Iraq Visa Process

Dear Member,
In the letter sent to our Chamber by TOBB, with reference to the Ministry of Trade's letter dated 13.06.2023 and numbered 86332354, the letter referenced above, with reference to the letter received from the Commercial Counsellor's Office in Baghdad, emphasises that a letter of reference and certain documents are requested during the visa application from business people wishing to travel to Iraq for commercial reasons such as monitoring investments in Iraq, market research and customer visits, and from contracting or consultancy companies carrying out contracting or consultancy projects in Iraq and wishing to take the personnel who will work on their projects to Iraq, and states that the said visa process takes a long time and that this situation disrupts the business of Turkish business people and investors in Iraq.

The letter further draws attention to the fact that, with reference to the statement made during the talks held on the occasion of the Iraqi Prime Minister's official visit to Ankara on 21-22 March 2023, at the round table meeting where he met with Turkish Business People, that the necessary steps would be taken to resolve the visa problem, the announcement published on 31/05/2023 on the official website of the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Ankara (Annex1) referred to the said visit and provided information that, within the framework of strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two friendly countries in all fields, it has been decided to regulate the procedures for issuing entry visas and to define an appropriate mechanism to accelerate the process, and that the missions of the Republic of Iraq in Ankara, İstanbul and Gaziantep have been authorized to issue multiple-entry (3-month, 6-month and one-year) visas to businessmen, company owners and employees doing business in Iraq.

In this context, it is stated that accelerating the process for issuing entry visas to Iraq will have a positive effect on our country's exports of goods and services to Iraq and will contribute to our Turkish contracting and consultancy companies carrying out the projects they have already undertaken in Iraq more effectively and soundly.

Annex: Iraq Visa Process

Kind regards,
Elazığ Chamber of Commerce and Industry