Iran/Iraq border crossing Merhan/Badra | Customs and Immigration

This was the hardest Border of my Life. thanks for Sharing your experience @all.
The next time I enter Iraq from Iran, I would do it as follows: first drive past the x-ray machine and to the cupboard. Knock on the second white container and wake the guy. I was there at 8 a.m. He gets $50 for the petrol tax. He stamps the CDP, then you drive straight to the last house. There the visa is stamped and you are out of Iran immediately. If you know how it works, it takes five minutes. It took me an hour. On the Iraqi side, there is a search first, then the dog comes. Write your name in a book. Then you should get the visa. My predecessors have already written how this works.

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Iraq>Iran

Not a bad experience. Don’t be deterred by previous posting.

Customs both sides no X-ray and just had a obligatory peek in my bike panniers.

Iraq exit quite chaotic - but possible - no worse than some African crossings. Best to find a helpful border official. I found my way to immigration 1st - then backtracked to customs shack. Ask directions from the uniformed guys and truck drivers - they’ll help.
Did succeed in getting exit stamps in passport and CPD. 2 hrs - no fees.

Iran entry quick.
I had Iran visa printed. They don’t stamp passport - entry stamp on printed visa.
(See Basra Iraq - Iran Embassy post for visa application details).
Customs stamped CPD - familiar with document.
1/2 hr - no fees.

Have patience - Good luck!

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Iran->Iraq

This one was by far the toughest border I have ever experienced. The officers told us we were the first foreigners with a vehicle as far as they know. In Iraqi side there is no process at all for foreigners and it seems impossible to get through without the help of a kind officer.

Iranian side is pretty easy:
First go to customs (white containers approx. 33.1160975, 46.0566673). There we paid kind of a diesel tax based on our tank capacity: 9 million rials, 15$)
Then we were told to continue for x-ray (33.1161868, 46.0538832) but there was nobody so we were told its ok without x-ray and we should continue. After this you can drive to another customs building behind a barrier at 33.1200811, 46.0509113. There we got our stamp in the CdP after some paperwork. Last station is the immigration where you get your exit stamp into your passport/visa at 33.1206087, 46.0511322
Whole process on Iranian side was maybe 2h.
The Iraqi side was much more complex. It seemed to us they never faced a foreign car before:

At the first Checkpoint they searched the car also with the K9 and took us to a room (approx. 33.123909, 46.049916) where we would get our Visa on arrival. There we also met our translator called Mohammed from the immigration police. He guided us through the whole following process. The first problem was that we had to pay 102'000 IQD for the visa but they can not take USD nor there is any exchange bureau at the border. So it took quite a while until somebody was found who changed our USD for IQD at a private basis and we could continue. After 2h we had our Visas stamped and could continue with the customs which developed to a nightmare:
We were told to go to a container at 33.1259452, 46.0494733. There is like a whole village of white containers of which none is signposted. After knocking at some doors we came to a guy with a big book on his desk. He gave us a A4 paper where we need to fill in car details (arabic only). With this paper we had to go to another container where we had to buy insurance ($25) approx. 33,1258455, 46,0479488 clearly signed as National Insurance Company.
After this we went to another container in another village of not signposted containers approx. 33.1265006, 46.0451408 there we got our TIP for which we had to pay $100. With this document we had to go to a room (of course not signposted) at 33.1236208, 46.0497237 where we got another paper.
With this stack of papers we thought we would be finished and we could go to the container where we got the first customs paper. Because at the end everything is about to get an entry into the big book at this guy, who gave you the first paper.
But when we went there it turned out that the paperwork now is correct but they will keep my passport until we exit through this border again. This was not an option for us because we wanted to continue into another direction. So our translator helped us to go to the boss of the guy but this one made clear he can not help but we need to go to the boss of the boss. So we went with our translator to the chief of customs located in a huge room in a huge building with golden chairs at this location: 33.1253999, 46.0453413. It literally looked like we would meet the president now.

Until this point no-one of the customs officers before ever noticed our CdP,  i think because they never saw this document before. With the chief of customs we and our translator we now tried to get an exemption for keeping our passport. After quite a lot of discussion and begging and argue with the CdP and the process at the other Iran/Iraq border crossing called Shalamja we got an exemption.
We could continue to the guy with the big book and got an entry there and some more paper for the final post to leave the border area.

At the end:
-We got no import stamp in the CdP at all
-We only were able to go through this process because police officer and translator Mohammed stayed the whole day with us, translated for us and organised a meeting with the big boss.
-At the end we got the permission to enter with the car on an exemption basis
-The Iraqi side took us about 6h (no waiting time, just running from counter to counter and explaining)

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