Iran -Azerbaijan, exit Astara | Customs and Immigration

September 20th, 2023 by finamole2015

Nice place near to the beach of Caspian see. Mud road but passable by any type car. Locals are camping there too but quite and nice place to say on the way to Gilan province of Iran.

November 5th, 2019 by plutostour.ch

Azerbaijan to Iran, 2 Swiss with camper

We crossed the border at about 8:00 yesterday. Departure from Azerbaijan took 1 hour. We had to present the insurance papers from the entry. Short vehicle control.

Then you drive over a bridge to the Iranian side. Army checks the passports and looks briefly into the car. Then on the left comes a house with various windows that have to be visited one after the other. There it has many unofficial helpers, which can be ignored friendly. The helpers always ask for the carnet. Don't hand it over! Unfortunately the officials do not wear uniforms or name badges. Therefore hand over the documents always only to the persons behind the glass windows.
Again short vehicle inspection. At the last window the carnet has to be shown, but not stamped it yet.

Then you drive on over the big customs area. There are trucks everywhere. The carnet is stamped in an elongated white building with blue window frames and an antenna on the roof, at the last desk. On the building there is somethinh with "transit" written. The gentlemen want to have another look at the car and the number of the car is compared. The carnet is registered in a book. The gentleman wants 20$ for the stamp. Actually this should cost nothing. Then he gave us a hand-sheeled receipt. ATTENTION: our carnet was stamped wrong. The entry stamp is on the way out. Therefore i recommend to cover the middle part of the carnet is covered with Postits.
Then you drive on in the direction of the exit. The trucks can be overtaken on the left. At the end there is a passage open for cars. Before this last barrier there is a small house on the left. There, the carnet is stamped again on the back and again entered into a book. After 2 hours on the Iranian side it says: Welcome to Iran!

October 22nd, 2019 by instagram.com/wegimbus

We have marked the building for the Carnet stamp with a blue star. See this for for the newest update and don't be afraid.

September 16th, 2019 by globooverland

Iran to Azerbijan.

this was the worst border of our trip. the Iranian side is a total disgrace, it is so unclear where to go or what offices you need to go to, the whole place is a total mess. it took us 4 hours to leave Iran, people were playing all sorts of games to get that 20usd or try to trick us.

the staff at the border don't wear uniforms so it's very hard to know who works there and who is a fixer.

my girlfriend was in tears to get the carnet stamped, really guys, we needed 3 stamps and it took 4 hours and took 3 years off my life.

Azer side is great, very well organized. however if you are right hand drive you will only get a 3 day transit Visa but must still pay for 30 days insurance and road tax (75usd).

mentally prepare yourself for this border!

September 9th, 2019 by findpenguins.com

We had to pay 29000 Rial per litre for our diesel. We told him 70 litres, but he didn't verify it.

Have an eye on the carnet stamps. Seems like the guy saw this document for the first time. He wanted to give us the importation stamp all the time even though we were exiting. Another employee solved the problem.

At the end the fixer with the official card came to us. We didn't pay enough attention and used his service. Everything went very fast. Before leaving to Azerbaijan we should pay 20€/$ administration fee for exiting Iran. We said we had no money, only credit card. In the end we payed 5 Manat.

Very bad rate: 5 Manat for 370000 Rials.

June 10th, 2019 by dagiundtobi

From Iran to AZ. Iranian boarder as already described. One official guy asked as for 500’000 to pay for Carnet signatures. As we asked why and if there is a official paper he said: “give it as a gift”, which we didn’t.
AZ car check was very detailed. We had to take everything out of our Landcruiser and get it scanned. They sealed the baby walkie talkies... The boss of the insurance office first refused to give us back the car passport (just as a power game..).
Took us approximately 2 hours on the AZ side. Payed 65$ for road tax and insurance. System was down so we had to pay cash.

April 15th, 2019 by zoulouonroad.com

Came from Azerbadjan to Iran with our camper. Declined all proposals to help us by the "facilitators" that ask for money at the end (5-10 $ ). Of course it's faster if you pay, we had to spend 3hrs arguing and negotiating but it's possible ! And please do not change the money at the border. They offered us only 45 000 rials for 1 $ but the black market and exchange office rate is 135 000 rials at this time ! You can use Bonbast.com website or app to check the current rate.

September 5th, 2018 by justamotoride.com

Easy crossing Irn=>az, was very relaxed at 8 in the morning. crossing with two motorbikes and we did not have to pay anything at both sides! all was done in about 2h

May 27th, 2018 by karoline

It took me a long time to find the place to get the carnet stamped. you find the place when you go straight until the first crossing after the border entrance (there are huge barnes with qood and trucks inside). go to the left (along the barnes), there is also a blue sign. go until the point where you would need to turn left or right. turn left onto a big car park. there are many trucks parked so it is hard to find the house where your carnet gets stamped. so look behind all the trucks you will be sucessfull;-) when you enter you need to walk to the last person in the row, next to the ATM machine.

October 25th, 2017 by j.schwaeble

We crossed the border today from Azerbaijan to Iran.

Had to pay 4 Manat to enter the azerbaijans customs control area, got a receipt for it.

Inside they check your visa, passport and road tax document.

Control of the car was superficial.

On the iranian side there are lots of official and inofficial agents. It's difficult to figure out, who is who: There are no uniforms. The border officers want you to accept the help of an inofficial agent. The guys are ok and really guide you through the chaos. In the end they want to sell you a car insurance. Don't do it. It's way too expensive (100$). They let you out without insurance, even if they tell different stories before.  They will ask you for a tip in the end and tell you heartbreaking stories. 

The car check was superficial, no electronic equipment was checkt. They stamp your passport and Carnet de passage without problems.

Whole procedure was free apart from the final tip of the agent. 

If you want, the inofficials change also money. There must be money exchangers in Astara, outside the boarder zone. But we didn't check rates.

June 18th, 2017 by judith_wilfred

Customs and immigration when you leave Iran for Azerbaijan. Google map shows a different route.

First office near the entry gate:
Be aware that you need money to pay the difference between diesel price for the size of your fuel tank(s) in Iran and Azerbaijan. For a 80liter tank that is 280.000rial or $9 (as they use a poor exchange rate). So don't spend all your money in Astara! No stamp for carnet yet!

Second office on the left with the huge antenna:
Get your carnet stamped here after you paid your diesel price difference.

Third building on the right (exit to Azerbaijan border):
Check of car and give your exit pass here.

Fourth building:
Get your exit stamp in passport and make sure you have a copy of your passport. And your done!

Not straight forward to cross here with your car.

We had no money left for Iran. Only Omani next to Azerbaijan, so ended up paying norhing.

In Azerbaijan you need to pay $20,- pp for visa (you can apply for e-visa for 80 nationalities), for a Yoyota Landcruiser HZJ78: 40 manat for insurance (30 days) and 70 manat for road tax,etc. All depending on the type of car.