How to successfully apply for an Iraqi e-visa

Ruins of the Abu Dulaf Mosque near Samarra.

We thought we’d put the Iraqi e-visa application process - which effectively generates a travel authorisation  document for a visa on arrival - to its ultimate test by applying for it on a Friday morning, a day of rest in Iraq.

We did not use a VPN for the whole form, only activating this at the payment stage.

We clicked through here to the e-visa portal in English, with a cheery design featuring a suited chap pulling back a giant curtain etched with maps to reveal an aeroplane heading towards Iraq. If you accidentally end up on the Arabic version of this form, hover the mouse over the first Arabic word in the box at the top of the page (in slightly lighter and smaller type than other words) to reveal a drop-down option for English.   

We clicked “apply now” (ignoring the “book now” option), and this opened a new - rather more official looking - Ministry of Interior page.

Ignoring the login option, we clicked on “Direct e-visa”. Here, we provided our nationality and email address, and confirmed we were not a robot. This generated an email with a OTP (one-time passcode) which needed to be entered before we could proceed.

A welcome page appeared, including terms and conditions, to which we agreed (it’s mandatory) before being able to press on to the next stage, when our visa application number appeared, which we noted down.

We then clicked through to start filling out the form, which asks for basic information in English and Arabic. We completed this only in English. Unless you’re of Iraqi heritage, there’s no need to fill out names in Arabic, and only boxes marked with a red asterisk are actually mandatory, so you do not need to know your grandfather’s name!

An option for “automatic data migration from Passports” from our passport photo page scan seemed too tempting not to try. However, we ran into difficulties when we discovered that the PDF file wasn’t recognised. The learning here is to make sure you save your documents in JPG format. We dutifully saved the passport scan as a JPG and tried to upload but the file was too big, as the maximum size accepted is 5MB.

Once we had resized the document, we seemed unable to upload it at all, as if the website was operating a “three strikes and you’re out” type policy. We tried again but then the site stopped responding.

It was game over for that particular application, so we restarted our computer and started the whole process again, using the same email address, which generated a new visa application number.

We tried again with the “automatic data migration” option but it wasn’t having it, so we filled in those details manually, and uploaded the resized JPG passport scan.

Then it was time to upload a photo (“personal image”), for which there are instructions. This must be a passport-style photograph of the dimensions of 51mm x 51mm, taken within the last 6 months, on a white background, showing the full face, neck and shoulders, with a neutral expression and without glasses.

We considered our passport photo, which fulfilled most but not all these requirements. As it was all we had to hand and as the same photograph had previously been accepted by the Iraqi embassy, we decided to risk proceeding. Again, we needed to resize the picture so it fell within the 5MB size limit. The photo was accepted.

We then needed to fill out the remaining section about our address in Iraq, for which we used a hotel.

We hit “submit”, which generated a choice to “pay now” or “exit”. Obviously we clicked “pay now.”

Having been advised to use a VPN for payment, as we approached that stage, we switched on the VPN. Others have had success using a neighbouring Arab country as a location but that wasn’t an option with our provider, so we randomly selected South Africa.

We used a Revolut card to pay IQD206,000.00, which includes the cost of the now mandatory health insurance. A little box informed us that: “Additional fees of 5.5% will be added only for international card transaction processing.”

It worked. A “payment successful” page appeared, outlining relevant information relating to our application. We checked our Revolut account and the amount we were charged in total was $166.49.

We genuinely had a sense of achievement from successful form submission, but wondered if our application would pass muster and how long it would take to receive word about it.

Despite it being a Friday, our e-visa document and health insurance certificate were delivered by email in PDF format six hours later. The information therein was accurate and it printed perfectly.

Key takeaways for a successful Iraqi e-visa application:

Use a VPN, but only for the payment stage.

Ensure your passport image and photo are saved in JPG format.

Ensure your passport photo page image and photograph are sized accordingly (Max 5MB). There are many websites where you can resize a photo for free, if you’re not able to do this on your computer.

Ensure your passport photo is front facing, without glasses and showing your shoulders, and with a plain white background.

Do not give excess detail such as your grandfather’s name. This is not mandatory and including it can sometimes cause problems at flight check-in because such family names are not usually included in a western passport.

You’ll need to provide an address in Iraq, with the easiest option being a hotel. No proof of a hotel booking is required these days.

You should print out the PDF e-visa authorisation document which is delivered to your email. You will need to show this when you check in for your flight/s, potentially at any transit airport, and once you land in Iraq, to receive the actual visa.

You should also print out the health insurance document. Although we have not been asked for this, should you run into any health-related difficulties, you would need to show this at any Iraqi medical facility attended.

If you make mistakes on, or have difficulties with, the form (before the payment stage), it is straightforward to simply begin a new application from scratch. There is no problem with generating a new visa number using the same email address.

You have 30 days from date of issue to enter Iraq with this e-visa document.

The visa is valid for 60 days from the date of your entry into Iraq.

At time of writing, this information was accurate but, like so much else in Iraq, things may well change.