Getting an Iran Visa

Relations between the U.S. and Iran being what they are, it is not an easy matter for an American to get a tourist visa to Iran. But, surprisingly, it is not so difficult, either, as our experience has proved. For those of you who are interested in visiting to this center of world culture:

Having read everywhere that U.S. citizens can get a tourist visa only by going on a tour, we contacted the widely recommended Pars Tourist Agency in Shiraz, www.key2persia.com, which offers not only group tours but personalized tours, for each budget. After looking through their website and researching some guidebooks for Iran, we put together a 30 day itinerary for ourselves, and asked them for a quote. Pars communicates well in English over both email and phone and is reasonably responsive. First, they suggested that we change our itinerary to 25 days, as “maxing out” the 30-day visa period would not be viewed favorably by the foreign ministry in its review of our application (all visa approvals are handled through Tehran directly). For a personalized guided tour for two using public transportation, they quoted approximately $1500 per person for the 25 days, and about $1000 per person additional to have a private car. We asked them to proceed with the visa application.

The government approval was not quick. We applied for our visas in mid-January, hoping that the review process would be completed by the end of February, for us to pick up our visas in Hong Kong prior to the start of our trip, where we had discussed our trip with the friendly, helpful and English-fluent consul. No such luck. We next hoped that the application would be approved by mid-March, so that we could pick up our visas at the consulate in Hyderabad, India. Zero for two. Almost three months later, in early April, we were told that our visas had been approved by the foreign ministry and could be picked up at the Hong Kong consulate. Of course, by that time, we were in Syria. But fortunately they were able to change the pickup location to the Damascus embassy. Once the consul in Damascus had confirmed the approval with Tehran, he processed our visa on the same day. [Although our application took almost three months to get approved, we think that part of the delay may have been because we applied so far in advance of our travel date–if you allow a couple months, I bet approval from Tehran will arrive in time.]

We’re not in Iran yet, of course, and so we have no idea what our trip (or the services of Pars) will be like. But we’re so very excited that we get to go. If you too, fellow American, want to go to Iran–you can!