Iranian Visa
Fee: 35 Euros
Wait: 3 days to receive Authorisation Number
Rating: 10/10
Where to collect: We chose the London Consulate
Cost: Tourist Visa Single Entry £68 + £20 fee for same day service after asking very, very nicely!
Tip
The Iranian Consulate advises that they are open Mon-Fri 12:30pm to 4pm, and to come early to "avoid any inconvenience" as only a limited number of applicants are accepted each day.
The Consulate actually opens at 8am and tickets are allocated from 8am so arrive early! - (all tickets had already been allocated by 10:30am when we arrived on Tuesday, but were still being allocated until 3:30pm on the Wednesday).
Pakistan Visa
The Pakistan Visa was £55 and we got ours from the Manchester Consulate.
A Letter of Invitation, Itinerary, 3 months of Bank Statements, Hotel Bookings and ID of Sponsor are all required as part of the Pakistan Visa application.
Prior to our application, we made bookings at the Mirage Hotel, in Pakistan as well as other Hotels along the route such as The Ramada in Multan. Our application did not include a Letter of Invitation as we did not know anyone in Pakistan who could invite us!
Our application was initially referred to Pakistan due to security concerns taking a vehicle across the country.
3 weeks later we amended our application to advise that we would ship the 4WD from Iran into India, and fly ourselves into Lahore for 10 days whilst the vehicle was being shipped.
The Pakistan Tourist Visa was granted 2 hours later.
Indian Visa
The cost was £30 for the Visa, and £9.05 for VFS Service Charge.
We applied on the Monday Morning in Birmingham and collected our Visas on Thursday in Birmingham.
Although our Visa is Multiple entry, there is stamp placed in our Passports which advises that reentry into India cannot take place within 2 months.
We plan to leave India to visit Nepal for 7 days before returning back to India. We will need to seek special permission from the Indian High Commission in Birmingham for this.
