Last updated: August 2026. We re-checked the official portal at evisa.iq on 8 August 2026, re-read the September 2025 cabinet decision that bundled health insurance into the visa fee, and re-confirmed that the Kurdistan Region’s separate portal is still issuing despite being scheduled for absorption.
The first thing most people get wrong about the Iraq eVisa is that it is not a formality you can arrange at the airport. Until 1 March 2025 it more or less was: 37 nationalities could land in Baghdad, pay at a desk and walk through. That option is gone. The Iraq eVisa is now a mandatory pre-travel authorisation for those 37 nationalities, applied for online at the government portal evisa.iq, and you will not be allowed to board a flight to Iraq without it.. The eVisa is one route among several, all compared side by side in our complete Iraq visa guide.
The second thing people get wrong is the price. Almost every English-language page quotes a flat “about US$160”. There are actually two government fee tiers with different validity windows, and which one you pick changes how long you can stay. Get that wrong and you can end up with a visa that expires before your trip starts.
The rest is genuinely manageable. A passport, a photo against a white wall, a hotel address, a card that your bank will let you use on an Iraqi payment gateway, and usually somewhere between six hours and three days of waiting. Most refusals we could trace back to a source came down to a photograph or a passport scan rather than anything about the applicant.
This guide walks through the whole thing: who needs the visa, which website is the real one, the exact fee tiers, the health insurance that was bundled in at the end of 2025, what the form asks, what a passable photo looks like, real processing times with a worked example, what happens at the boarding gate and at Baghdad immigration, the Kurdistan asymmetry that still catches people out, who is excluded outright, and what to do if you are refused.
The short answer
| Question | Answer as of 8 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Do I need one? | Yes, if you hold one of the 37 passports that lost visa on arrival on 1 March 2025 — US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, all EU states, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Norway, Switzerland and most Gulf states. |
| Where do I apply? | evisa.iq, which sends you to eservice.evisa.iq. Everything else is a reseller. |
| What does it cost? | Two government tiers: 151,000 IQD (~US$114) for a “visit” visa, 206,000 IQD (~US$160) for an “ordinary” visa. Agencies charge US$160–190, and up to US$250 where sponsorship is involved. |
| How long does it take? | Officially 6–72 hours. Most approvals land inside 24 hours. Some take five days. Apply one to two weeks out. |
| How long can I stay? | 30 days on the visit tier, 60 days on the ordinary tier. The portal’s own summary page still says 30 days for everyone. |
| Does it cover Kurdistan? | Yes. A federal e-visa is valid across all of Iraq. A Kurdistan-only visa is not valid in federal Iraq. |
| Who cannot use it? | Journalists and NGO workers (embassy only), Israeli passport holders (barred entirely), and any nationality outside the eligible list, who need a sponsor. |
Who actually needs an Iraq eVisa
On 15 March 2021 Iraq opened visa on arrival to 37 nationalities as part of a push to restart tourism. On 28 February 2025 the Ministry of Interior announced that the scheme was suspended, effective immediately, and that those same 37 nationalities would instead need to obtain authorisation online before departure. The change took effect on 1 March 2025 and has not been reversed since.
The list is broad. It covers the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Norway, Switzerland and all 27 European Union member states, plus most Gulf Cooperation Council states. If you hold one of those passports, the Iraq eVisa is your route in and there is no legitimate alternative at the airport.
If you hold anything else, you are not applying online at all. You need either an Iraqi embassy visa or a local sponsor — an Iraqi tour operator, employer or licensed agency — to lodge on your behalf. Sponsored applications typically take around ten working days, cost in the region of US$250, and come with conditions attached: at least one Baghdad agency requires a refundable US$2,000 deposit, holds your passport for the duration of the trip and requires you to stay on the agreed itinerary. That is not a scam; it is what accepting legal responsibility for a foreign visitor looks like in practice. It is also a reason to read the terms properly before you pay.
Two nationalities sit outside the system entirely. Iranian citizens currently enter Iraq visa-free. Turkish nationals get 30 days visa-free, but our sources disagree on the age bands: one says under-15s only, another says under-15s and over-50s. We could not resolve that from an Iraqi government source, so if you are Turkish and near either threshold, check with the Iraqi consulate rather than trusting a blog.
| Your passport | Route into federal Iraq |
|---|---|
| One of the 37 e-visa nationalities | Iraq eVisa online at evisa.iq, before you fly |
| Any other nationality | Iraqi embassy visa, or a sponsored application through a licensed Iraqi agency |
| Journalist or NGO worker, any nationality | Iraqi embassy or consulate only — not eligible for the e-visa |
| Iranian | Visa-free |
| Turkish | 30 days visa-free within certain age bands; sources conflict, confirm before booking |
| Israeli | Entry and transit prohibited |
Holding the visa is a separate question from whether you should go. Both the FCDO and the US State Department maintain serious advice against travel to most of Iraq, and that advice has practical consequences for insurance rather than legality. We work through what each one actually says in our guide to the government travel advisories for Iraq, and the broader picture in is Iraq safe to visit.
The official portal, and the sites that look like it
There is one government portal: evisa.iq, run by the Ministry of Interior’s Directorate of Residence Affairs. It has an office address on it — Baghdad, Al-Karrada, Al-Andalus Square — and runs in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Kurdish and Chinese. Applications themselves are submitted at eservice.evisa.iq, which is where the “Apply now” button sends you.
Everything else is a reseller. Search “Iraq eVisa” and the paid results are dominated by commercial sites with government-adjacent names and official-looking crests. Most of them are legitimate businesses in the narrow sense — they do submit your application and they do disclose, usually in small print at the bottom, that they are not a government website. What they do not do is make it obvious that a large chunk of what you are paying is their handling fee.
The test is simple. Ask any site to itemise the government fee and the service fee separately, in dinars and dollars. A reputable agency will do it without argument. If a site will not, or if it quotes a single round number with no breakdown, you are being charged a markup you cannot see. Applying direct on eservice.evisa.iq costs you the government fee and nothing else.
None of this means using an agency is wrong. If you are already booking through an Iraqi operator, having them handle the visa is often the sensible call, particularly if your nationality needs sponsorship. Our page on organised tours in Iraq covers what operators typically include. Just know which fee is which.
What the Iraq eVisa actually costs
This is where nearly every competing page is wrong, because they quote one number for something that has two tiers. The Iraqi sources give the following government fees:
| Tier | Government fee | Must enter within | Length of stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visit visa | 151,000 IQD (~US$114) | 90 days of issue | 30 days |
| Ordinary visa | 206,000 IQD (~US$160) | 60 days of issue | 60 days |
| Tourist visa (sponsored) | Quoted at ~US$250 by agencies | Varies | 30 days |
Read the middle column carefully, because it runs opposite to what you would expect. The cheaper visit visa gives you a longer window to enter Iraq (90 days) but a shorter stay once you are there (30 days). The ordinary visa gives you a shorter entry window (60 days) but twice the stay. If you are booking six weeks out for a ten-day trip, either works. If you are applying early for a trip three months away, the ordinary visa can expire before you travel.
On top of the government fee, one Baghdad operator reports that the portal adds roughly 5.5% on international card transactions. We could not confirm that surcharge from the portal itself, so treat it as a working assumption rather than a fixed figure — budget for it, do not be surprised by it. Agencies quote US$160–190 for the same product, and up to US$250 where a sponsor is required.
The published fee is non-refundable if you are refused. That is standard, and it is the single best argument for spending twenty minutes getting your photograph right. For where the visa sits in a whole trip budget, see our breakdown of what a trip to Iraq costs.
The mandatory health insurance bundled into your fee
On 30 September 2025 Iraq’s Council of Ministers approved the federal e-visa platform as the single portal for issuing entry visas, and attached a mandatory health insurance certificate to every visa issued through it. The decision was announced on 1 October 2025. Under it, no ministry and no Kurdistan Regional Government representation may issue an entry visa without the insurance certificate, and the fees collected flow to Iraq’s Health Insurance Authority.
In practice this means three things. First, you do not buy it separately — the cover is inside the fee you pay at the portal. Second, you will receive a separate insurance certificate alongside your visa PDF, and you should print that too; travellers report immigration officers asking for a physical copy. Third, the insurance premium is a large part of why the fee jumped: before the bundling, the same authorisation cost around US$75.
What it does not do is replace ordinary travel insurance. The Iraqi policy exists to satisfy the visa requirement. It is not a medical evacuation policy, it will not cover a cancelled trip, and it says nothing about the much larger problem for British and American travellers, which is that most commercial policies are void if you travel against your own government’s advice. We deal with that properly in our guide to travel insurance for Iraq, and with the medical side in vaccinations and health for Iraq.
What you need before you open the form
Gather these first. The portal will time out on you, and re-doing a form because you did not know your hotel’s phone number is a bad afternoon.
- Passport valid at least six months from your intended entry date, not from your application date. If it falls short, renew before applying — you cannot swap passports later.
- A colour scan or photograph of the passport bio page, all four corners visible, no glare, machine-readable lines at the bottom fully legible.
- A recent passport-style photo against a white or very light background, taken within the last six months.
- The full address and telephone number of your first night’s accommodation in Iraq. A hotel booking is easiest; if you are staying with friends, you still need an address. Our guide to where to stay in Iraq covers which cities have bookable hotels.
- Your flight details, and dates that match them exactly.
- A card your bank will let you use on an Iraqi gateway. More on this below, because it is the step that most often fails.
Photo and passport scan specifications
| Accepted | Rejected |
|---|---|
| Neutral expression, mouth closed, looking straight at the camera | Smiling, head tilted, eyes looking away |
| Plain white or very light grey background | Coloured, patterned or shadowed background |
| Shoulders visible, face fully unobstructed | Sunglasses, hats, anything across the face |
| Head covering for religious reasons, face fully visible | Photo cropped out of an existing passport or document scan |
| Full-colour passport page, all four corners, sharp text | Black-and-white, blurry, cropped or flash-glared passport scan |
| JPEG, taken in the last six months | Digitally retouched or years-old photos |
The practical version: stand a metre from a plain white wall in daylight away from a window, have someone else take the picture on a phone, and do not smile. For the passport, lay it flat on a dark surface, shoot straight down, and turn the flash off. Both of those beat a rushed booth photo, and between them they eliminate the majority of refusals.
Applying on the portal, step by step
Step 1 — Go to evisa.iq and choose “Direct e-visa”
Click “Apply now for a visa” and you land on eservice.evisa.iq. You will see an option to create an account and, above the sign-in, a direct route. Take the direct route. The account flow is aimed at a different set of transactions and people regularly get stuck in it. Note the portal’s language switcher if English wording is ambiguous — the Arabic is the authoritative version.
Step 2 — Enter nationality and email, and confirm the one-time code
You give your nationality and an email address, and the system sends a one-time password from a no-reply address at the evisa domain. Check spam. Get the email address right — every subsequent notification, including the visa itself, goes there.
Step 3 — Write down your application number
The portal issues an application number on the next screen. Save it somewhere that is not the browser tab. If the payment page breaks and you have lost the number, you cannot retrieve the application; you have to wait 24 to 48 hours for it to expire in the system before you can start again. This is the single most avoidable time-waster in the process.
Step 4 — Choose your visa type
Visit or ordinary, using the table above. If your trip is under 30 days and firmly dated, the visit tier saves you roughly US$45. If there is any chance of your dates sliding, or you want more than a month, take the ordinary tier. The sponsored tourist category is not something you can select independently — that one is arranged by a licensed Iraqi tourism company.
Step 5 — Fill in the personal details
Full name exactly as printed on the passport, including middle names, in the same order. Missing a middle name is a documented cause of failed automated verification. There is an Arabic name field; leave it blank if it does not apply to you. Only asterisked fields are compulsory, which shortens the form considerably.
Step 6 — Accommodation and arrival point
You select a city, then a type of accommodation, then enter the property’s name, address and phone number. Use your first night’s booking, not your last. If you are arriving through the Kurdistan Region rather than a federal airport, there is a checkbox asking whether your visa and entry authority is the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Answer it honestly and according to where you are actually landing — see the Kurdistan section below.
Step 7 — Upload the documents
Passport bio page and photograph, both JPEG. This is the step that generates refusals. If the preview looks even slightly dark, redo it.
Step 8 — Review, then pay
The review screen may have rewritten your mobile number with an Iraqi country code. That is a known quirk and is not a reason to start over. Then pay by card. Do not close the window before paying — an unpaid application is not processed, and it sits in the system blocking a fresh attempt.
Step 9 — Track, download, print
There is a tracking function on the portal, but approval also arrives by email as a PDF. Print two colour copies and keep them in different bags, and print the health insurance certificate as well. A phone screenshot is a backup, not a substitute; Iraqi border officers expect paper, and so do some check-in agents.
Why your card gets declined, and what to do
Payment failure is the most common non-document problem people hit, and it has nothing to do with your application. Many Western banks block card transactions to Iraq by default under sanctions-screening rules that have not been updated in years. The transaction is refused at your bank’s end, not Iraq’s.
Three things help. Call your bank before you apply and ask them to authorise a transaction to Iraq — most will, given notice. Have a second card from a different issuer ready. And be aware that traveller reports differ sharply between fintech providers: as of March 2025, one long-running Iraq operator reported that Wise cards were refused by the portal while Revolut worked. That is a year and a half old and both companies change their rules, so treat it as a hint about where to look rather than a rule.
If the payment page breaks mid-transaction, do not immediately re-apply. Check whether the money left your account, and use your application number to look up the status first. Duplicate applications with the same passport number cause their own delays.
How long the Iraq eVisa really takes
The published figure is 6 to 72 hours. That is broadly honest for the main eligible nationalities. Operators who process these weekly report most approvals inside 24 hours, a fair number inside 12, and occasional cases stretching to five days around religious holidays when the offices are stretched. Handling agencies split it further: 6 to 72 hours for the main group, and 8 to 18 business days for nationalities that need extra verification.
The failure mode is not slowness, it is timing. Approval is fast until it is not, and the thing that turns a 24-hour wait into a crisis is applying 48 hours before a flight. Apply one to two weeks out. There is no advantage to applying months early — the visa’s entry window starts running from issue, not from arrival.
A worked example: apply on Monday, fly when?
| Day | What happens |
|---|---|
| Monday | You submit and pay in the morning. Application number saved. Confirmation email arrives. |
| Tuesday | Typical approval lands: PDF visa plus health insurance certificate by email. Print both, twice. |
| Wednesday–Thursday | The realistic slow case. Still comfortable. |
| Saturday | The bad case — five days, holiday backlog. You are still fine. |
| The following Monday | Earliest flight we would book against a Monday application. One week of slack. |
| Two weeks later | What we would actually do, especially in Ramadan, around Arbaeen, or during any period of regional escalation. |
One caveat on flights themselves. Iraqi airspace has closed at short notice more than once in 2026, and EASA’s bulletin CZIB-2026-05, issued on 8 July 2026, advises operators not to use the Baghdad flight information region; it runs to 31 August 2026 unless reviewed earlier. Your visa being ready has no bearing on whether your flight operates. Never book a same-day onward connection, and read our notes on when to visit Iraq before locking dates.
Single entry, multiple entry, and what “30 days” means
The portal’s own front page says the e-visa is valid for 30 days and available for single or multiple entry. In practice, every handling agency we checked says the tourist product they can obtain is single-entry only, with multiple-entry visas reserved for students enrolled in Iraqi institutions, people employed in Iraq and spouses of Iraqi citizens — all processed through a residency office rather than online.
We could not reconcile those two statements from an Iraqi government source, so plan on single entry. If you leave Iraq, assume you need a new visa to come back. That matters most for two itineraries: a side trip to Iran or Kuwait in the middle of a longer trip, and a Kurdistan-first route that crosses in from Turkey and then heads south.
“30 days” also means 30 days of stay, counted from entry, not 30 days of validity from issue. The two windows are separate and both appear on the visa. Check them the moment the PDF arrives, because if the issue date is wrong you want to know now rather than at check-in. Extensions are possible at a residency office, but they are a day of Arabic-language paperwork with no guaranteed outcome.
What to print, and what happens at the gate
Take three pieces of paper: the visa PDF, the health insurance certificate, and a copy of your accommodation booking. Take a second set in a different bag. Digital copies on a phone are worth having, but paper is what gets asked for.
The first check happens at your departure airport. Airlines carry the cost of flying an inadmissible passenger, so check-in staff will look at the visa before they issue a boarding pass, and staff at non-hub airports are not always confident about what an Iraqi e-visa is meant to look like. A clean colour printout removes the argument.
At Baghdad the process has a step most people do not expect. You do not go straight to immigration. You go first to a visa desk, hand over the passport and the printed e-visa, and an officer enters your details and prints a full-page visa sticker into your passport. Operators put this at roughly 15 minutes per person, longer when several flights land together. Only then do you join the normal immigration queue for the entry stamp. Budget 30 to 45 minutes from aircraft door to arrivals hall, more if you are behind a full aircraft.
Two things to remember after that. Your accommodation is expected to register your stay with the local authorities, which is normal and handled by the hotel. And when you leave, make sure you get an exit stamp — skipping departure immigration at a quiet land border creates a problem that only appears the next time you try to enter. Between those two points you will pass through military and police checkpoints on every intercity road; our guide to checkpoints in Iraq explains what they ask for and why.
Kurdistan: the asymmetry that catches people out
The Kurdistan Region runs its own visa system, and the relationship between the two is one-directional. Get this backwards and you get turned around on a highway.
A federal Iraq eVisa is valid across the whole country, including Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok. A Kurdistan-only visa is not valid in federal Iraq. There are 2026 reports of travellers being refused at the crossing points between the Kurdistan Region and federal territory on a KRI visa alone. If you intend to see both halves of the country, buy the federal visa.
The Kurdistan route is genuinely easier if the region is all you want. As of 8 August 2026 the KRG portal at visit.gov.krd is still live and still issuing. Country List A nationals can apply online in minutes or get a visa on arrival at any Kurdistan entry point; Erbil and Sulaymaniyah airports issue 30 days on arrival, and for some nationalities Kirkuk Airport issues 60. The administrative fee is 100,000 IQD — roughly US$75, which is the same dinar figure behind the “$70” and “$75” you will see quoted — paid to the KRI Ministry of Interior’s Visa Department, valid 90 days from issue for a 30-day stay, and non-refundable if refused. Country List B nationals need a guarantor registered with the Ministry of Interior to apply on their behalf, with a decision inside five working days.
There is one live complication and we would rather name it than paper over it. The same 30 September 2025 cabinet decision that bundled health insurance also designated the federal platform as the single portal for all Iraqi entry visas, explicitly including the Kurdistan Region, with the KRG to stop issuing independently. Nearly a year later the KRG portal is still issuing. The merger is approved but not implemented. Practically: the Kurdistan route works today, it is scheduled to be absorbed, and you should open both portals before you pay rather than trusting any page — including this one — that was written more than a few weeks ago.
A related claim circulates that since January 2025 a KRI visa permits onward travel into federal Iraq for federal-e-visa-eligible nationalities. We have found no official Iraqi or KRG source for it and there are contrary traveller reports from 2026. Plan around the restrictive rule. If you want the region on its own terms, our guide to Iraqi Kurdistan covers what a Kurdistan-only trip looks like, and is Kurdistan safe deals with the security picture there specifically.
Who cannot use the Iraq eVisa at all
Journalists and NGO workers are excluded from the e-visa regardless of nationality, and must apply through an Iraqi embassy or consulate. Media visas are handled as their own category, and NGO entry visas are conditional on an Iraqi authority writing to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm the organisation’s standing. Almost no page on the first page of Google mentions this, and it is a genuine trap: applying for a tourist e-visa when your purpose of travel is reporting or aid work is a misrepresentation, and it is discovered at the border rather than online.
Israeli nationals are prohibited from entering or transiting Iraq, including without leaving the aircraft. Iraqi practice on third-country Israeli stamps in an otherwise acceptable passport is less clear-cut, and reports vary; if that applies to you, ask the consulate directly rather than guessing.
Everyone else outside the 37 goes the sponsor or embassy route described earlier. Our page on Iraq entry requirements sets out the documents each route needs, and the main Iraq visa guide compares all the categories side by side.
Why applications get refused, and what to do next
Refusals in this system are overwhelmingly administrative. The recurring causes, in roughly the order they show up:
- Photo specification failures. Off-white background, a shadow, a smile, glasses, low resolution. This is the largest single category.
- Passport scan problems. Cropped corners, flash glare across the photo, unreadable machine-readable zone, black and white.
- Name mismatches. A missing middle name, a transliteration difference, an inconsistent spelling between form and passport. Automated verification fails and a human never sees it.
- Passport validity under six months at the intended entry date.
- Date mismatches between the application and the flight booking.
- Wrong visa category, most often selecting the sponsored tourist option with no sponsoring company behind it.
If you are refused, the portal usually gives a short reason. Read it, fix that specific thing, and reapply — you will pay again, which is the whole argument for care on the first attempt. Do not simply resubmit identical documents hoping for a different officer. If the stated reason is vague and you have checked everything, an Iraqi agency or your tour operator can often tell you within a message or two what the actual problem is, because they see the same handful of failures every week.
Refusal is not a black mark. There is no appeals process to speak of, no interview, and no record that follows you around; it is a document check that a document failed. Fix the document.
The April 2026 freeze, and why you check before you book
This is recent enough to matter, and it is the reason we would not tell anyone to treat the Iraq eVisa as a settled, permanent fixture.
On 31 March 2026 the American freelance journalist Shelly Kittleson was abducted on Saadoun Street in central Baghdad. Kataib Hezbollah announced her release on 7 April, on condition that she leave the country immediately. On 20 April, Shafaq News reported that Iraq had frozen approvals under the e-visa system for citizens of several countries including Britain and Canada — the portal still accepting applications, but holding them and issuing refusals after one to two weeks. The following day, 21 April, the Interior Ministry spokesman Abbas al-Bahadli told Rudaw that the reports were untrue and that visa issuance was continuing.
What we can say with confidence is what the market did. Iraqi agencies stopped offering online applications through the spring and moved everyone onto sponsored visas at around US$250 with ten-working-day processing. Those same agencies posted resumption notices in late June 2026. The portal was live and accepting applications when we checked it on 8 August 2026.
The lesson is not that the system is unreliable — it worked for most of 2025 and it is working now. It is that it is a security instrument as much as an administrative one, and it can be quietly throttled in response to events with no announcement and an official denial running alongside. Check the portal yourself before you buy a flight, not after. That is also the honest reading of whether the country is open at all, which we cover in is Iraq open to tourists.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still get a visa on arrival in Iraq?
Not in federal Iraq. Visa on arrival was suspended on 1 March 2025 for the 37 nationalities that previously held it, with no indication of when or whether it returns. The Kurdistan Region is different — Erbil and Sulaymaniyah airports still issue visas on arrival for Country List A nationals, but that visa is valid only in the Kurdistan Region.
How much is the Iraq eVisa in 2026?
There are two government tiers: 151,000 IQD (about US$114) for the visit visa with a 30-day stay, and 206,000 IQD (about US$160) for the ordinary visa with a 60-day stay. Agencies charge US$160–190 for the same thing, and around US$250 where a sponsor is needed. Mandatory health insurance is included in the government fee. Ask any agency to itemise government fee versus handling fee.
Do I need to print my Iraq eVisa?
Yes. Print the visa PDF and the health insurance certificate, in colour, twice, and keep the copies in separate bags. Border officers expect paper. A digital copy is a sensible backup for a lost printout, not a replacement for it.
Can I travel to Baghdad on a Kurdistan visa?
No. A Kurdistan-only visa is not valid in federal Iraq, and travellers have been turned back trying to cross south on one. The relationship runs the other way: a federal e-visa covers the whole country including the Kurdistan Region. If your trip includes both, buy the federal visa.
Does the Iraq eVisa cover journalists or aid workers?
No. Journalists, filmmakers, researchers and NGO staff are excluded and must apply through an Iraqi embassy or consulate. NGO applications additionally need an Iraqi authority to write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming the organisation’s status. Applying as a tourist when you are travelling to report is a misrepresentation, and it surfaces at the border.
What happens if my e-visa is refused?
The portal usually states a reason, most often a photograph or passport scan that failed the checks. Fix that specific item and reapply. The fee is not refunded, so it is worth taking real care with the two uploads first time. There is no appeal process and no lasting record.
Can I extend my stay once I am in Iraq?
Extensions are handled at the residency office in the city where you are staying, in Arabic, and can take a full day with no guaranteed outcome. If there is any chance you will want more than 30 days, take the ordinary 60-day tier at the application stage instead. Overstaying is handled at the residency office too, with a fine, a manually issued exit visa and the possibility of an entry ban.
Do children need their own e-visa?
Yes. Every traveller including infants needs an individual approved visa, applied for by a parent or guardian using the child’s own passport scan and photograph. You must also travel on the same passport you applied with; if it is renewed, replaced or lost after approval, you need a new application.
Which airports and borders accept the federal e-visa?
Baghdad, Basra and Najaf airports, plus federal land and sea borders. Arrivals through the Kurdistan Region are processed under the KRI regime and may attract a separate regional fee at the entry point. If your plan is to travel outside the Kurdistan Region, arriving at a federal airport is the cleaner option.
Final thoughts
The Iraq eVisa is, on its own terms, one of the easier applications in the region. A form, two photographs, a card payment and usually a day of waiting. The parts that go wrong are boringly practical: a shadow on a photo, a bank that will not send money to Iraq, a middle name left off, an application submitted three days before a flight. None of that requires an agency to solve, and none of it justifies paying double the government fee to a website with a crest on it.
What is worth taking seriously is everything the visa does not tell you. It says nothing about whether your insurer will cover you, whether your government advises against the trip, or whether Iraqi airspace will be open on the day you fly. The visa is an administrative permission, not a judgement about risk, and in April 2026 it was quietly used as a security lever with an official denial running in parallel. Check the portal yourself, close to the day, and build slack into everything.
If you are still working out the shape of the trip rather than the paperwork, start with our complete Iraq travel guide, then the suggested itineraries for how the country actually strings together. If your reason for going is Najaf and Karbala, our page on pilgrimage travel in Iraq deals with the visa timing questions that come with the religious calendar, and the laws visitors need to know covers what changes once you are through the airport. Related reading: Iraq Visa on Arrival: Who Still Qualifies in 2026.
Photo credits
Baghdad International Airport arrivals hall — Kasir (CC BY-SA 4.0). Iraqi entry stamp, Baghdad International Airport — Droark42 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Erbil International Airport, August 2025 — EIA Airport (CC BY 4.0). Kurdistan Region entry stamp, Haj Omran — Levi Clancy (CC BY-SA 4.0). Ibrahim Khalil border crossing — Joao Leitao (CC BY-SA 3.0). Iraqi tourist visa page — Droark42 (CC BY-SA 4.0). All images via Wikimedia Commons.
