SHIRDAL AIRYA | Iranian Tour Operator and Travel Agency in Iran

As mentioned above, the process consists in two main steps : First, you will have to obtain a visa authorization number from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Secondly, once you got this authorization number, you must go to the embassy/consulate previously chosen to get your visa.

Iran Visa Service

The only option you have to get this number is to contact an Iranian tour operator. You will have to fulfill a form about your personal details and your planned itinerary. This tour operator will contact the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on your behalf to request an authorisation number. The average time for getting this number is around 10 days. Be careful, in this form you will have to specify in which embassy/consulate you would like to pick up your visa, please be informed that it will not possible to change this location after.

In general, we estimate that it should take around 10 days for your number to be issued. Keep in mind that on Thursday and Friday the ministry is closed, and your number could be delayed because of various public holidays of the Iranian calendar.

Once you receive an email from our agency with your authorization number, you can go to the embassy/consulate that you had previously chosen and start the second step of the visa process. The documents you will have to bring differ from an embassy to another, and you should contact them before to make sure about what you really have to bring. Most of embassies will require some identity photos (women must wear a scarf on the picture), a photocopy of your passport identity page, an attestation of insurance for the time you will be in Iran and enough money to pay for your visa. You will also have to fulfill an another form with personal information. If your visa application is accepted, the embassy/consulate can issue your visa in a few hours or in one or two weeks, depending on the location and amount of work of the embassy/consulate. An emergency option is often offered by embassies and consulate in order to make your visa faster if you are in a rush.

If you wish to do this process calmly and without stress, we recommend you to start 2 months before your arrival in Iran.

This visa allows you to stay for 30 days, but you can extend your visa twice once in Iran. In total, you can hope staying for a maximum of 90 days.

Everybody, no matter how you got your visa.

You can pretend to a visa extension only once if you got your visa at the airport “Visa On Arrival”. In theory, you can be able to extend your visa for 15 supplementary days, which means double your original visa (from 15 to 30 days).

In practice, you can see your demand getting deny or to see yourself given less than the duration you asked for. The extension refusal is still random, and can only depend of the mood of the agent in front of you. Nevertheless, it seems much easier to extend your visa if you had previously obtain it prior to your arrival in Iran, meaning the original 30 days visa that you can get from your embassy. You can extend it one or twice, which means a 30 days visa can become a 90 days visa thanks to 2 extensions.

– Two identity photos (women must wear a scarf)

– A photocopy of your passport identity page, a photocopy of your original iranian visa and a photocopy of the iranian stamp if it’s not on the same page as your visa.

Most of the time, you can photocopy your passport on the office against a fee.

You can extend your visa in any major cities in Iran (Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Yazd, Mashhad and many more). You will have to go to the “Police Office of Foreign Affairs”. Feel free to ask advice to our agency or to your hotel to get to this address and know the opening hours. We would rather warn you that this office can be a little chaotic, depending of the town.

There is no general rules as it depends where you apply for this extension. It can be done during the same day or a couple of days maximum. We advice you to extend your visa 3 or 4 days before the end of your current visa, as it is nearly impossible to extend if you have too many days left on your visa.

Iran issues different types of visa depending on your purpose of traveling.

• Tourist Visa: Issued to foreigners who are traveling to Iran individually or in a group. Maximum duration of stay is one month. Expandable to 3 months. Eligible to be extended up to three months.
• Airport Tourist Visa: Issued to tourists who intend to stay in Iran for two weeks, issued upon arrival at Imam Khomeini, Shiraz, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tabriz airports. Expandable to 1 month. Eligible to be extended up to one month.
• Airport Transit Visa: Issued to travelers who are going to another country, and are transiting through Iran for less than 48 hours.
  Airport Entry Visa: Issued to businessmen, valid for 72 hours.
• Pilgrimage Visa: Issued to foreign Muslims who are visiting pilgrimage sites in Iran.
• Press Visa: Issued to journalists and media representatives.
• Transit Visa: Issued to foreign travelers who want to transit through Iran by land on their way to another country. Usually valid for seven days (however, sometimes available for up to 15 days).
• Entry Visa: Issued to experts and businessmen or those who want to attend cultural, political, scientific conventions. Authorized duration of stay is usually up to 30 days.
• Entry and Transit Visa: Issued to drivers carrying cargo thorough Iran.
• Work Permit Visa: Issued to foreigners who want to work in Iran.
  Visa for Entry to Free Trade and Industrial Areas of Iran: Issued to foreigners traveling just to Kish Island, Qeshm Island, Chabahar Port.
• Student Visa: Issued to foreign students who intend to study in Iran.

• The information in your visa application form must exactly the same as the information in your passport.
• Your CV does not need to be highly detailed. Just send us some information about your academic and professional background.
  The passport image that you send us must be clear and of a good quality.
• The Embassy or Consulate you choose in the application form will be where they issue your visa. It can be difficult to change the place of the visa issuance, so please make sure you are choosing the right one.
• Check the Embassy or Consulate website to ensure that have the correct documents specific to that Embassy or Consulate.
• Fortunately, in some Embassies you can follow your visa issuance process all the way by email or post services.
• You are allowed to stay in Iran for 30 days on a Tourist Visa. However, it is the MFA in Tehran that decides how many days you are allowed to stay in Iran. Visa extensions are possible.
• The validity of your visa is three months from when it is issued, however you are only allowed in Iran for the dates you have specified on your application form, unless you extend your visa.
  The visa process will usually take 2-3 weeks for non-US citizens and 4-6 weeks for US citizens.
• Israeli citizens, those who want to enter Iran with an Israeli passport or an Israel visa/stamp in their passports (either valid or expired) can not get a visa under any circumstances.
• Journalists, politicians and political activists may have problems obtaining visas. Please contact us for further information if this may affect you.
• It is important to note that when you enter Iran you are subject to all the laws of the country, even if such laws do not exist in your home country. Please check with your Department of Foreign Affairs for information on any laws that may differ between Iran and your home country.
• All the information provided above, particularly in relation to fees and time frames for visa processing can change overnight, although we will do our best to ensure that the information on this website is up to date, we encourage you to continue to check with your local Embassy or Consulate for any changes.