Hi All,

I have just been reading the travellers tales of Chris & Richard Stone and they mention the fact that they had to return to the UK to get there visa's. That's all fine but we plan to leave the UK in April and won't get to Pakistan until November so as the visa's are valid for only six months they will be expired when we get there.

Is there a possibilty of "extending" the Pakistani visa at a Pakistani consulate when we get to Turkey/Iran or is the only option to fly home from during the trip and get the visa then?

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Gazzr
www.theworld-ismyoyster.com

Hiya,

Things may have changed since July 2004 when we came through Iran / Pakistan, but we got our visas (same day) at the Pakistani Consulate in Zahedan, which is just before the Iranian border. The officials were falling over themselves to give us a visa (a bit of cricket talk always goes down a treat), and I don't think that being NZ passport holders made any difference in this case... It did make a difference when applying for the Iranian visa's in Ankara!

I recall e-mailing some information about this to Chris Stone at the time he was trying to get visas. I'm pretty sure he posted it somewhere on the HUBB, so if you do a search you should find it... Probably in the ASIA forum.

We've been getting our visas en route, so haven't had any experience extending visas acquired in the UK.

To be honest, we just assumed that we could get Pak visa's in Zahedan since there was a consulate in the city. Perhaps a little naive of us, as it would have been a bummer if we'd had to ride all the way back to Tehran or worse still, the UK!

Indonesian visa's have been the most annoying to get so far... But the bikes were loaded onto a cargo ship in Penang today, and we follow them on a ferry tomorrow! Yay!

Hope this info helps, and hope you have as much fun on the road as we have been!

Cheers
Jacqui and Trent

hi,

I am in pakistan for the moment. The best thing you can do is to contact the consulaat in zahedan and ask a written conformation.I will be in zahedan in 4 days.I can check it out...

greetz
niels

Hi Jac,

Thanks for the information. I checked out the Travellers Stories from Chris Stone (http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tst...one/000968.php).

It was posted in Sept 04 and mentions that they were told to get the Pakistani visa from the UK. And from reading the blogg it looks like they went home again after Iran and gave up.

Anyway I’ll look into it further and see what I can find out.

It sounds like you are having a great time travelling and hope we have just as much fun. It all seems very far away at the moment sitting in an Internet café in London but in four weeks it should be a bit more reality!

Niels – Thanks for the info. After not getting any replies to the post in a week I was starting to worry, and now I’ve got two on the same day! Yes it would be great if you could get some information from Zahedan about rules and regulations. I will try and get in touch with the consulates in the mean time and see what they say.

Happy travels.

Gazzr

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Gazzr
www.theworld-ismyoyster.com

have bad news concerning zahedan gazzr...
Its not possible any more, so dont count on it. the russians with who i am hanging out with said it was not possible, even in special situations. and i tell you they are. there jeep broke down and lots of other stuff..
they were also very unfriendly overthere..
it changed the last year, they only take cases from pakistanis and afghans.
the russians told me they got a pakistani visa in 3 days in tehran. that was 1 month ago..

good luck
keep in contact..
greetz
niels

have bad news concerning zahedan gazzr...
Its not possible any more, so dont count on it. the russians with who i am hanging out with said it was not possible, even in special situations. and i tell you they are. there jeep broke down and lots of other stuff..
they were also very unfriendly overthere..
it changed the last year, they only take cases from pakistanis and afghans.
the russians told me they got a pakistani visa in 3 days in tehran. that was 1 month ago..

good luck
keep in contact..
greetz
niels

Hi Niels,

Thanks for the update. I guess I was hoping for better news but was not suprised. I will start looking at the alternatives and let you know the outcome.

Chat soon.
Garry

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Gazzr
www.theworld-ismyoyster.com

hi,

zahedan is not longer an option to obtain an iranian visa. they stopped issueing it from last year.
Even in xtreme or unusual situations you can forget it. (some russians broke down several times with their jeep and needed an extension for their transitvisa...
they told me they got their pakistani visa from teheran in 3 days..an extension for your paki visa you can get in 1 day (iso 3)if you bribe the nice girl behind the counter with a bar of chocolate. normally extension office has a lot of work with afghans and paki's working there...

hope this helps..
greetz niels

Perhaps getting the Pakistani visa in Turkey is a better option?

Gazzr, keep us posted on what you find out, I will be doing a similar trip around the same time and am in the exact same situation. I just assumed that I could get the Pakistan visa sorted out in Turkey, hopefully this is a viable option...

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

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Dave McMillan
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mcmillan/

Hi All,

That was too easy!

We decided to get the Pakistan visa's in London to make sure we didn't have to do a huge detour if we were unable to get them on the road.

I'm a UK citizen so applied for a Multi- Entry Tourist visa. It's the only tourist visa that is valid for 12 months and although I had to speak to another official at the embassy to get it approved he signed it off straight away. He also had an interest in the trip and bikes which made it even easier! The whole process took about 1 hour from walking in to walking out. The visa was 74pounds and they dont take credit card/cheques so cash is the order of the day.

My girlfriend (Australian) was originally told that she would have to go back to Australia to apply for her visa but the offical at the embassy said no that's not true, I could get it at the same time. He even let me fill out and sign the form on her behalf so again it was easy! And she was only charged 54pounds for the same visa!

They only accept applications in the morning so get there around 9am if possible to avoid the ques.

The website is www.pakmission-uk.gov.pk

Hope this helps.
Garry

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Gazzr
www.theworld-ismyoyster.com

Thanks for the follow up Garry. Perhaps we will see you on the road!

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

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Dave McMillan
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mcmillan/

hi guys,

good it worked out.. but what with all these visa-fees. some countries really get discriminated corncernig what they have to pay for the same visa (economy, politics). when i was i nepal i found out the japanese where travelling there for free..same for pakistan..
some more news about this...concerning cash and recomadation letters..the britisch and the americans pay i suppose..

greetz
niels

Hi Linda here,

Has anyone any up to date info on getting Iran/ pakistan visas in Istanbul or Ankara. There seem to be many conflicting stories. Frankfurt said I could get one in Istanbul but I#d like to know if any one actually has.I have sent off to the key2persia agency for iran but it is too early to apply for Pakistan and I want to leave Germany by the end of this month and get Pakistan visa on the road.

cheers

linda