Post by Ollie on Feb 25, 2009 13:22:45 GMT
## NOTE ALL INFO FOR UK RESIDENTS ##
There are 3 visas that are causing us a headache, China, Turkmenistan and Iran.
The problem is Iran is there is no guarantee that you will get the visa, although it is listed as a 75% chance if you have a letter of invitation.
This combined with the fact that you can only apply for it 3 months or less before entry means that it is next to impossible to plan a route safely.
The final slap of the triple whammy that we are facing is that if you want a Turkmenistan visa you must have the entrance and exit visas in place.
So, our plan of attack is:
1. Apply for a LOI of Invitation via Stan Tours www.stantours.com/. This is costing $170 for the pair of us, plus a bank fee of perhaps £30
2. Next we will have to apply for a visa at the Iranian embassy in London. This is causing Ollie some problems because he is in Ireland during the week. All the other visas can be applied for through the post, but we cannot get an answer from the Iranian embassy whether this is OK or not. The other problem is that is takes up to three weeks, and of course, at the end of that 3 weeks you may still be turned down. If successful that is going to cost another $160. If not $30!!!
Below is the information that Stan Tours gave us on Iran:
In case the Embassy does NOT accept an individual application (they normally do not if you hold a Commonwealth passport) or if you wish to increase your chances of approval, we can supply you with an invitation for a single-entry tourist visa for up to 30 days against a fee of USD 50 per person. The invitation will usually be issued within 2-3 weeks and sent to you as a telex reference number.
With the invitation the Embassy will normally issue the visa on the spot, costs for this is USD 60-80. The acceptance rate for Commonwealth citizen is about 75%, in case of a rejection a final decision is normally not taken earlier than 3..4 weeks after application and there will be no written confirmation or explanation from the authorities for this. We will charge a handling fee of USD 15 + transfer charges in this case.
If you wish to proceed we would request your passport info, a copy of your passport by e-mail attachment or fax as follows:
1 First Name :
2 Surname :
3 Gender :
4 Father Name :
5 Date of Birth :
6 Place of Birth :
7 Nationality :
8 Occupation :
9 Passport No. :
10 Date of Issue :
11 Place of Issue :
12 Date of Expiry :
13 Iranian Consulate for collecting the visa :
14 Have you ever been to Iran :
15 Planned date of Entry to Iran :
16 Duration of stay :
17 Planned Entry Point :
18 Itinerary :
There are 3 visas that are causing us a headache, China, Turkmenistan and Iran.
The problem is Iran is there is no guarantee that you will get the visa, although it is listed as a 75% chance if you have a letter of invitation.
This combined with the fact that you can only apply for it 3 months or less before entry means that it is next to impossible to plan a route safely.
The final slap of the triple whammy that we are facing is that if you want a Turkmenistan visa you must have the entrance and exit visas in place.
So, our plan of attack is:
1. Apply for a LOI of Invitation via Stan Tours www.stantours.com/. This is costing $170 for the pair of us, plus a bank fee of perhaps £30
2. Next we will have to apply for a visa at the Iranian embassy in London. This is causing Ollie some problems because he is in Ireland during the week. All the other visas can be applied for through the post, but we cannot get an answer from the Iranian embassy whether this is OK or not. The other problem is that is takes up to three weeks, and of course, at the end of that 3 weeks you may still be turned down. If successful that is going to cost another $160. If not $30!!!
Below is the information that Stan Tours gave us on Iran:
In case the Embassy does NOT accept an individual application (they normally do not if you hold a Commonwealth passport) or if you wish to increase your chances of approval, we can supply you with an invitation for a single-entry tourist visa for up to 30 days against a fee of USD 50 per person. The invitation will usually be issued within 2-3 weeks and sent to you as a telex reference number.
With the invitation the Embassy will normally issue the visa on the spot, costs for this is USD 60-80. The acceptance rate for Commonwealth citizen is about 75%, in case of a rejection a final decision is normally not taken earlier than 3..4 weeks after application and there will be no written confirmation or explanation from the authorities for this. We will charge a handling fee of USD 15 + transfer charges in this case.
If you wish to proceed we would request your passport info, a copy of your passport by e-mail attachment or fax as follows:
1 First Name :
2 Surname :
3 Gender :
4 Father Name :
5 Date of Birth :
6 Place of Birth :
7 Nationality :
8 Occupation :
9 Passport No. :
10 Date of Issue :
11 Place of Issue :
12 Date of Expiry :
13 Iranian Consulate for collecting the visa :
14 Have you ever been to Iran :
15 Planned date of Entry to Iran :
16 Duration of stay :
17 Planned Entry Point :
18 Itinerary :