Iranian Consulate in Ottawa, Canada

Written by Benoit (Canadian) – Sep. 2011

Here is our experience with getting our visas from the Ottawa Iranian consulate:

Even though we had our visa application approved by the Iran Foreign Ministry, we still had to fill out an application form for the Iran Embassy in Ottawa Canada. Most of the questions were the same or similar to those that we had answered for our original visa application. One major difference was that for holders of Canadian passports, we were also required to provide a c.v. of our education and work experience. We each had to supply one photo for the visa. The embassy website did not specify a size for the photo, only that it be in colour and without glasses. So we chose the standard photo size that is required for a Canadian passport. We sent in the required documents by mail (a type of registered mail provided by Canada Post) including a return envelope. We had our visas sent back to us in one week.
To call the Iran Embassy in Ottawa for questions about visas, this was only possible between 3:00pm and 4:00pm on weekdays and it was often difficult to get through. Once through, however, the people answering our questions were very helpful.