Iranian e visa (stamped in my case)

- Form filled on computer and printed (form only black and white), capital letters. PDF file requires a addin for Chinese Characters, did not succeed to download it in a "Cafénet" as I did not have any computer. So did it at Hostel. Computer and network in Cafénets are not really fast. Spent 4 hours to book accomodations etc. Only signature and date are hand written.

- Excel file with 3 columns: address of accomodation, hotel or hostel name, activities of the day. One line per day. Printed in B and W. You can do it on form but I followed advice of another guy, more space on separed paper.

- Flight tickets in and out of China printed B and W

- All booking.com accomodation receipt printed B and W

- 2 photos, French official passport format, there is glue on desk inside embassy, stuck it in front of guy

4 desks inside, 2 for agencies, 1 for picking up, 1 for apply.

Apply: arrived at 7h40 AM for opening 8h45. 35 persons before me. Spent morning there. No question from guy with glasses.

Pick up: arrived at 6h40 for opening 8h45, 8 persons before, quick. Paid 40 dollars (bills after 2009), they check. No question.

PS: I asked myself if the date I put in official form as day of entry would be the day they will put on VISA, but no. It is written: "entry before:", and date is 3 months after the day they issue the visa in systems. Maybe I did not read guidelines of caravanistan very well.

PPS: travelled through Iran 5 days with copy of passport, never been controlled by police. Accomodations and bus booking OK with copy or do not ask. For train, you must go to police station of railway with passport and visa, they do a copy, my passport copy was OK for them.

So spent 2 days, 1 of work and 2 mornings in line at embassy it was done.

[fwierna]

Success for two Argentineans! We got single entries for 45 days and 3 months validity.

We handed in all the papers mentioned before:
- Application form
- Color copy of passport
- Color copy of Iranian evisa
- Itinerary (they barely checked)
- Fake plane tickets from Tehran to Beijing and then Shanghai to Seoul (the planes were more than a month later, which is when the Iran visa expires, they didn't seem to care)
- Fake bookings for every night in China
- Two photos
- 40 USD each

The process was smooth. Applied on a Tuesday, picked up on a Sunday.
Thanks to all for the info here on how to do it!

[Jet]

Hi there!

Thanks for all your information. I am traveling to Iran in a few days and I want to apply for a Chinese visa in Tehran. I travel also overland as I can read you need your travel itinerary with a flight.

- I don't know what time I will be in China exactly because I am traveling to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan first.. If I apply for a date it doesn't matter if I arrive later or more early in China? Because if I am in Iran I have a visa for 30 days but I will ask for a visa around the end of October/beginning of November for China. Could this cause problems? Or what's smart to do?

- Does it matter if you apply for your visa (for example flight to Beijing) that you are entering China at another border crossing (overland)?

- I am traveling quickly through China because I want to enter Vietnam (trains). Is it smart to write this down in my travel itinerary or not?

- I also have a Turkish stamp in my passport, some of you have experience with this lately?

Thanks!

Jet

[Traveltheline]

Can’t tell you if we will get the visa but we have some information that might be important for the next person:

Additionally we needed to show our travel insurance (which a guy at our hostel told us he had to bring so we were prepared) and she also wanted to see our health insurance cards (heard that at pick up today again- seems to be standard now)

No problem with turkish stamp in passport.

Also, the embassy is closed October 1 to 7 (2019) due to holiday.

Was not lady with glasses, but chinese lady without glasses. We saw lady with glasses and guy with glasses in the back. Lady without glasses asked about our itinerary but was friendly.

We got to the embassy at 6:30 for the application (there is a huge park close by with morning fitness to wait until opening hours) and were 7th on the list (a cigarette box unfolded at what looks like a white huge garage entrance)- we waited until 11:20. Picking up was much smoother, we were 40th on the list but got in really quick (9:30 there, walked out 10:30 with our visas), also fewer people for application.

Edit; we got our double entry for china in the first run! Thanks to all the information here.