Arriving at Baghdad Airport - 2024 updates
Baghdad airport is never quite the same experience twice, even for regular travellers to the country, so here is our 2024 update for roughly what you can expect after landing.
After entering the terminal building and walking a fairly short distance, you descend a staircase straight into a large foyer area, where there is a row of passport booths, one of which is for diplomatic personnel with the rest for ‘Iraqis’ and ‘others’. Only a few of these may be staffed, depending on the hour and flight schedules.
Visa on arrival (VOA)
On the right of these booths (before approaching passport control) is a large, long desk, which is now usually manned by several staff, in front of rows of chairs. This desk may have a small pile of a single A4 sheets of paper which comprise the VOA application forms and, if not, you can just ask for one. You don’t need to speak Arabic as pretty much everyone approaching this desk is after a VOA.
The form is a single A4 page, with questions in English and Arabic, asking for basic personal information, passport details, origin, your home address and your address in Iraq. There may or may not be pens, so we recommend carrying your own. Note: you do not pay for the visa until the passports are returned.
You hand the completed form, along with your passport, to one of the uniformed officials who will take it away, usually with a whole bundle of others. Note: there should be no requirement for any evidence of a hotel booking, which was a previous regulation.
Time frames for the return of the official with the passports are varied - generally between around 15 and 40 minutes. There are toilets opposite (at the bottom of the stairs you descended, on the left) and otherwise you can take a seat and pass the time reading or attempting to use the free and sporadically functional airport wifi to inform your nearest and dearest, or any Iraqi contacts, that you have landed safely in Baghdad. Note: On our last trip, the wi-fi was functional, but in our experience this cannot always be relied upon.
When your passport is returned with the visa inside, it’s time to pay your $80, which needs to be in dollars, in cash. It's best to have the correct sum to hand, as change is not always available. The price has recently increased marginally from $75 to $80 for no apparent reason.
Passport control (and pre-arrival visa)
Once you have the VOA in your passport, or if you already have a visa issued by the Iraqi embassy in your country of origin, you can generally head to any manned passport control desk, apart from the diplomatic one (unless you are indeed a diplomat). Note: If you have a pre-arrival visa, you may still be directed to the visa desk, to have your visa authorised. This incurs no cost, as you will have already paid (usually around £50) for your visa at the embassy which issued it.
At passport control, an official will check your passport and visa and take a photo of you with a small camera attached to the desk.
After passport control
After passport control but before the baggage carousels, there is a security scanner through which you put all your bags. You may be asked to show photographic equipment, if you are carrying any, but this usually consists of a quick glance.
After this, you can collect any hold luggage from (or beside as, if the VOA process has taken quite a while, someone may have rescued your luggage and placed it neatly nearby) the carousel.
After you have collected your luggage, you walk out into the main airport through customs. You are unlikely to be stopped here but, if you are, just smile and be pleasant, and open bags or answer questions if requested.
Great, you’re in. Welcome to the cradle of civilisation!
Note: If you want to be more fully prepared, check out our previous posts Arriving at Baghdad Airport I and II.
