ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran is feeling the pinch as US sanctions take their toll on the nation’s economy. Desperate to attract foreign visitors flush with US dollars, Tehran announced Monday that tourists from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region will no longer have to pay for visas.
However, one unusual caveat of the deal is that no American-made cars are permitted to cross the border.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed the visa deal during his three-day visit to Iraq last month. Both sides agreed to remove obstacles to free movement across the shared border.
“From today, the Islamic Republic took the initiative and cancelled all the fees related to visa,” Iran’s consul-general to Erbil Morteza Ebadi told Rudaw on Monday.
Although Iraqis will still need to apply for an electronic visa before they travel, as of April 1 they will no longer need an Iranian stamp in their passport, Ebadi said.
Iraqis with an Iranian stamp often face intrusive questioning at western consulates and embassies when applying for visas and at airports when they travel. Now Iranian visas will only be issued electronically, the consul-general said.
“We do everything electronically. That means there will be no visa or date of entry stamped on the Iraqi passports. We register everything online,” he said.
Iran has however placed a ban on what vehicles are allowed to cross the border. Ebadi said Iran would not allow Iraqis to travel in their American-made vehicles.
“If the vehicle documentation is in the owner’s name, they can … travel to Iran for a limited period of time,” Ebadi said.
“There is no difference between vehicles except that as of now we do not give permission for American [made] vehicles to enter and on that there is room to debate and it seems we need to review this again,” he added.
It is unclear why Iran has specifically banned American-made cars from crossing the border. The move could be designed to prevent gas-guzzling vehicles from exploiting Iran’s cheap petroleum. Then again, it could simply be a continuation of Iran’s long-established culture of anti-American jingoism.
Rudaw has reached out to the Iranian consulate for further clarity but is yet to receive a response.
Tehran hopes to increase its annual trade with Iraq from its current $12 billion to $20 billion in the coming years.
Current trade between the two countries is largely a one-way street. Iran exported $1.1 billion-worth of goods to Iraq over the Mehran crossing alone during the last Iranian year ending March 21. Meanwhile Iraq exported just over $2.5 million-worth of goods to Iran over the same period, according to the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce.
Iraq’s Council of Ministers confirmed the mutual removal of visa fees in a Facebook post on Monday.
“The Council of Ministers agreed to lift the fees of entry for the citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the basis of similar treatment,” it said.
Consul-general Ebadi said he met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Interior Minister Karim Sinjari who agreed to remove the 25,000 IQD fee levied on Iranian tourists visiting the Kurdistan Region.
However, Sami Jalal, chief of staff at the KRG Ministry of Interior, told Rudaw on Tuesday the KRG has never charged Iranian visitors a visa fee – merely administrative costs.
“We don’t collect visa fees. We only collect administrative fees,” Jalal said.
He said reducing the 25,000 fee was a “possibility” that is still under discussion.