We are leaving for our trip from Europe to India in about 10 weeks.
We have come up against the brick wall of Visa's applications.
The difficulty being that we will take 3 months or so to get to Iran and the visa only lasts 3 months from date of issue. This is also an issue for Pakistan and India.

So I was wondering if you could help with some advice on whether we can get visa's in Turkey for these countries or any other way of sorting this out.

Hello Hosko,

The Iranian visa is not a problem. You can apply and get it from Turkey. You may apply from Istanbul or Ankara and get your visa from Istanbul, Ankara or Erzurum.

The pakistan visa is not possible from Turkey. The embassies in Ankara and Istanbul refuse any application. Many people I hosted in Ankara tried and refused. They say you should get your visa from your home country. Some people I guess was able to get Pakistan visa from Tehran/Iran but I am not sure about it.

As far as I know Indian visa is not a problem either.

Cheers,
Ozgur

Thanks heaps. Hard to get good information here in Australia. Will apply for the Pakistan Visa before I leave.

Iranian visa - agree, but don't forget there is an additional stage in the process ie you have to use a visa agency to get an application reference no before you go to any consulate or embassy.

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Will organise that here before we leave and get the number sent to iranian embassy in Turkey. Thanks again for your help

You don't need to use an agaency.I applied directly to the Iranian consulate in Turkey and had no problems. There were others who had done the same.

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Hi Hosko, I have done a similar trip to yours, and this is how I obtained my visas. Like you, I took around 4 months to reach Turkey, so applying for visas on the road was my only option.

I applied for both my Iranian and Indian visas in Istanbul. The Indian visa was a piece of cake - $US 50, a $A 39 "Letter of Introduction" from the Australian consulate, and a 6 day wait was all it took. Unfortunately for me, the bloke at the Iranian Consulate didn't bother sending my application to Iran for approval, and after lying me for 18 days, eventually told me so. This meant that I had to re-apply in Erzurum, where I was waiting to pick it up. The second time only took 10 days. I didn't use an agency, which seems to be a popular scam by some to extract more funds out of you. I think British citizens find the agencies easier to use, and for some reason the Iranians charge the poor old Poms much more for their visa applications than anyone else.

With regard to my Pakistan visa, I tried to apply in Istanbul but was politely told that I would need to apply in Iran. That way they can be sure that you have an Iranian visa and an Indian visa before applying. I applied in Teheran, again with a letter of introduction from The Australian consulate. The visa only took 4 days to come through, and they were a really friendly bunch. Be aware that visa applications are only accepted for about an hour in the mornings(around 10 to 11 a.m. from memory), and they are closed on Fridays.

I hope this helps in your planning. The most important thing for me was to be friendly at all times, and NEVER get upset.

Kenny

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