As an iranian who regularly visits this site, I come across
several postings as well as inquiries to myself, from US
nationals on how to get to Iran. I would like to put a last
word on it:
I haven't yet heard of any US national who's got a visa (
with or without Iranian sponsor ) to Iran. The only way is
through travel agencies. Now if you're not for a guided
tour, there is this chance for you to have an individual
tour for you alone ( which will cost a bit high of course
). The point is the Iranian government would like to keep
an eye on you. It is both for your safety and that of our
national security!
And if there are so many Americans willing to visit Iran,
why don't you find each other on the net and make a tour
group of your own ( under a travel agency )Lonely planet-
style?!
Amir in Tehran
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I doubt that you're a 'regular visitor to this site', or you
would have seen posts from several people such as myself who
obtained visas by the simple method of applying to the
Iranian interests section (or consulate in another
country) for it. There are posts in the 'Postcards'
section of this site about this. And when we were in Iran,
no one 'kept an eye' on us. Iran did not feel like a police
state in any day-to-day way, and we went anywhere we wanted
and changed money on the street at black-market rates....
and no, we did not have a sponsor in Iran. So much for your
'last word' on the subject.
When was it that you visited Iran? I am another who would like to visit, but can't necessarily afford a tour. I've seen a couple of your posts on the TT, but mostly people who said they can't get a visa without it. Also, what sex and age are you? Does it make a difference?
US citizen, middle-aged, with academic job, travelling with
girlfriend (we said on app form that we were married). All
this may have made us appear more respectable than average.
So I can't guarantee that you'll get it, but neither is it
correct to say that it is impossible. It may help to provide
a detailed itinerary with names of fancy hotels you won't
actually stay at (no one will check afterwards). Also, most
of the rejections occur automatically at the Iranian
Interests Section, which is staffed by amateurs who don't
have the authority to issue visas anyway; they're actually
discouraging you rather than formally rejecting the
application. Sending the application to Tehran increases
their workload so they hate to do it. Plead with them (in a
cover letter) to forward the application to Iran, saying
you'll certainly take a tour if the individual visa is
rejected (allow enough time for this, about three months).
Call and establish a personal relationship with the
interests section person if possible; this is the middle
east, and it helps. The people in Tehran are not very
strict and are quite likely to approve your application.
.
Another thing not mentioned by the Last Word man above is
that transit visas are much easier to get, and can be
extended in Iran (some places are better than others for
this...look at LP Postcards and search on www.dejanews.com
). We got regular tourist visas (one month), but many people
get transit visas (without joining tours).
our visit was in 8/98.
I liked R.Kalia's courage to challenge a local's knowledge
of what goes on in my own country! Though I appreciate
R.Kalia as a US academic person, I shall add a simple note
for his information.
The key to all that harsh opposition to my humble comments
by R.Kalia is infact in his very last words ( if he does
not mind the word 'last word'! ) of his very last posting:
He visited Iran in 8/98 !!! I am not talking history,
Kalia! It is now May 1999, and in 3 months it will be a
year since you visited my country.
In August 98, there was no Kosovo crisis. In August 98, the
East Timorees had no prospect for independence. In August
98, King Hussain was still alive. In August 98, Sanni
Abacha still ruled in Nigeria. In August 98, no 25 students
had been killed in a US high school and in August 98, no
American tourist group had yet been attacked by Islamic
hardliners in Tehran.
The incident happened on 21st of November, when an armed
group of hardliners attacked a bus of 13 American tourists.
No injuries or something, that was just to frighten them.
The attackers were against the promotion of tourism between
Iran and USA. SINCE WHICH TIME, Iran is bit more strict
about US nationals travelling to Iran. The Iranian
government deems itself responsible for your safety and
since that incident, it will normally ask you to be
accompanied by an interpreter or driver ( if not in a group
tour ), who will infact guard you throughout the country.
Perhaps the expression 'to keep an eye' has confused you,
but R.Kalia English is not my mother tongue!
No, Iran is not a police state at all. In fact the Iranians
are one the most hospitable nations on the earth and we all
would like to see more and more US nationals like R.Kalia
visiting Iran so that their understanding of our country
would improve. It is the strategy of our beloved president
which we all support, except an extremist minority.
I hope not to have discouraged any of you from travelling
to my wonderful country, just wanted to give you some hands-
on update info ( realities ).
Try to get the visa whatever way which is convenient, with
tours or without tours. Some of you may infact be lucky
enough to get that right there in US. And yeah, transit
visas may also work ( but I was not talking about 'may's )
Hope to see you all in Tehran
Amir
P.S.Yeah, Kalia, that was not the last word, I have still
much more to say!!!
Actually, even in summer 1998 (as we were planning the trip)
I was told exactly the same story, i.e. that we had to take
a tour in order to get a visa. This story were told by
Iranians who had a financial interest in this, i.e. by
Iran-based travel agents I contacted by e-mail. Also, I know
someone who got a visa to Iran last month. Maybe you will
say the change occurred on May 14, just before you posted
this. But I can only repeat, I was given exactly the same
story last year before we went, and it turned out not to be
true.
.
PS Many readers of this page read the newspapers, and they
know that it is not true that "The incident happened on 21st
of November, when an armed group of hardliners attacked a
bus of 13 American tourists...The attackers were against the
promotion of tourism between Iran and USA."
In reality the attack was on a group of BUSINESSMEN invited
by pro-Khatami govt officials, and the attackers were
anti-Khatami people opposed to this visit. Tour groups and
individual tourists have not been bothered in Iran.
"...There is a high wall of distrust between Iran and
US..." President Khatami, CNN interview
I too perfectly know what those Americans were (
Businessmen ). The point is they were to Iran on a tourist
visa and it turned out to be that the anti-khatami groups
said they will not let any 'US spy' ( as they would put it )
to get to Iran under such terms as 'tourist' anymore!
You happened to get the visa still in that good period
following President Khatami's interview with CNN in which
he encouraged exchange of intellectual tourists between the
two states.
And yeah, the anti-Khatami group attacked the American
Tourists ( We, pro-Khatamis, in Iran would rather not to
say they were Businessmen, though they were ), to bann the
expansion of such 'co-operations', which in the same words
of that of President Khatami, we would put 'tourism
exchange'!
After the incident, the lobby of travel agencies which have
interests in it used more pressure to diviate the current
of tourism exchange towards tours and more or less they
were successful: Having thought exactly the same as that of
Kalia, I contacted the Foreign Ministry officials in Tehran
to find out more and believe or not, now they too give the
same 'story' ( in Kalia's words ). Next would be to say
they too have some interest in it !!!
Does it mean no-one would ever get visas to Iran
individually ? Absolutely not. It just needs harder
efforts. If you're not going to take that effort, you'd
better go for travel agencies.
And Kalia, sorry to disappoint you, but I am NOT one of
those who have interests in any travel agency, but a young
backpacker who once happened to land in Lonely Planet and
as soon as I had an appearance on this site, I received
inquiries from people to sponsor them for their travel to
Iran and I DID so ( next would be to say, I had interests
in that too !!! ), but the applications were turned down.
Sorry to disappoint you still more, but I have't yet
travelled anywhere on a TOUR in my whole life. I am a
better anti-'travel agency' than you are, if that's your
fashion and pose!
The original posting, if you would read it a bit more
carefully and not with this much SUSPICION (!), was a
simple suggestion for all those who are wandering around in
LP on how to get Iranian Visa, which travel agency, etc.,
to build up their own group of tourists and find whatever
travel agency to support them and make this dream come true!
Thanks to your suport, no such suggestions will anymore
appear on LP from my side, if you have some personal
opposition to that, and you find your own way to Iran!
I will of course pass the inquiries to YOU from now on, to
see what you can do for them!
PS. Keep reading your newspapers of course! I was in the
same street when it happened ( next would be to say I was
an attacker myself !!!)
Fact: My visa approval was just granted by Tehran last
week (not in '98, and well after the 'incident'.) Fact: I
am unsponsored. Fact: I am a US citizen who applied in
Washington. Fact: I once had a visa sponsored by a travel
agency two years ago. Fact: No one did (or will) be even
remotely concerned with 'keeping an eye on' me, and the
idea that I'd be a concern to 'national security' is
laughable, if not propaganda. Fact: Amir has a point
about organizing a group of LP would-be Iran-visiters whose
visa application may not be approved and creating a self-
made tour, sponsored by an agency, with a driver.
Question: Amir, where is it in Tehran (or wherever you
are) that you have free access to the Net, the 'outside
world' and this site? I think that your initial post was
worded and interpreted to be yet another plug for travel
agencies' tours, and that irked people like R.Kalia (who
mentions me and my visa in one of his posts prior) and me,
who have seen plenty of e-mail selling tours and instead,
chose the way that not only made us most satisfied, but
made sense for Iran! Think: When I go into a chelo-
kebabie in Tehran and buy a chelo kebab maksus and spend
the R15,000 or R20,000 (or whatever it's going to cost me
these days), who gets the cash? The humble store owner.
Go on a tour, eat at the Hotel Esteghlal, and who gets the
cash? Not the cook. Not the waiter. Just the tour
operator and the hotel's ultimate management, an arm of the
government. The 'safety' issue is more doublespeak: in
reality, tourists are safer in Iran than in any other
country in the region (try Lebanon, Turkey - Istanbul only,
even major european cities) and the bus incident was as
isolated as could be. And Amir, don't even dare to make a
reference to the 25 killed at the US high school... that
has nothing to do with the 'visa issuance rules' and it's
almost an insult to stick that into your false conjecture.
Just like Iranians across the country who were shocked and
embarrassed about the bus incident, Americans across our
country mourned, teared and deplored what happened there.
It's the 1% that ruin it for the 99% in everything in life
(society, food, manufactured goods, women (ha!))...
It is true that the 'tour group' was not really a tour
group, but if it had been a tour group, it would make no
sense for the Iranians to say "a tour group was attacked, so
we insist that all US tourists travel in groups". Individual
travel is safer, because attacking an individual does not
get as much publicity and a tour bus is easy to identify.
Scooter,
what do you mean where it is I have access to internet? In
my home and in the office. Do you think it is strange we
have quick, free internet access here in Tehran?
There are now around 100 service providers ( not all are
active ) and around 70,000 users. There are even 3 or more
CyberCafes in Tehran.
Where you really to Iran?!
With 'free' I don't mean free-of-charge, but free-of-censor!
Hi Amir... actually, it was back in 1997 when I visited, so
I didn't see as much Internet-related stuff as I hear about
now. I think the only provider was Neda Rayaneh and maybe
one or two more, and the Tehran Times website and others
were very basic and unimpressive. Now I see great strides
and I salute your country for the increased opening of the
Internet! I hope that I can check my e-mail when I go
there next week. Is there a cafe somewhere off Vali-ye-Asr
square? I don't mean to criticize you or your post, so
please don't misinterpret my writing. I assume your
intentions are good, and by the way, engilizi-ye-shoma,
kheili kheili khub ast. Koja va chand sal engilizi dars
khandid? Man zaban-e-farsi dars mikhanam vali, inja dar
shahr-e-Amrika-i-ke dar an manzel mikonam, amuzegar-e-zaban-
e-farsi nist, va be in sabab bayad khodam dars bekhanam.
Mikhastam dar daneshgah-e-Tehran dars bekhanam, vali
nemitavanestam 'information' az daneshgah begiram.