The Iranian passport sits near the bottom of every mobility ranking: for most destinations an Iranian national needs a visa arranged in advance, and several routes that look open on paper — visa on arrival, e-visas — quietly exclude Iranian citizens or route them through a separate security-clearance process. On top of that, a 2025 US measure has changed the single biggest destination question for Iranians. Here is the verified picture in 2026.
The headline: the United States has fully suspended entry for Iranian nationals
A US presidential proclamation effective 9 June 2025 — reaffirmed and expanded by a further proclamation effective 1 January 2026 — “fully suspends” the entry of nationals of twelve countries, Iran among them, as both immigrants and non-immigrants. In plain terms: there is no ordinary tourist (B-1/B-2), student (F/M), exchange (J), work or immigrant route for an Iranian passport holder while the suspension is in force.
- Who else is on the full-suspension list: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
- Narrow exceptions exist: lawful permanent residents (green-card holders); dual nationals travelling on the passport of a country that is not on the list; certain immediate relatives of US citizens with documented proof; and some immigrant visas for persecuted minorities from Iran.
- It is a policy measure, not a permanent state of affairs — it can be lifted or changed, which is why we date it and re-check it.
On our site this is no longer shown as “apply for a visa”. The Iran → United States visitor page now reads as a travel restriction, with the proclamation cited, and it suppresses any fee, checklist or “apply” prompt — because publishing those would be actively misleading.
Where Iranian passport holders can still travel
It is not all closed doors. A handful of destinations remain genuinely accessible, and these are the ones worth planning around:
- Armenia — visa-free for up to 90 days within any 180-day period, under a bilateral agreement. The most useful open border for Iranian travellers.
- Maldives and Seychelles — a free entry permit / travel authorisation issued to all nationalities on arrival.
- Nepal — visa on arrival, available to Iranian passport holders.
- Several others require a visa but remain obtainable; check your exact destination on the Iran passport page.
“Visa required” sometimes means “with security approval”
A common trap is a destination that advertises visa on arrival or an e-visa but does not actually extend it to Iranian nationals. Egypt is a clear example: despite a visa-on-arrival and e-visa system for many travellers, Iranian passport holders need a visa arranged in advance with prior security approval. We corrected our Egypt records this week so every Egyptian programme reads “visa required” for Iran, and we added the security-clearance refusal reason to the Egypt e-visa page.
Iran and Israel: not a visa question at all
Iran and Israel have no diplomatic relations and are in open hostility; travel between them is not permitted in either direction. We cover how these country-to-country blocks work — no diplomatic relations, passport exclusions and entry bans — in a companion piece, which passports can’t travel to Israel.
How we keep this honest
Before any visa fields are shown, each page resolves the country-to-country relationship and any sanctions or entry measures. Where entry is suspended or not permitted, the page shows a sourced explanation instead of an “apply” button, and we never publish structured data implying a visa is available. Every restriction and every eligibility correction carries a source and the date we last verified it — and because this area moves (sanctions, proclamations, normalisations), we re-check it on a cadence.