Iran - Andrew Burke [329]
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MORE TIME, PLEASE
First the good news: there is usually little difficulty in extending a tourist visa to 60 days, or even 90. This is how it works.
Head for the provincial police headquarters (shahrbani) or Foreign Affairs office, often called Aliens Bureau or passport office (edareh gozannameh), in your city of choice. Take your passport, two or sometimes three mugshots of yourself, photocopies of the picture page of your passport and your existing Iranian visa, and IR100,000 for the extension, plus about IR3000 for the processing.
Once you’ve filled out the appropriate form (twice) you’ll be asked to deposit your IR100,000 at a specific (hopefully nearby) branch of Bank Melli – just turn up and say ‘visa’ and the bank staff will usually fill the deposit forms for you. When you return with your bank receipt, you might be lucky and be able to collect your passport with new extended visa immediately, but it rarely works as quickly as this.
Instead, you’ll probably have to wait a few hours or, in some cases, several days. As such, it’s worth carefully choosing the city where you plan to extend and trying to tailor your itinerary to suit. In general, cities familiar with tourists are the best places: Shiraz was easiest for us, with Esfahan, Gorgan and Rasht not far behind. Second-string options include Kerman, Bushehr and Tabriz. Smaller cities often take longer to issue the extension, if at all, and are less likely to grant you a full 30 days.
Timing is also important: you can only apply for an extension two or three days before your existing visa is due to expire, and your extension starts on the day it’s issued, not the end of your original visa. In theory you can extend as many times as you like up to a total stay of 90 days.
The bad news is that transit visas cannot be extended, so those crossing Iran in five days can face real problems. However, if your visa is up and you’ve not yet made it to the border, here are a couple of tips we received from a helpful visa official:
A doctor’s note on official stationery stating you were unwell and needed, say, two days rest will act as a quasi-extension once you get to the border, or can be used to extend for a couple of days in the nearest Aliens Bureau.
If you are heading east and are only a couple of days over, officers at Zahedan have been known to collect a small fine and extend your visa on the spot before you leave, just to make it all legal.
It’s best not to rely on these last-gasp options. Everything here is subject to sudden change so ask other travellers and check the Thorn Tree (thorntree.lonelyplanet.com) before making firm plans.
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Similarly, keep controversial places like Bushehr and Natanz off your itinerary. Whatever you have written on the application, you’ll be able to go anywhere in Iran with the tourist visa once it’s issued.
SPONSORS
If you know someone in Iran they can sponsor your application, but it’s much easier to use an agency that is used to dealing with the MFA, and indeed often has close relationships with people within the ministry. Usually agencies are worth the money.
Visa Agencies
The following agencies have been recommended by readers or have been used by the authors themselves. Not one is perfect and there have also been complaints. Problems usually arise when the applicant has no time left and their application isn’t approved as quickly as they’d hoped, or been promised. You don’t need a degree in nuclear physics to work out that to avoid trouble you do need to apply as early as possible.
Iranianvisa.com (www.iranianvisa.com) Charges €30 (€32 with charges) and operates through an easy-to-use