Es
erreicht uns folgende Frage, die ich gerne öffentlich beantworte, halt in Englisch:
„Good morning I want to travel to Iran from Italy for the first time by car. Please provide the documents required to cross the Iranian border. Help me with your extensive experience traveling with Vanlife and please tell me what documents they asked me. I am waiting to hearing you as soon as possible Thank you“
Basically, it’s a pretty simple thing.
For the travelers themselves, you need a visa, you can get it at any Iranian embassy. The visa is no longer stuck in the passport. It is a simple sheet of paper with a visa number and of course the information about the person who wants to enter. Normally you get three months, but you can extend the visa in the country.
For the vehicle you need a „Carnet de Passage en Douane“. This is an international customs document with insert sheets. You pay the exhibitor, usually the Automobilclub of your country, a guarantee. The amount of the guarantee depends on the current value of the vehicle. And the guarantee will be repaid to you, when the vehicle is officially returned to its home country after the journey. This requires an appropriate entry stamp from customs of your country.
It is important that the insert sheets of the „Carnet de Passage en Douane“ are stamped and signed by Iranian Customs in the correct place. You have to check this yourself.
Attention:
If you stay longer than planned in the country, the „Carnet de Passage en Douane“ must be extended together with the visa.
We forgot that and the fine was around 800 Euro at first. We could trade them down to 200 Euro at another border crossing.
A car insurance can be concluded directly after the entry at the Iranian customs and the duration of the insurance depends on the length of stay. If you stay longer than originally planned in the country, you will also have to extend the insurance period, see visa and „Carnet de Passage en Douane“.
Driver’s license, Iran requires an international driving licence. I have had one issued for me. However, it was never required anywhere. The traffic police occasionally demanded the car papers, the military posts were interested in our identity papers but neither the Carnet de Passage en Dounae nor my driver’s license was at anyones interest. But I am sure, if I hadn’t had an international driver’s license with me, somebody would have wanted to see it. It is a bit like Murphy’s law “If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” Or not.
I wish you a pleasant journey to Iran and back. Stay away from military installations, don’t take photos there and don’t fly around with drones.
The best way to deal with the authorities is to remain calm, but determined. „Losing face“ in these areas is worse than losing a hand. This applies to both sides.
Links to previous blog posts:
Versicherung, Geld und Internet