Middle East - Visiting Iran after Israel

I have an entry and exit stamp from Israel (entry from Jordan and exit to Egypt via the same border). If I wanted to travel to Iran is this now impossible, is my only option to wait till my passport expires in 5 years?

I have an entry and exit stamp from Israel (entry from Jordan and exit to Egypt via the same border). If I wanted to travel to Iran is this now impossible, is my only option to wait till my passport expires in 5 years?

You could renew your passport now.

Get a new passport. You can renew it, claim you lost it...

Unlike some countries, Iran is one of the few that will undoubtedly NOT let you in with an Israeli stamp in your passport.

I have an entry and exit stamp from Israel (entry from Jordan and exit to Egypt via the same border). If I wanted to travel to Iran is this now impossible, is my only option to wait till my passport expires in 5 years?

Not necessarily impossible but for most people in such a circumstance something extra would have to be done.

What kind of passport would you be using for travel? As in, which country issued it, for what purpose was it issued (i.e. ordinary or government duty-type), is it a pretty full passport, do you need/have an Iranian visa already affixed, where in the passport is the visa affixed, where is the closest blank page to the left or right of the visa, where are the entry/exit stamps from Israel, etc.

In the US, some get an additional, short-duration US passport for use when one or more countries may make a huge stink of travel to another country or your passport will be tied up when it comes to getting visas while you have to otherwise travel and/or possess a US passport.

Some Indian citizens with an Iranian visa already affixed in a very busy book of a passport who then visit Israel prior to use of the Iranian visa may just gamble on trying to use the Iranian visa to enter Iran. Some have undoubtedly been granted entry, while others wouldn't repeat such a thing and most should avoid doing so.

Not necessarily impossible but for most people in such a circumstance something extra would have to be done.

What kind of passport would you be using for travel? As in, which country issued it, for what purpose was it issued (i.e. ordinary or government duty-type), is it a pretty full passport, do you need/have an Iranian visa already affixed, where in the passport is the visa affixed, where is the closest blank page to the left or right of the visa, where are the entry/exit stamps from Israel, etc.

In the US, some get an additional, short-duration US passport for use when one or more countries may make a huge stink of travel to another country or your passport will be tied up when it comes to getting visas while you have to otherwise travel and/or possess a US passport.

Some Indian citizens with an Iranian visa already affixed in a very busy book of a passport who then visit Israel prior to use of the Iranian visa may just gamble on trying to use the Iranian visa to enter Iran. Some have undoubtedly been granted entry, while others wouldn't repeat such a thing and most should avoid doing so.

You're basically saying, they might not notice at the border. Interesting thought.

What if you defaced that page of your passport, like soaked it in coffee or otherwise made the Israel stamps unreadable? Or even used a razor blade to cut out those page(s) very close to the spine?

You cannot just cut out pages. That would invalidate the passport by the rules of most countries. It is also against the rules to deface the passport in any way, although proving this could be hard.

AFAIK for USA passports, you can renew yours whenever you want, pretty much without giving a reason. Use your current passport when applying by mail to renew it. It is normally voided and returned to you with the new passport.

However, it could be more convenient to ask for second passport instead.

Don't deface the passport. That could cause you problems getting visas in otherwise mundane situations. A friend of mine had his routine Chinese tourist visa application rejected because one page in the passport was slightly torn. There were plenty of clean, undamaged pages for the visa but they still rejected it. Fortunately he was in Washington DC so he could expedite a new passport and then the visa all in person but it was still a nuisance he wasn't expecting.

Not sure if a border agent would deny you entry for a torn page but I wouldn't want to test it on the Iranians. :)

A noticeably torn page is more likely to be noticed than some page(s) carefully separated with precise use of an exacto-knife like implement. Most airport immigration/customs and security screeners will miss it during routine and even secondary investigations and it's uncommon for most consular officials to notice such things, particularly foreign government consular officials. [And if someone has US page supplement inserts of the new sort and old sort, a missing page or two seems to be even less likely to be detected prior to a seizure of the passport for other reasons.]

The Chinese consular officials can be rather a pain in the neck to US passport holders -- I've had Chinese consular officials outside of the US refuse to issue or accept my US passport on a given day and asked me to return the next to submit it (while accepting other ordinary passports after mine) because they thought I should be made at least somewhat (more) aware of the hassles the US gives Chinese visitors to the US.

You're basically saying, they might not notice at the border. Interesting thought.

They have not noticed it sometimes, and that's for ordinary passports chock full of stamps, visa pages and multiple inserts/additions/attachments. When they have noticed, they usually will care about the situation, but they may not care if it's either for those on government duty type passports or those who have extra-ordinary arrangements with the Iranian government.

What if you defaced that page of your passport, like soaked it in coffee or otherwise made the Israel stamps unreadable? Or even used a razor blade to cut out those page(s) very close to the spine?

A damaged US passport, for example, may have its validity compromised such that it may not be accepted for use by some/many; and if the damage is willful, it may be considered by the US to be an act of vandalism of US government property.

When it comes to thick, heavily-used passports with multiple inserts of additional pages, the latter kind of damage you mentioned will probably go unnoticed while the former kind of damage will have greater likelihood of resulting in additional scrutiny.

Advisable to do as some non-Iran-born, Iranian-Americans with relatives in Israel and Iran do: get two US passports, one full duration passport used for travel to/from most countries and one short duration passport used for travel to/from Israel but not for most other travel; get the Iranian visa in the full duration US passport and when traveling to/from Iran, leave the short duration US passport elsewhere.

Noone checked my passport at the Iranian border (overland from Turkmenistan) for evidence of Israel.

But I am sure they check when issuing your visa.
My 15 day tourist visa was super easy this summer - took less than 10 days at embassy in Ottawa.

Unlike some countries, Iran is one of the few that will undoubtedly NOT let you in with an Israeli stamp in your passport.

For the sake of accuracy, this is not correct. It may very well be the IRI's stated policy, but I have personal knowledge of Israeli-born American citizens with Israeli entry-exit stamps in their American passports who have travelled to Iran several times over the past decade for work reasons.

To be sure, while OP does not give a reason for wanting to travel to Iran, if we assume it's tourism, I wouldn't expect him/her to be granted a visa. If s/he was granted one, however, I wouldn't imagine there would be further problems.

In the US, some get an additional, short-duration US passport for use when one or more countries may make a huge stink of travel to another country or your passport will be tied up when it comes to getting visas while you have to otherwise travel and/or possess a US passport.


THanks this is what I was hoping for. This is indeed a US passport. I will research this thanks! ^ This is for the purpose of Tourism.

I personally would go with the option of renewing your passport. Defacing or 'carefully' removing pages from your passport could result in detention and deportion from a number of countries if discovered.

I'm not sure about the US, but in the UK we are allowed to hold two valid passports at the same time, issued to people who travel regularly on business. I have two, although i've also visited israel several times and managed to get away without having either passport stamped.