How To Get An Online Tourist Visa For Pakistan 🇵🇰

The more I travel, the more countries I swallow, the harder it all gets. That’s the way it goes. It doesn’t get easier. Don’t kid yourself. The reason for this uphill struggle is that usually the toughest visas to get are the ones left until later in the journey. Or that laws change. I’ve already posted all my previous visa applications on here, and many of these will have changed over the time when I first started this blog, in August 2007 (a month where I required visas for Canada, USA, New Zealand, China, Russia and Belarus).

I am no different. I backpacked the easy ones first. My first 10 countries were all in Europe and visa free. Gifted back then.

My Previous Visa Articles

My Previous Visa Articles on Don’t Stop Living can be found here, and I’m constantly trying to add to them.

So far my biggest visa challenges were Bangladesh, Suriname, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. Plus the idea of “evisas” does certainly NOT make things easier. Again, don’t believe they are easier online. It usually makes things excruciatingly more annoying. At least in many of my cases. I hate filling in online forms and uploading documents. Yet I love filling in actual paper forms using a pen and visiting embassies to get a visa issued. I visited actual embassies many times on my journeys, face to face is king. Bangladesh, Algeria, China, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Suriname, Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar…the list goes on. Below I’m in Turkey finally securing a visa to backpack Iran away.

The I secured that Iranian Visa! In Trabzon, Turkey (November 2013)

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have pressed upload for photos and documents only for them to be rejected and my visa refused. Recent examples of this are Mozambique, Malawi and The Seychelles. All deadly to get online, at least for someone like me who hates online forms and especially rejected photo uploads. Yet face to face and in embassies the world over, we are looking gift horses in the mouths.

Getting A Seychelles Visa Online

Pakistan was the last of my FIFA Stans. It took me a long time to get this visa. Indeed in the intervening years, I backpacked its border mates. China (2007 – 2014), Iran (2013), Afghanistan (2016), India (2016). Pakistan used to be embassy only visa and for a long term overland whackpacker that should have been easy in those days. It could have been but I was often passing by fast or on route to somewhere. Things never really fitted my itinerary with Pakistan so it was constantly byballed.

Pakpacking In Pakistan🇵🇰: Top 9 Sights In Karachi

Here in September 2023, the time came. Finally. Not including “The Middle East” (which is neither middle nor east), Pakistan🇵🇰 was one of my last 4 countries in mainland Asia to visit. The others are Nepal🇳🇵, Tibet and Bhutan 🇧🇹. Islandwise, I still missed Hainan, Palau, BIOT and The Maldives. I discovered that you can get a Pakistan visa online now with a Northern Irish passport(Irish/British) and so I researched how to do it. It was time to finally backpack Lahore, Karachi, Shadarah Bagh and the Famous Border Ceremony At Wagah.

World Borders: How To Watch The Famous Pakistan 🇵🇰 To India 🇮🇳 Border Ceremony At Wagah

Getting an Online Visa For Pakistan

First of all, I researched how to get an online visa for Pakistan. There is only one website you should use – the OFFICIAL website. There might be agencies and other websites that can help you get the visa, or get the visa for you but I went straight to the official website. Once on there, you need to register an account with them using your email address. After that is sorted, log in and start the visa procedure.

Go to this link to register – The Official Pakistan Visa Website!

Official Pakistan Visa Website

Then you click on the link – Pakistan Tourist Visa

How to get a Pakistan evisa

Documents needed for the Tourist Visa for Pakistan

You will need to have your itinerary for Pakistan so that includes flights, hotels, tours, and the tricky one – the letter of invitation. You will need to fill in all your travel history and work history. You will also need to fill in all the details they ask for on this lengthy application form.

To Apply For The Pakistan Visa Click Here A Tourist Visa allows the citizens of these countries to visit Pakistan for tourism purposes.

You can apply for two types of visas online :
First Time (New) : You can apply for a new visa if you do not possess a valid Pakistan visa.
Extension : You can apply for a visa extension if you posses a valid Pakistan visa and you are residing in Pakistan.

I was applying on a Northern Irish passport for a first time tourist visa. I had never been to Pakistan before and I was abroad at the time (I applied from Poland).

Eligibility

Citizens of countries listed here are eligible to apply for this visa.

NOTE: You may be eligible to Apply for a Tourist Visa On Arrival, please check your eligibility here:

Required Documents

Photograph
Passport
Hotel booking Details
Letter Of Invitation

It sounded to me that you only needed those 4 things but it turned out to be a lot more.

Getting The Letter Of Invitation (LOI) for Pakistan

I was surprised that you need a letter of invitation to visit Pakistan. Of course I got that a few times before for other countries – Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea etc. but with Pakistan, nobody was inviting me and I wasn’t actually going on any tours, you don’t need to. To get this LOI (Letter Of Invitation), just follow my advice and email Lost Horizon Treks And Tours. I paid them $100 US Dollars and on the same day they issued me with a Letter of Invitation for Pakistan. Halfway there. YOU can definitely find that for free or for cheaper but I was in a rush and I knew this company were trusted as their name came up regularly in the travel blogging world – plus as a travel blogger I knew they would issue me with it no problem. Full details are here.

https://www.losthorizontreks.com/

What’s App/Phone – 0092331-8981244

Email Lost Horizons info: [email protected]
Lost Horizons Gmail: [email protected]

Lost Horizon Treks And Tours

On that website, it writes this –

Pakistan Letter of Invitation (LOI) and Visa Support

An LOI is necessary to receive your Pakistan visa at this time. Send us an email or fill the form given below for information about our LOI services.
● You will have your LOI within 24 hours.
● Cost 100 USD.
● Payment through paypal or via western Union.
● The LOI has no end date.
● Once you have it you can apply any time.

Lost Horizon Treks And Tours Can Get You An LOI (Letter Of Invitation)

Once you have emailed them and paid for the LOI (Letter Of Invitation), this is where it got quite strange to me. They email you the LOI – The Letter Of Invitiation along with a load of other documents, which includes PRIVATE ID documents from Pakistani citizens. A little weird and odd but on this occasion, I had no time to waste and needed my visa asap so I’d send all documents with my application to make sure I got it. The amount of times I’ve had visa refusals in the past told me to do this. Even after that, I still thought this visa would be refused! When you get the LOI, it is in a PDF. I printed mine. It looks like this –

Lost Horizon Treks Issued my LOI for Pakistan

Submitting Your Pakistan Evisa Application

Now you have your LOI, it’s time to submit your application. Before you have submitted your visa, your screen will look this this below and it will have the status as “Not Submitted”. It will show your email address in the top left corner of the screen when you are logged in.

How To Get An Online Tourist Visa For Pakistan 🇵🇰

Then it is time to fill in all the details. This is heavy. They want ALL your job history (I had over 50 jobs so this was huge), they wanted my parents full passport details and addresses, they want ALL your travel history for the last 3 years (I had been to over 50 countries in the last 3 years so this was a huge list). That was the hardest part for sure. As you fill each part in, the application bar will still be in “Not Submitted” but each bar fills up. There are 9 parts to fill in, it’s long, tedious and monotonous –

1.Application Info
2.Personal Info
3.Family Info
4.Finances And Employment
5.Travel History
6.Visit Info (you have to put where you plan to visit – ridiculous question so I just put Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad).
7.Documents (you have to upload your passport photo, your passport, your LOI and all the other documents that came with the LOI – this is a slow process and my passport photo was rejected about 10 times – you need patience!)
8.Review (check it all)
9.Payment

My application as I fill it in

Paying For the Pakistan Visa

Once you have everything filled in and uploaded, and check it is time to pay. I paid online using a debit card (even though it wrote “credit card”) and the price was $35 US Dollars. The money was taken straight away and then we are playing a waiting game. Your screen will have a green bar and it will have written in English that you have paid.

How To Get An Online Tourist Visa For Pakistan 🇵🇰

Payment confirmation for the Pakistan Visa

Waiting For Confirmation Of The Pakistan Visa

Once you have sent your visa application, it is a waiting game. The website states that it can take up to 14 days to confirm or reject the visa. I was very nervous this time as I was due to leave for Pakistan in 10 days time. I didn’t have the luxury of 14 days to wait. When you log in to the Pakistan Evisa portal, your existing visa application will now show as “in-process” as opposed to “not submitted”.

My visa for Pakistan is in Process

My Pakistan Evisa in processing

You can login anytime to the Pakistan Evisa Portal to check the status.

While you are waiting, you can still log in to your account and check the status of your application. I did this many times, paranoid and refresh button loyal. Finally on the Friday morning, 3 days later I received an email containing my visa and confirming my Pakistan visa application was successful!! When you log in to the portal, it then lists your visa as “granted”.

Yes! My visa shows as “Granted”!

Yes! My visa has been granted!

Once My visa was granted, I downloaded it and printed it along with all my documents – flights in, hotels, LOI, flights out, internal flights and the visa grant notice itself (below).

My Pakistan Visa Grant Notice!

I also saved the PDF to my phone and laptop and printed my visa ready for the trip to Pakistan, where I’d land in Lahore and fly out of Karachi. I was ready to go!

Arrival in Lahore, Pakistan!

And so yes I got my Pakistan visa. On arrival in Lahore, I merely got a stamp on my passport rather than a flashy proper visa sticker with a photograph.