For travellers willing to move overland from Iran to India (across Pakistan), it might be of natural interest knowing how to get a 6 months, multiple-entry Tourist Indian Visa in Tehran, Iran. Besides being a necessary document to enter India by land (there is currently no on-arrival visa at the border), it is also a required annex for obtaining the Pakistan transit visa, apparently the only available option (May 2018) in Tehran for overlanders.
These are thus the 8 steps to get the Tourist Indian Visa in Tehran:
1. APPLY ONLINE:
Go to the official governmental webpage and fill out all the requested information. A good practice is immediately writing the Application ID down somewhere, to retrieve the form at any time later. Without this info, you won’t be able to resume or view your application. In addition, under the field “Mother’s name”, you must specify both first and last name. Feel free to specify 6 months and multiple-entry in the related fields. You will need them because:
- Indian visa is valid from the date it is issued and NOT from when you enter the country;
- If you wish to visit Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or any other neighboring countries by land, you might need to get back to India afterwards.
2. PRINT YOUR ONLINE APPLICATION:
You need a copy of each page of your application for the India Visa Center.
3. PRINT ALL NEEDED DOCUMENTS:
You can find the complete list of obligatory annexes for a tourist visa here.
4. GO TO THE INDIA VISA CENTER (IVC):
Unfortunately, it is impossible to apply directly at the embassy. They immediately hand you a small piece of paper with all the details for the application. In particular, you have to refer to the affiliated agency named India Visa Center (IVC) and located at the following address:
1st Floor, No.2,Anahita Alley,
Afriqa Blvd, Tehran, Iran
Tel.No:+98 (21) 88783277
Email ID: enquiry@indiavisairan.com
As specified in the paper given by the embassy:
“The time to attend the office to submit the documents and give the fingerprint is 9 to 12:30. It’s closed on Fridays and Saturdays”.
5. PROCEDURE AT THE IVC
The whole process took me around 2 hours. You have to go through the following lengthy “checkpoints”:
- ask for a queue number to the busy security guy;
- wait until your number is written on the information panel;
- review your application with one of the girls at the desk;
- ask for another queue number to the same security guy;
- review the second part of your application with another girl;
- submit your fingerprints;
- pay for your visa at the cashier’s desk. Total price is 4,680,698 IRR (around 65 Eur), as displayed in their receipt:
Remember that cards are not accepted in Iran. Other than that, it is better to pay with local currency (Iranian Rials). In all truth, I did not ask if it they accepted other currencies (e.g. US dollars). To be on the safe side, however, try to go there with enough cash in Iranian Rials.
As shown in the above picture, they also write the day and time you are supposed to go back to collect your visa (at the same place). Regrettably, for me it was 9 days later. Quite long time. They told me that for foreigners is like that. If you wish to try to speed up a bit, you could go and directly inquire the embassy. This is what they told me at least.
6. COLLECT YOUR VISA AT IVC (1st ATTEMPT)
After the due time, you may go and visit the agency again. Nevertheless, don’t be too sure your visa is ready. Actually, mine wasn’t. They laconically informed me (after some wait) that I was supposed to check with the embassy the following morning. They could not provide any reason or new timeframe.
7. CHECK VISA STATUS AT THE EMBASSY
The following morning at 9 am I gave it a go at the Indian embassy then. The building is located here:
After finding my passport, they nevertheless confirmed that the visa was not ready yet. Notwithstanding, they promised it would by the end of the day at the India Visa Center.
8. COLLECT YOUR VISA AT IVC (2nd ATTEMPT)
At 4 pm I was back at the IVC. Eventually my passport and Indian visa was there !
To summarize, it took me 10 days to get a 6 months, multiple-entry tourist visa for India. In case you wish to also apply for the Pakistan visa later, you had better take care of it as soon as you enter Iran, so that you can manage to leave the country within the allowed 30 days of maximum stay (but of course you can always extend your Iranian visa if you want to). All in all the process was not as straightforward as it initially seemed. Finally, however, all ended very well.
