Visas
Hopefully this page will be useful for anybody who stumbles across it and is planning a similar trip.
All this information is based on the particulars of our trip. We are both travelling on Australian passports. The car is UK registered and insured.
Quite a few of the countries we will be visiting will require a Carnet de Passage. Regardless of individual country requirements, we will have one with us, so I haven’t bothered individually checking country requirements. Note that when obtaining the carnet, you do need to specify which countries it’s required for, as this impacts the cost.
Visa Agencies
At the time of writing we haven’t yet used any agencies for visas. These are two UK based companies which can assist with visas. They are probably most useful if you won’t have time to make it to the relevant embassies or consulates, but you obviously pay for the convenience.
Travcour http://www.travcour.com/original-travcour-visa-information.html
Trailfinders http://www.trailfinders.com/travel-centre/khs
Countries
UK- Fine.
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France - Fine
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Belgium - Fine
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Germany – Fine
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Austria -fine
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Slovenia - Fine (Schengen Agreement)
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Croatia – Need to Confirm. Looks OK.
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Bosnia - Need to Confirm. Looks OK.
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Montenegro Need to Confirm. Looks OK.
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Serbia - Need to Confirm. Looks OK.
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Bulgaria – Fine. EU
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Turkey - at the border.
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Iran - Required. £71 transit visa, £80 tourist.
Valid for 3 months from date of issue.
Embassy says it takes 3 weeks!
http://www.iran-embassy.org.uk/page/?jsession=&m=vp&i=178
Spoke to Travcour. Need Authorisation number from foreign ministry. Travcour had no idea how to do this.
They also require 2x passport photo and 2x copy of form.
http://key2persia.com/visa.htm says:
To do the process, just simply fill out the visa form on www.evisa.ir, subsequently, the invitation letter will be issued in 48 hours for you and sent to your mail, and then you can get it stamped in your passport at the international airports of Iran.
Checked the evisa.ir site, however it only seems relevant if you are flying in to the country and can collect your visa at the specified airports.
http://www.iranianvisa.com/index.htm also do auth letter, but they sound dodgy from reports on Horizons Unlimited.
Tried to call Iran embassy, but kept getting put on hold. Gave up.
Horizons Unlimited and others recommend http://www.magic-carpet-travel.com/visa.html
The issue with the Iran visa is that for your local consulate (Canberra or London) to issue a visa, they need to have an approval number from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran. You can theoretically get this yourself (in fact you can do it online if you are coming in through an airport), but most people would use an agency. I think you can also leave it up to your consulate to get the approval letter, and I’m guessing this is where the 6 weeks bit is coming from for the aussie iran consulate to process. They say it takes three weeks on the UK embassy website.
The girl from Magic Carpet said that they take about 2 weeks to get the ‘authorisation letter’ and then you take that with your application to the consulate, and it only takes 2 days to get the actual visa. I asked about her processing it for someone in Australia and she said it was no problem – they’ve done it for aussies before. She said that you can post it to the embassy in Canberra, to save actually having to go there. They charge £120 for their service, and you still have to pay the embassy/consulate fee for the actual visa (which is £30 or something here).
So, there are definitely cheaper ways, but I haven’t found anything that I was actually confident about/comfortable with. I’ll be using Magic Carpet.
Process is:
1. Fill out their visa enquiry form http://www.magic-carpet-travel.com/visa_enquiry.html (I’ve said two and a bit weeks from the 10th to the 30th in Iran)
2. email a scan of your passport to sales@magiccarpettravel.co.uk
3. Pony up the cash.
4. Wait two weeks.
5. Send of approval letter with you application to the Iran Embassy
6. Wait again
7. Receive visa.
8. Start worrying about the next one (china?)
Using “ABBASI HOTEL, AMADEGAH STREET, CHAHARBAGH AVE, ESFAHAN, IRAN” as contact in Iran.
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Pakistan – Required.
Valid for 6 months from date of issue.
Fee £29 (£55 for british passport)
Overland underwater guys got it for £30US at Zahedan in Iran.
http://www.phclondon.org/HC/index.asp Visa service is in Knightsbridge, London.
Called and spoke to Pakistan embassy. Processed within 2 hours, so pick up the same afternoon. Require some sort of booking reference from tour operator, or the guy said a hotel booking reference.
Travcour said recent bank statement and a map of the route would be sufficient.
Dave (29/01/09): I dropped my application form in (printed out from online one) at 12:30 on a Thursday afternoon to the London Visa Service in Knightsbridge and the visa was ready to pick up at 3:30pm the same afternoon! I provided them with recent photocopied bank statements as well as a map our our planned route. Had a very brief interview with the Consular Attache, but he seemed satisfied with what I’d provided. The whole dropping off process, including the interview, payment etc only took about 25 minutes (no long queues). At 3:30pm when you come to pick it up a guy calls out all the ticket numbers – so it only took 5 mins. All very efficient.
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India – Required.
Valid for 6 months.
Fee £36 (?)
Can be applied for online http://in.vfsglobal.co.uk/
We both applied via our local (London and Sydney) VFS global offices and both received our visas within 3 days.
Dave (27/01/09): The Indian visa requirements are quite simple. They only request your basic details, as well as entry and exit ports (and when applying in Sydney, where you plan on visiting.) Very straight forward and you don’t need to use an agency for assistance. The application form online asks lots of ‘tricky’ questions (like Indian ‘sponsors’ in the country and so on), but when the form prints none of that information is there, so it’s nothing to be worried about.
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Nepal - Required.
Valid for 6 months from issue
Multiple entry visa with up to 15 days stay £15.00 + service £25.00 + return postage £7.00 = £47.00
Overland Underware say available at border for $30US. Pleasant and relaxed border.
All forums say visa at the border is OK.
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China – China is the most difficult and bureaucratic of all the countries we will be visiting. To take a private vehicle through China you absolutely have to use an agency to assist you. We have chosen to go with NAVO. They were by far the most professional of the agencies we spoke to and we feel comfortable that they will organise everything we need. We have been speaking to Karen and so far she has been fantastic! The paperwork required is quite extensive, and it is also necessary to pre plan your itinerary for the entire time in China.
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Laos – Required. Available on arrival. Confirm.
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Thailand – Not required for less than 30 days. Confirm
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Malaysia – Not required for up to 3 month stays. Confirm.
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Indonesia - Available at border. Conifrm
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East Timor - Available at the border.
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Australia – Should be OK I reckon 
