Iran - Andrew Burke [330]
Pars Tourist Agency (www.Key2Persia.com) Charges US$30 but offers discounts if you book tours/tickets through its Shiraz-based agency Click here, and a 50% refund if you’re rejected.
Persian Voyages (www.persianvoyages.com) More expensive at UK£70, but reliable even when other agencies have failed. Usually quite fast.
WHERE TO APPLY
Iran would prefer you to apply in your home country, but if you’re using an agency this isn’t necessary. If you don’t use an agency, you’ll have to deal with the peculiarities of individual Iranian missions. Check Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum (thorntree.lonelyplanet.com) for recent feedback from travellers.
The best embassies hand out one-month tourist visas in a week or two (if you’ve got the right passport). The worst (like Delhi in India) will only issue transit visas to non-Indians, and then only after you’ve waited weeks.
Costs
Visa costs vary from place to place. Most Iranian embassies Click here in Europe have websites detailing costs and what you need to supply. For example, in their home countries in December 2007 Brits were being charged UK£61/68 for a transit/single-entry tourist visa, Canadians C$47/70 (insh’Allah), and Germans, French, Dutch and Swedes €40/60. Iranianvisa.com has an incomplete list of visa fees.
Visa Extensions
What if you overstay? Don’t. You’ll be fined IR300,000 for each day you overstay, and you could be stuck for up to a week sorting out paperwork. For emergency overstay procedures, see the boxed text.
Other Visa Types
BUSINESS VISAS
Business visas can be harder to get than tourist visas. To get a two-week or one-month (extendable) business visa you must have a business contact in Iran who can sponsor your visit through the MFA in Tehran.
TRANSIT VISAS
A five-day transit visa is really a last resort. Transit visas cost almost as much as tourist visas and while in theory processing could be quick, in reality it often takes two or three weeks. One advantage is that you don’t need an agency-sponsor but you might need a letter of recommendation from your embassy, which might actually cost more. The main disadvantage? Iran is a big country, five days is a very short time and Iran does not extend transit visas.
VISAS ON ARRIVAL
Iran introduced the visa-on-arrival in 2005, designed mainly for business people. In theory, you can fly into Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad or Tabriz and be issued a seven-day visa at the airport. In practice, this service is unreliable, at best. Indeed, we have heard of people being unceremoniously turned around and sent back to whence they came even though they met all the requirements. And citizens of several countries – including the UK, US, Australia and Ireland – cannot get this type of visa under any circumstances. All up, these are only good for desperate last resorts.
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WOMEN TRAVELLERS
The overwhelming majority of Iranians can’t do enough to help travellers and to make them feel welcome – this applies to both women and men. Most women travellers enjoy Iran and have few problems.
Attitudes towards Women
As unusual as Iranian culture is to Westerners, Western culture is to Iranians. Half-truths and stereotypes exist on both sides: some Westerners assume all Iranian women are black-cloaked, repressed victims, while some Iranians see Western women as ‘easy’ and immoral. These perceptions of Western women are created largely by foreign movies and media. They’re also rooted in the fact that most Iranian women don’t travel without men; the implication is that if you’re doing so then you must be of dubious moral standing.
It is inevitable that some men will look at you with an unnerving mix of curiosity, lust and hope. It will rarely go beyond just looking, or a hopeful ‘hello, missus!’ or perhaps some suggestive comment in Farsi. Replying with a cheerful ‘hi, how are you?’ will sometimes surprise your ‘suitor’ into silence. Other times, depending on his proficiency in English or yours in Farsi, it will lead to an interesting, friendly and entirely platonic exchange that