Pakistan visa - get it at home!

[beddhist]

The news is bad: Pakistani consulates and embassies don't want to issue visas for non-residents (Sana'a, Dubai and Abu Dhabi) and have told me to get it at home. Explaining that I travel overland with a vehicle they relented and after much waiting, form-filling, running around and a 3h-trip to Abu Dhabi they finally gave me a visa - for two weeks stay only. I also had to get the dreaded letter of non-objection from my consulate. Most staff were friendly and genuinely wanted to help, but it seems the govt. is going out of its way to make travel to Pakistan difficult.

I had no problem getting 3 month visas back in Germany by post, so my advice is to get a second passport, prepare everything and get your friends or family to post it to the embassy at the appropriate time, then forward it to you.

I'll find out whether this visa is extendable once I get there, in about 4 weeks' time.

[Lars]

Assuming that you got a tourist visa, I would not expect any problems.

Go to any passport office (about 1 week before the visa expires at the earliest). It takes 2-3 three days, but the extension is free and the Pakistani officers were very helpful and generous (in Lahore at least). Should be possible in Quetta as well.

Regards

Lars

[Quincy]

I'm from the U.K and went to the Pakistani embassy in London today to try to get a tourist visa and I was very swiftly and definitely dismissed. I was told that due to the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan we now need to give a detailed itinerary and have proof of where we will be staying (booking conformation). I left empty handed. I wasn't expecting this so it came as a bit of a nasty shock. I'm going to try and arrange my first night accommodation and make up an itinerary and go back in a couple of days time. Thought I best warn you all.

[MikeS]

I was coming into Pakistan at Amritsar from India and the first question was 'where are you staying in Lahore?'. I was like 'um, well I'll probably just have a look at some hotels and see what takes my fancy'. Nope, they wanted to know exactly where and were surprised I didn't even have a guide book. They got quite shirty about it actually.

So for Quetta, its the Bloomstar Hotel (good secure parking), in Lahore you'll be staying at the Internet Regal, (not plush but friendly and has nice rooftop area) and for Islamabad, its the 'Tourist Campsite', next to Aabpara (sp?) shopping centre and comes with armed guards. If you're doing the KKH, in Gilgit stay at the Madina Guest House, secure and friendly.

[mcgiggle]

Quincy, keep us posted on how you get on, i'll be down there doing the same in about a month !
Do you know if they check up ? Or can it just be blagged by giving then details out of LP or similar, having looked in the travel guides not many hotels have any details other than address and phone ( no fax ) number so I can't see that they are going to post confirmation details !

Cheers
Pete

[Brian and Marie]

As of this morning the Pakistan Embassy in Tehran is still issuing tourist visas. We were told to go pick ours up in a couple of hours. But the letter of introduction from your own embassy is required as well as a letter explaining why you did not go get the visa in your own country. As Canadians, our embassy was willing to provide us with the letter of introduction (thank God!). We know this is a problem for many other nationalities but thankfully ours is still issuing it (we had called ahead from Turkey to confirm before we came all the way here).

At the Pakistan embassy we were asked what our route was as well as where we would be sleeping for our first stop. Security did not seem to be a big concern for them.

[morinipete]

'Got mine a week ago in Katmandu, no problem, no questions asked, as did another 6 or 7 people that day.

Kathmandu seems to be notoriously good in this respect, though they still do need a 'letter of no objection' from your embassy, which can be difficult as not all countries have representation there. I'm Irish (which doesn't have an embassy) so wrote my own on suitably convincing (well it must have been ?) self made headed paper......

Still awaiting my Iran visa though, for which I got asked to provide a letter from my employer today :confused1:. Perhaps they think they're coming with me ....?

Pete