Travel restrictions to Iran became more severe during the Corona

The Ministry of Tourism was waiting this week for the final approval of the Corona headquarters for the issuance of a tourist visa, after a pause of about a year, but now the headquarters is announcing that the rules for entry to Iran for foreign nationals are becoming stricter.

Stricter entry rules for foreigners in Iran

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts had forecast 10 million tourists to enter the country in the 1999 budget, but those estimates were shattered by the outbreak of the Corona virus, the suspension of international flights, the closure of land borders and the suspension of tourist visas.

According to statistics obtained by the Deputy Minister of Tourism from the police and provided to this news agency, from March 1998, when the corona virus spread to Iran, until the end of August 1999, nearly 262,000 foreign travelers entered Iran. Iran’s customs has also confirmed that passenger traffic from land, rail and air borders has decreased by 84.57 percent. The Deputy Minister of Statistics of the Customs Information and Communication Technology Office said that from the beginning of 1999 to the end of December, a total of 2,707,134 passengers entered the country, of which only 318,965 were foreign nationals. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that most foreign nationals travel to Iran on medical and business visas.

Following the suspension of foreign tourists to Iran, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism also entered into negotiations with the National Anti-Corona Headquarters to lift the boycott of Iranian tourist visas. In recent weeks, after numerous requests from tour operators for visas, at least for nature and tourists traveling in their own cars, the Deputy Minister of Tourism announced the finalization of some negotiations to resume the issuance of tourist visas in a limited and planned manner, while A spokesman for the National Corona Headquarters is now talking about setting new requirements for foreign travelers to enter the country and tightening regulations.

Alireza Raeisi – Saturday, February 2 – After the meeting of the National Headquarters against Corona, while tourism activists were waiting to hear the news of the resumption of Iranian tourist visas, announced: All travelers from any country, even neighboring countries to travel to Iran must be tested Have negative PCR. All incoming passengers will also be re-tested for Covid-19, and if a passenger enters the country from Europe, in addition to having a negative Corona test certificate and performing PCR at the entrance border, he or she will have to be quarantined at home for 14 days.

In August, the National Corona Headquarters issued regulations to control travelers, which required all travelers over the age of two to undergo a PCR test at least 96 hours before travel and a negative certificate in English to representatives of the Ministry of Health. And delivered border health bases. If suspicious cases are observed, after performing PCR test, the passenger with non-Iranian nationality will be quarantined at the place specified by the Ministry of Health at his own expense and an undertaking will be obtained from the Iranian passenger to be home quarantined for 14 days. Passengers of non-Iranian nationality will not be allowed to enter the country unless they present a valid health certificate and a valid Quid-19 PCR test. However, according to some incoming passengers to Iran, these protocols were sometimes not implemented properly, strictly, or in accordance with instructions.

Now the Deputy Minister of Health has said that by tightening the implementation of those requirements and protocols, the land, air and water borders will be tightly controlled. The Minister of Health had recently called for closer control of the borders with Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the spokesman for the Corona National Headquarters expressed the hope that if the protocols are followed well by the end of the six weeks until the end of the year, we will have a relaxed Nowruz holiday, and even one of the approvals of this meeting is the operation of hotels in suitable areas. Observance of strict protocols and implementation of some tours during Nowruz has been supervised.