Pakistan visa

Except for passport holders of a few nations, everyone needs a visa to visit Pakistan. Applying for a tourist visa for Pakistan is confusing, though. Every embassy has its own rules. Some require you to go through an intermediary, others need an invitation letter. We are in need of embassy reports to fill you in here. Let us know if you had any recent experiences.

What is for certain, is that you need to apply at the Pakistan embassy in your home country or country of residence. All applications lodged outside your home country are refused unless there is no embassy in your home country (as with all other things in Pakistan, there are always exceptions if you are adamant or know the right people). If you are already abroad, you need to mail in your passport to your home embassy.

In India it is illegal to send your passport away. You always have to keep it with you. In Sri Lanka it is not illegal.



If your country is embassy-less, find out which is the nearest and double-check to make sure they are responsible for your passport.

Processing times reported have varied wildly, from a few days to 6 weeks. Start on time.

Visa-free nations

Citizens from Iceland (90 days), Maldives (90 days), Nepal (30 days), Samoa (30 days), Tonga (unlimited) and Trinidad & Tobago (unlimited) can enter visa-free. In addition, visa is not required for holders of a Pakistan Origin Card (POC) or a National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistani (NICOP).

Visa on arrival

Nationals of Turkey with a valid visa of Schengen Area, United Kingdom or the United States already in their passport can obtain a visa on arrival. If traveling as part of a group with a tour operator, you are eligible for a 30-day visa on arrival if you are a citizen of Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States. Talk to a tour operator in Pakistan, or check with your local travel agent who they work with.

Israeli passport (stamps) and Indian/Afghan passports





Entry will be refused to travelers with an Israeli passport. However, other passports containing Israeli stamps or visas are not problematic for entry.  There have been exceptions in which nationals of Israel have been admitted to Pakistan after obtaining an NOC from the Ministry of Interior in Islamabad beforehand, which they then submitted along with application for Pakistani visa.

Citizens of India are granted 30-day tourist visas but must travel in a group through an authorised tour operator. Visitor visas to meet relatives or friends are more easy to obtain, and come with some restrictions. Religious visas are granted for groups of 10 or more for 15 days.

Nationals of Afghanistan are refused entry if their passports or tickets show evidence of transit or boarding in India.

Tourist visa

Pakistan tourist visa validity: 3 months from the day you get the visa (exceptions are common, 4 and 5 months is known). This means you can enter Pakistan one day before the visa expires and still stay the duration of your visa. If you have a double entry visa, you cannot enter Pakistan a second time if your visa validity has expired. You can enter after the visa entry date and leave before the exit date.

Single or double entry: Both are available. Multi-entry visa might have 6 month validity.

Pakistan tourist visa duration: 30 days, 45 days or 90 days are available. You might not get the 90 days you requested. All up to the discretion of your embassy official.

Special trick to stay longer: If you have a double entry 90-day visa, and you leave and re-enter Pakistan before the expiry of your visa’s validity, you get an extra 90 days. Example: You have a double entry 90 day visa valid from 1 January to 31 March. You enter Pakistan 15 January, leave 30 March and re-enter 31 March. You then can stay in Pakistan until 29 June.

Overstaying: you can overstay your visa for 2 weeks without any extra charge, and up to one year for $400 (source).

Letter of invitation (LOI)

Some embassies require a letter of invitation from a Pakistani tour company. You can get in touch with our super-speedy-does-he-ever-sleep guy in Pakistan through the form on this page. Cost is 55 euros.

Police registration

Only travelers from certain countries need to register with the police upon arrival. These are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iraq, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, Palestine, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda & Uzbekistan. Reports about the process are more than welcome.

Visa extension

A Pakistan visa extension is possible, but only in Islamabad at the Pak Secretariat (GPS 33°44’10.04”N 73°05’34.19”E)(possibly Chitral) with considerable hassle. For Americans, extending the visa seems more difficult: they need a letter from the MOI.

You need:

a letter of invitation on paper with letterhead. You can ask your hotel to do it for you.
Copy of first page of your passport
Copy of the Pakistan visa page and stamps
3 ID pictures
October 2015: The office where you need to be is in the entry hall of the complex, recognizable by 3 desks and a waiting room. Opens at 10:00 but nobody showed up before 10:30. After we dropped our documents there we were given a letter of approval of the Ministry of Interior the next day in the same place. We had the assistance of a local.

Once we had this paper we went to Passports and Visa Office G8, open from 10 to 12. We came early with all our papers, then asked for the form for extension of 4 pages and filled it in. Got in line and played the foreigner card so as to not have to come back next day. Pingponged between the reception desk and the immigration officer a few times. Finally, you leave your passport and get a paper with your passport number and are told to come back between 7 and 15 days (even the same day is possible if you know people).

Don’t forget to make copies of your passport and visa page with stamp, as well as the letter from the Ministry, especially if you go to the North where many checkpoints will ask you for these papers. For these checkpoints, also prepare a paper with your name, visa validity, visa number, nationality and the license plate of your vehicle if you have one. Copy this 20 times. This will save you hours filling in forms.

Extension is free and a maximum of 2 extra months can be asked for.

To recover your passport, return to the passport office between 14 and 16 with your little paper and play the foreigner card once more.

Embassy reports

Ankara embassy

May 2013: US citizen with Turkish residence. The guy behind the desk kept going back and forth as to if he would even consider my application, but I was ultimately refused on the grounds that 1) I had to apply at the Istanbul consulate where my residency permit was based, 2) I couldn’t apply for a trip 6 months in advance, 3) my plan to enter by road (by bus, not bike) from China to Pakistan wasn’t allowed, 4) I hadn’t made any reservations yet etc etc. Ended with him looking me in the eye and saying, “my dear.”

Berlin embassy, Germany

Updates posted here.

October 2016: We could easily get a visa that allows us to enter Pakistan between April and June 2017, well over 6 months from our date of application!

Asked for: single entry, at least 30 days and no earlier than April 2016
Got: 30 days within a 3 month period of our choice (5-8 months in the future)
Processing time: 7 days
Price: 36 Euros
Documents:

Duly filled in 5 page application form (website states 2 copies needed, but were not)
Passport Copy
Two 3.5×4.5 passport pictures with light blue(!) background
New requirement: Invitation, Flight Booking or Hotel Booking (choose at least one, booking.com ok)
Could not reach anyone by phone or mail, got *very* different answers from different members of staff. Passport photos need the light blue background, edit at home and print them at any dm/drugstore instant photo printer.

Payment was another problem, as they only accept some ec-cards (no cash) and their machine did not like mine. That meant running off to a nearby bank, doing a bank deposit and returning with the payment slip.

Bern embassy, Switzerland

August 2016: Chinese passport holders resident in Switzerland need LOI. 1 month processing time.

Bishkek embassy

November 2012: Not available for 3rd country citizens.

Copenhagen embassy

Updates posted here.

June 2016: 6 months validity appears to be the norm here (upon entry you get 30 days). We also managed to talk our way around getting a LOI. 40 euros per person in total. 2 week turnaround.

Dublin embassy

May 2016: LOI was needed. They do not get many overlanders and were very cautious about giving us visas….in fact they made me sign an acknowledgement that we are going through a dangerous area and take full responsibilities for ourselves. My new friend in the embassy in Dublin steared me through and we had quite an email dialogue before. I made an appointment with my friend on a Thursday and received my visa by mail on the following Monday. Cost was 128 euro.

Unfortunately they made a mistake with a 3 month visa from date of issue. As a British passport holder requiring a Pakistan visa before applying for an Iran visa I needed a 5 month visa from date of issue. I returned the passport by post and within days I received the amended visa back by post.

Frankfurt consulate

Updates welcome here.

August 2016: We applied via post. At that time we were already in Georgia, so we had our application sent to the consulate, rigorously following the requirements on the consulate’s website. The light blue background was photoshopped into our photos in a Tbilisian photo shop. We did not submit any flight or hotel booking. Our passports arrived back 11 days after submitting them to the post. Visa are valid 3 months from the date they were issued and allow a 30 days stay. In total, it was a pretty quick and easy way to obtain a Pakistan visa for German travelers.