Bazargan Border Crossing | Customs and Immigration

No fuel tax. Take pass paper at the main gate, ride up to the top of the hill and go into the doors on the left of the building and get your CdP stamped. Immigration is through the doors on the left, tourists don't need to wait in the queue and you'll be directed to go straight inside. Reasonably quick process. Last stop is gate running alongside the building... don't pay the parasite who pretends he's an official and requests money. There are no charges!

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Iran to Turkey
Iran side - as described, however we did not need a fixer to pay the petrol tax. The officer used his own card and accepted half tomans, half USD (better than street rate) from us.
Turkish side - inefficient and unprofessional, over 3 hours, including lunch break, system down, misplaced our green card, x-ray.

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Crossed from Iran to Turkey on the Day of Ashura. Iran side was empty. Only 3 other cars crossing. Fuel tax was 35250 tomans per liter, and system marked 80l for T6. Total we paid 30M tomans (~60€) with fixer fee (we didn't have card). After diesel tax on the right-hand side, carnet on the left side was very fast. In passport stamp we made the mistake of going into one of those offices. The guy made us sit and started chitchatting with someone else that came by. We lost a bit of time there, but no biggie. 1h after arriving at the border we were cleared to pass the gate. That's when customs/van inspection happened. They made us open most of the cabinets and commented on a couple of random things (like the playing cards and cleaning stuff). That was it on Iran side, total under 1h30'.

Turkey started fun with passport guys (system down, let me sing you a song, etc), but then customs clearance for the van took ages. We waited close to 2h for the xRay (even tho we were only 4 cars). After that, one more signature at the last gate down the road and we were out.

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From Iran to Turkey by motorbike, total crossing time 1:40 hours.
Show passport and CdP at the entrance gate down in the valley, and get a routing slip that has to be signed by officers on every step.
Ride up to the border crossing, a bit over 1 km. Go into the arrivals section and find a customs officer to sign your carnet. Then go to immigration and get your exit stamp. Last step is to hand in your routing slip to the officer at the border gate. This is when a guy approached me, brought that slip to the office, and demanded $20. Why?-'Police' he said. I asked him to come back in uniform. His demand went down to $10, then to 'do you have any Iranian money left'. I told him to get lost, which he did, eventually.
No-one wanted any 'petrol'-tax. Don't know if cars or trucks have to pay it.
To actually cross the line, both the Iranians and the Turks have to open their gates. My batch with three other vehicles were let through within 5 minutes, the next batch had to wait an hour, because one Iranian-German father-son team in a German plated SUV were thoroughly searched - in the end a few new spare parts were confiscated (I was told), like an alternator. For me, it was easy, customs just looked superficially in my panniers. Before the customs search, get your entry stamp in the building, then have your vehicle data entered in the system at the window in the customs yard. When you are let go from customs, head down the hill for about 500 meters. There is a window where the officer will check your passport and bike title one more time, and he will give you a small paper slip which you have to hand in at the final gate 200 meters on.

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Update on borderprocedure. When entering the border area coming from the roundabout outside, after the first barrier park and get a “barg e voroodi”/entrance paper from the little office in the center, left of the barrier. Then continue up to the customs building. When visiting the office of the oil company (Sherkat e naft) behind the barrier on the right of the customs building, we didn’t need a copy of our CdP. However we did have to pay for a full tank (not half full any longer. I checked the rules with the boss of the “arziab” /customs who check chassisnumbers etc. Told him that when leaving Iran from Bandar Abbas no petrolfee is necessary. The rules and the fee asked was correct he said. We were accompanied the whole time by a fixer “dallal” who kept pestering us, but as I speak Farsi I told him I didn’t need any help. He did however help by providing his card for payment as we didn’t have enough money left in our account. He told me we would settle his commission (mablagh/poursent”) later, but I told him I wanted to know how much up front. He said he didn’t need any money. Later, I paid him 5.000.000 IR for his service which he accepted forthright. Always ask them to tell you how much they ask before handing over any paper!
Price for foreigners is 344.000 IR. per litre doesel. Check the going rate for Rials on www.bonbast.com. We had a 100 l tank and ended up paying for 70 litres, appr €60. When payment is settled go to the far left in the arrivals hall where you have to get permission to enter from the guy standing at the exitdoor from the luggage/customs area where people entering from Turkey come through. It took us less than 3 hours to complete (lots of discussion on my part about the dieselfee so could have been even faster). The arziab asked us if we had received a notification from the customs at Bandar Lengeh to get a license plate and I told him that that was not the case…..no problem at all.
Twice visiting Iran (entering from Bazargan) we had gone through the lengthy process of obtaining an Iranian license plate which took hours. Also we encountered more checks etc while touring Iran, we therefore opted to ignore the order to get a license plate when returning again in December to Iran via Bandar Lengeh and we had no problems at all, even no checks at all on route….even at Mehriz police checkpoint near Yazd where they are notorious for being real pains ….. they let us through without any check.
When we arrived in Bazargan in september a young motorcyclist who we had met in Dogubayazit asked if he could cross the border together with us. One of the fixers (who had told me he worked at the border as staff!) told the motorcyclist that he could “only get a five day entry into Iran as his term of 3 months would expire in 5 days….. “ This was a scam (you have 3 months to enter and thén your visa term starts), but this fixer together with the guy from the customs (sitting second from the right) were probably going to offer to “help” him out for a lot of money.
As we did in fact know that this was nonsense we told the Customs guy to phone the headoffice (modiriat) and we heard no more about it! He got 30 days without any further problems. Later this fixer (who didn’t even speak English and asked me to translate for him) charged €50 for his “help” which the motorcyclist who didn’t pay of course. A big row followed and the fixer walked off insulted. Very aggressive little man! The only fixer we know to be ok is Armin a young guy. However, before any service agree upon a price as it is perfectly easy to go through Customs without any help . Just make sure you have a card with you to pay the petrolfee otherwise you need sb to pay for you.

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Great and helpfull info from previous check-in.
They charged us and two German cars for a full tank @ 1 €/ltr. After the Carnet stamp in the arrivals hall you get an A5 piece of paper which requires 3 signatures and which you hand in at the barrier.

At the Turkish side, insurance can be purchased from a small office situated between the terminal and the cafetaria 1 month ~ 33 € for a normal car. Very quick visual check of car, others in front of us required full Xray.

Total time for crossing: 6 hrs

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Border crossing with two Motorbikes.
We needed 2 hours, its a little bit chaotic and there a not many signs which says where you have to go.
First we got our passports checked and after that our Carnet de Passage.

At the end some guys came around and wanted 50$ per person for "service customs" because they have walked besides us to the guys who stamped the carnet. We denied to give them the money and just sit down in the shadow and ignored him. After that he walked away with our Carnet,but we stayed calm and just waited.
After a few minutes another guy came around and gave us our Carnet back without charging any money.
So dont give them attention, stay calm and dont give them money!

Just plan enough time at the border that you are not in a hurry.

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New record: 2h40 mins to do everything.
The longest waiting is not the documents but the waiting at the Turkey custom checks… 2h waiting only for that!

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Iran - Turkey border crossing at Bazargan 19.02.2022 (German passport)

Very easy, friendly and fast. Whole crossing took us only 3 hours.

Iran:
At the „Petrol-Tax-Office“ they charged us for the full tank - regardless of how full it really is. Their database said that our car (VW T4) has a 70l tank. For that we had to pay roughly 40 Euro. He also checked the car for additional fuel canisters. We paid in a combination of Toman and USD. You need a bank card or somebody with a bank card to pay for you as they do not accept cash. 
At the CDP „office“ (which confusingly is NOT in the departure hall but in the arrival hall to which the entry is the furthermost left) they knew what they were doing. Process was smooth. Upon exit the Iranians checked our luggage for one minute.

Turkey: 
very friendly and effective. As we do not have a green card which covers Turkey we had to get a local third party liability insurance. We paid 300 TL (20 Euro) for 30 days. 
They checked our luggage manually for approximately 10 minutes, no Xray.

Thanks to everybody who explained the process on iOverlander so well.

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Iran -> Turkey
We had a very fast process!
you have to drive up the hill to reach the boarder and a barrier.
There is a big building left of the barrier with two entrances.
If you don’t have a copy of your Carnet, go to the left entrance of the building.
There is a small shop where you can make a copy.
After that you have to leave the big building and walk back to the barrier.
Now the “Petrol process” starts. Walk behind the barrier. There is a narrow building to your right. Take the second door. You have to pay the petrol that you carry in your tank. We tried to say 30L like others, but had to pay 60L...we think that was due to the fact, that we couldn’t find any Iranian who could pay with his card for us. (You have to pay the amount with Iranian credit card). So the Officer called someone from the street and we think he was a tout...so he wanted to make profit himself and got half of the money we gave to the officer...
With the “petrol paper” you go back to the big building and take the left entrance. Inside you go through the first gateway. There are some guys sitting and you get your Carnet stamped. Give them the petrol paper and the copy.
After that you enter the right entrance of the big building (it’s written Departure Hall on it). There you get your passport stamped.
After that you go to your car and pass the barrier where they ckeck your car.
Turkish side was very easy.

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Warning! Pay for petrol process in place.

No one says anything about it, but this process seems to be in place for a long time.

When exiting from Iran to Turkey - they will charge you for any fuel that you have in your fuel tank!
Going price is 7200 Rial per 1 liter. Everyone pays it equally - locals and foreigners. Here’s the process:

Before getting exit stamp on your Carnet you need to pay for fuel and get a paper confirmation. They call this process PETROL.
Start from the far right. When approaching the customs terminal, there will be a road barrier on the right. Park there, walk on foot under the barrier and climb into second office on the right. Bring a copy of your CDP with you, they need it here. If you don’t have one - go to the shop with cigarettes, they make it there for 1000Tomans.
In this petrol office they will ask you how much petrol do you have. Say as little as possible. I said 40L, although I had a full 80L tank. THEY DO NOT CHECK THE CAR TANK. They just take your number. In their system they will check how big petrol tank is in your car. So play smart. I had no dial left so I negotiated down to 30L, and they say they cannot put less than 30L on the invoice. So even coming with empty tank won’t help you - they will still charge you for 30L minimum. You can pay only by a local card. There’s always someone to help you with that, that person seems to be with the customs. They will take $ or € equivalent in cash from you. I paid 34$ (mix of $ and €), I think about 3.5mil. I saw other receipts and it varied between 4.5 - 9 mil rial. So it seems it’s a legit process.
Once you have the petrol invoice - go the the far left entrance in the terminal. This is Departure. Go as far as you can and show them Carnet and Petrol invoice. Then normal process starts. They’ll check your car, stamp CDP, you go through Passport control, go back to the car and drive through the barrier to the other side. Turkish side everything was quite easy, except 1h extra for full machine X-Ray of our van. Apparently lots of vans smuggle drugs from Iran, so expect lots of police and military stops on Turkey side asking for cigarettes or drugs.

All the process on Iran side took 3h, and maybe 2h on Turkish side.

No one will speak English to you, forcing you to use the touts. As usual customs folks just get a kickback. Just stand your ground. If in doubt - look for uniform officer and ask for help, they seemed most helpful.

Be wary of the touts. They literally swarmed me like flies. They speak good English and promise to help you. They surely will, I don’t know what’s the price. If you wish to avoid the hassle - pay whatever they ask, and they’ll do it for you. But I always avoid the whole scam process and do it myself. Go to hell scammers.

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