Border Iran
As of: 11/2024
Table of Contents
Blog posts
Blog posts about Iran: Iran 1 and Iran 2
Turkey – Iran
The first border crossing on this trip, which took a little longer and required some initiative on our part. First things first: no one needs a guide or fixer or anything like that, and in our opinion, no traveler should use these services. It just makes things harder for everyone else. Besides, you’re not on vacation. You might as well do something.
Google Translate helps with translation, and otherwise you just have to walk around a bit to collect stamps, only to end up not even getting a stamp in your own passport. But first things first:
Turkish side
We entered Iran via Bazargan. Depending on the day, it might take a while on the Turkish side. We had overstayed our 3-month visa and therefore had to pay a fee for the car. It came to €2 per day over the limit. We were able to pay in euros at a decent exchange rate. However, the toll collector was on an extended lunch break, so we ended up waiting for 5 hours. Spoiler: The Iranian entry process was done in 1.5 hours. If you don’t have anything to pay, you’ll otherwise get through here quickly.
Iranian side
Eventually, the sliding gate into Iran opens. Drive in 10 meters and park the car. The first fixers will already be arriving and will want to take your papers. They’re all nice and understand “no.” Because of their clothes, it’s not always easy to tell border guards from fixers—just ask. A tip: The fixers speak English; the border guards, not so much.
On the left side behind the sliding gate, you go through a gap between the border wall and the building (yes, really) into the tunnel, where travelers on foot get their entry stamps. That’s where you need to go, too. At one of the counters, someone will take care of you. For us, it took a bit of back-and-forth until they found our visas. Just follow the officials into the various offices.
That’s it for you. There’s no stamp in the passport, just one on the visa slip.
Now it’s the car’s turn.
50 meters past the sliding gate, there’s an unassuming “office” on the right. That’s where they’ll look at the Carnet. Yes, look at it—not stamp it. You’ll now receive a slip of paper that you’ll take to the main building across the way. In the main building, there’s a sort of hall behind large doors. You have to go in there, and someone will stamp and sign the slip for you and send you to someone else who does the same thing. For all this hassle, you’ll need 3 copies of your passports and visas. If you don’t have any: There’s a small shop out on the forecourt that also makes copies. They take Turkish lira. We paid the equivalent of €1.50 for our 3 copies.
Eventually, everyone has signed and is happy about what a great job they have. You go back out to the “office,” have a nice chat with the guy—unfortunately, you don’t have any gifts with you—and then there’s another stamp on the form.
The form is now well-stamped. Take it back to the hall in the main building. Now the boss comes and fills out the Carnet. Done.
Head out. Have some tea.
You can find our report here: Part 1
Iran – United Arab Emirates (Sharjah)
From Bandar Abbas, you can take a car ferry to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Passengers and cars travel on the same ferry. The trip takes 14 hours; in our case, it departed at 9 p.m. and arrived on the other side in the morning.
You buy the passenger tickets for the ferry when you arrive in Bandar Abbas. Near the port, there’s a Valfajr office (the ferry company) where you can do this pretty easily after a few cups of tea.
That was the easy part. Now we’ll describe the fun part.
Just like when entering the country: No one needs a fixer, helper, or anything like that! Two healthy legs, plenty of time, and a little cash (around 35 euros in tomans) for official fees are all you need.
It starts at 8 a.m. on the day of departure. You’ll need almost the entire day to take care of the customs paperwork, etc., for your vehicle.
A quick note: Buildings and locations may change depending on construction work in the port. The procedure remains the same. Just ask around—people will help you.
Here we go:
- First building on the left, right behind the entrance gate: One of the people there has to go outside with you and write the car’s chassis number on the Carnet.
- Head into the main building: On the left is a glass booth with a copier and attendants. They’ll make copies of the Carnet.
- To the left of the glass case, go down a short hallway; at the end is the unmarked customs counter. There, hand in the copies of the Carnet as well as a copy of the vehicle owner’s passport. You’ll see other people running around with their Carnets. Just follow them.
- Behind the customs desk is an office. You’ll need to go in there with your passport and Carnet. The guy in the office fills out a slip of paper, which you take back to the entrance of the main building and hand to someone to the left of the entrance (the right person will make themselves known).
- This slip of paper will be stamped, and with it, you then leave the main building and head back toward the port area entrance. On the right side (to the left of the main building) is the “Licensing Office,” although it’s labeled “Office of In-Transit Permission Issuance.”
- There, hand over your driver’s license and you’ll be given two slips of paper.
- With the two slips and the car, drive further through the port area to the barrier on the left and look for Warehouse 6 (the first building) behind it; drive in there—that’s the mandatory parking lot until the ferry departs.
- Someone there will inspect the car, take photos, and you’ll be asked to hand over the keys. They don’t actually need them, since you can drive the car onto the boat yourself. I’ll leave it up to your negotiating skills to decide what you hand over.
- Then head to the office upstairs in Warehouse 6. There’s another form to fill out, which is then authenticated with your fingerprint. The form stays in the office, and you’ll receive a receipt confirming that you’ve dropped off your car.
- Now walk back the same way. Pick up your driver’s license at the Licensing Office and head back to the main building and the Customs counter: show all the forms you have
- Now your Carnet will finally be stamped.
- Off to the Port Authority. The building is located behind the Licensing Office. There, you pay your fees. Something around 15 euros in Toman or whatever the current exchange rate is…
- You now have to go back to Warehouse 6. This time, the office downstairs. The car will be checked again, various forms will be stapled together, and you’ll hand in a copy of the Carnet signed by the Port Authority. You may have to go back upstairs (to the fingerprint office), but they’ll let you know if that’s the case.
- You may now have to hand in a copy of your passport (vehicle owner) and the Carnet to another employee in the office downstairs; you’ll be told if that’s the case.
- Back to the port authority. Here, a photo is taken of the Carnet and your remaining paperwork. Then you’ll be told a time to come back to pick up and pay for the Bill of Lading. Cost: around 16 euros in Toman
- Somehow you’ve managed to export your car out of Iran! As a reward, you can now check out the ugly dolphin statues in front of the port area and grab a few falafels with the soldiers before heading back into the port.
- Pick up the bill of lading at the time given to you and pay in Toman. We didn’t have any left, so we paid in euros. Instead of change, we got the entire contents of the office fridge.
- Now head to the main building and wait for departure. When you go from the waiting hall onto the boat, make sure you don’t walk onto the boat itself, but back to Warehouse 6. Someone has to drive your car onto it. The port employees would do that, but first, they need a key, and second… no…
- Off to the ferry. The car stays below deck; you go up to the “lounge.” There’s plenty of space; you can kind of sleep, food is served and it’s okay.
- After a 14-hour crossing and 19 checkpoints, they’ll let you off on the other side.
Total time spent running around the port: 6 hours. So it’s manageable. There are more exhausting border crossings.
Note: You pay the actual shipping fee for the car (for our 3.5-ton vehicle, it was 570 euros) upon arrival in Sharjah.