BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 28. The recent claims of some media outlets that Iraqi citizens who want to visit Azerbaijan for tourism purposes are facing difficulties have no basis and aren't true, a source in the Embassy of Azerbaijan told Trend.
In order to expedite the processing and approval of visa applications from Iraq, enhance the quality of services for Iraqi citizens seeking to visit Azerbaijan for tourism, and strengthen efforts to combat the submission of fraudulent documents in visa applications, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and VFS Global, the leading international company in the relevant sector.
Under the terms of this agreement, the processing of tourist visa applications from Iraqi citizens, as well as other foreign nationals and stateless individuals residing in Iraq, will be managed by the "Azerbaijan Visa Application Center," operated by VFS Global in Baghdad, starting July 10, 2024.
Every citizen of Iraq who wishes to visit Azerbaijan can apply to the aforementioned Visa Center operating for the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iraq in order to obtain the necessary information on visa formalities.
The Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iraq and the Azerbaijan Visa Application Center of the Baghdad office of the VFS Global company accept, process, and hand over documents related to visa applications of citizens of Iraq in accordance with the legislation of Azerbaijan.
All services within the center are organized based on uniform service fees specified in the MoU.
The activities of the center are strictly controlled by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iraq and the head office of the VFS Global company, and monitoring of the activities of that center is carried out regularly.
In addition, in order to ensure transparency in the relevant field, it is prohibited to accept documents from tourism companies with a negative reputation in Iraq.
As a result of the aforementioned measures, a significant increase is observed in the number of citizens of Iraq who have visited our country for tourism purposes.
Thus, despite the fact that there were no direct flights between Azerbaijan and Iraq during the first three months of 2025 and the closure of the airspace of Iraq in June of this year, the Embassy received 5,904 applications by October 27, 2025.
Of these, 5,650 visas were issued (4,800 visa applications were accepted during 2024).
No applications were submitted by the companies complaining through the press to either the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Iraq or the "Visa Center".
The Alkaither company, whose name was mentioned in the complaint, stated that the application circulated on its behalf in the Azerbaijani mass media was fake and informed that no difficulties were observed with visa applications of citizens of Iraq wishing to visit Azerbaijan.
All applications received in the relevant field, including complaints, are seriously checked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy, and if relevant shortcomings are noted as a result of the check, necessary measures are taken to eliminate them.
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