International courier from Bangalore to Iran. Free home pickup.
Collected from your Bengaluru door at any hour and flown out of Kempegowda into the DTDC International network, with partner handling on the final leg into Tehran. 7–12 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,000 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST. This is the one lane on our card where we check that the service and your contents are currently accepted before we take the booking.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to an Iranian address.
Serviceability check first.
Before anything is collected, we confirm that the lane is open and that what you want to send is currently acceptable on it. International sanctions affect both which goods can be carried into Iran and how the money side works, and the position is not static — so we verify rather than assume. This takes a phone call and it saves a parcel.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+, at any hour, anywhere from Whitefield to Kengeri. The HSR Layout desk runs 24×7. The agent brings tape, bubble wrap and the international airway bill, and packs at your address.
Pack, document, declare.
Item-level invoice with real values, sender KYC, and a signed contents declaration. Generic descriptions such as 'gift items' or 'samples' are exactly what stalls a parcel here — every line needs to say what the thing actually is.
BLR gateway, then partner leg.
Out through Kempegowda into the DTDC International network. Bengaluru being its own international gateway removes the overland leg that inland origins pay for, but on this lane that saving is small against the variable that matters: the final movement into Iran runs through partner handling with trans-shipment, and that is where the 7–12 day band comes from.
Iranian customs, then delivery.
Clearance at Tehran, then last mile to Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Tabriz or Qom. Iranian customs is documentation-strict and will hold a parcel over a vague description. Clean paperwork is the whole game. POD reaches you on WhatsApp.
Starting rates. Real pricing depends on weight.
Iran is priced above the Gulf states despite being no further away, and the reason is handling rather than distance — the routing is indirect and the destination leg is partner-operated. What you actually pay is set by the greater of actual and volumetric weight, with the international fuel surcharge that applies on the day we book. GST is extra. We re-quote at booking rather than holding a stale number.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (7–12 days, door)from ₹1,000 / kg
- Economy (12–20 days, door)from ₹750 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 3 kg parcel — say books, clothing and a folder of academic transcripts a student is sending home to Tehran at the end of a course, about 40 × 30 × 20 cm:
- Express, 3 kg × ₹1,000≈ ₹3,000
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹750
- + GST 18%≈ ₹675
- Approx total, express≈ ₹4,425
Indicative only. Routing surcharges and fuel move; we re-quote at booking.
What you’ll need at pickup.
Iran asks for more than any other destination on our card, and it asks for it in writing. Everything below is settled at your Bengaluru address before the agent leaves, because a correction attempted after the parcel has left India is very slow and sometimes impossible.
KYC of the sender
A government photo ID in the name of the sender on the AWB: Aadhaar, passport or driving licence. It is captured at your address and held only in DTDC's booking record. On this lane the sender's identity is part of the compliance record, so it is not a formality we skip for regulars.
Item-level declaration and invoice
Every item described specifically, with a quantity and an honest value, whether the parcel is commercial or a family gift. 'Clothes, 5 pieces' is not a description; 'cotton kurta, men's, 2 pieces, ₹1,200 each' is. Iranian customs verifies descriptions against contents and a mismatch is treated as a misdeclaration, not a typo.
Consignee identity and a full address
The recipient's Iranian national identity number, their mobile, and the complete address including the ten-digit postal code. Iranian addresses are written largest-to-smallest and a partial one will not deliver. Get all of it from the recipient before we book — this is not something we can look up.
What cannot go to Iran.
Two separate rulebooks apply here and both are binding. Iranian law bans some categories outright. International sanctions independently affect what carriers and their partners will move and how payment can be handled, and that position can change — which is why we confirm current acceptability before booking rather than quoting from a list and hoping. What follows is operational, not political.
Don’t even try
- Laptops, phones, tablets, cameras, drones, GPS units, networking and encryption hardware — export-controlled electronics are not carried on this lane. For a Bengaluru sender this is the single biggest surprise, because sending a laptop is the most ordinary thing we do on every other route.
- Satellite receiving equipment — dishes, decoders, receivers. Separately controlled in Iran.
- Alcohol, in any quantity or packaging — zero tolerance.
- Pork and pork derivatives — including snack products containing them.
- Narcotics and cannabis products of any kind, including CBD — penalties in Iran are severe and there is no benign reading of this. Do not ask us to try.
- Proselytising religious material and material critical of the state — flagged at customs. Personal religious texts for a family's own use are a different matter; volume distribution material is not.
- Cash, cards, precious metal and bearer valuables — payment and banking channels into Iran are constrained, and a courier is not a workaround for that.
- Aerosols, liquids, and lithium cells above 100 Wh — standard air-leg rules, and they still apply.
Allowed with care
- Textiles and clothing — sarees, kurtas, tailored garments, fabric. Modest in presentation, honest in value, described item by item.
- Academic documents and printed matter — transcripts, degree certificates, reference books, dictionaries. The commonest and cleanest thing on this lane.
- Sealed dry foodstuffs — commercially packed, labelled, with an ingredient list. Spices, dry snacks and tea travel; nothing homemade, nothing wet, nothing with pork or alcohol content.
- Prescription medicines — one person's course, sealed strips, a copy of the prescription with the doctor's registration number. No injectables, no liquids, nothing controlled.
- Handicrafts and non-precious jewellery — declare material, quantity and a fair value.
- A student's personal effects — used clothing, books, bedding, kitchen items, listed line by line with realistic used values. This works well. The electronics come out of the carton first.
Students, documents, and families that already knew each other.
Bengaluru's connection to Iran is largely an educational one. Iranian students have come to Karnataka's universities and colleges for decades — Bengaluru and Mysuru both host communities of them — and the parcel traffic on this lane follows that pattern: paperwork, books, clothing and the belongings of people at the start or the end of a course.
Iranian students in Bengaluru sending home
Books, clothes, gifts bought here, and at the end of a degree the belongings that will not fit into an airline allowance. This is the mainstay of the lane. The one thing to plan around is the laptop and phone, which cannot go by courier and have to travel in the student's own cabin bag.
Academic and professional documents
Transcripts, degree certificates, attestations, verification packets requested by an Iranian employer or university. Light, urgent, and the category where the 7–12 day band is felt most sharply — send early, send express, and tell us the deadline so we can be honest about whether it is achievable.
Family gifts to Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz
Indian families with a member working in Iran, and Iranian families here with relatives at home. Clothing, dry food, small handicrafts, children's things. Nothing exotic — the difficulty is never the goods, it is the paperwork discipline they need.
Textiles and fabric
South Indian silk and cotton have a small but real market in Iran, and fabric is one of the least troublesome categories to move. Item-level invoice, fair values, and a consignee identity number make it routine.
Ziyarat and pilgrimage traffic
Bengaluru's Shia families travel to Mashhad and Qom, and there is a modest flow of parcels around those journeys — books, religious texts for personal use, gifts sent ahead to hosts, belongings shipped back when a suitcase filled up. Declared honestly, these move without drama.
Small trade samples, once cleared
Non-electronic samples — textiles, handicrafts, packaged spices, printed catalogues — for a buyer in Iran. We check current acceptability first, then set up the documentation once so that repeat consignments only need a new item list and values.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
You get the AWB on WhatsApp the moment the parcel is booked into DTDC International, whatever the hour, and you can track it at dtdc.in. Be prepared for this lane to look quieter than others. Where the movement passes to partner handling, scan events can thin out for a day or more, and Iranian customs adds its own silent stretch. That silence is the normal shape of an Iran shipment, not evidence of a problem. We check position with the partner rather than waiting for the tracker to speak, and we tell you what we find — including when the news is that it is sitting in a queue.
Asked most often on this lane.
My son is finishing his course in Bengaluru. Can we ship his laptop and belongings back to Tehran?
The belongings yes, the laptop no. Used clothing, books, bedding, kitchen things, a bicycle helmet, a folder of certificates — all of that ships on this lane, listed line by line with realistic second-hand values. Electronics are the exception and it is a firm one: laptops, tablets, phones, cameras, drones and GPS units are export-controlled and are not carried into Iran on this route. That catches Bengaluru families off guard more than anything else, because in a tech city a laptop in a carton is the most ordinary parcel imaginable. Plan for the machine to travel in his cabin baggage and let the courier take the heavy, bulky, low-value things that are painful to fly with. That division usually works out cheaper as well.
Why do you re-confirm the quote and the service before booking an Iran parcel?
Because the honest answer is that this lane's availability is not fixed the way the Gulf lanes are. International sanctions affect both which goods can be moved and how payment for the movement can be handled, and what is accepted can change at short notice. Rather than take your booking against a rate card printed some weeks ago and discover a problem after the parcel has left your house, we make one call: is the lane open today, and is what you are sending acceptable on it today. If the answer is yes, we collect and the price is the price. If it has changed, you find out before you have packed, not after. Every other destination we serve, we can quote and go. This one we check.
How do Nowruz and the Iranian working week affect the 7–12 day estimate?
Both matter and neither is unpredictable. Nowruz, the Persian new year around 20 March, is followed by a national holiday period of roughly two weeks in which government offices and customs work at a fraction of normal pace — a parcel that arrives into that window can sit for far longer than the quoted band, and no amount of paying for express changes it. The regular week differs too: Friday is the weekly holiday in Iran and many offices close Thursday as well, so an Indian working week and an Iranian one only overlap for part of their length. Practically, if something has to be in Tehran by a date, book two to three weeks ahead, avoid landing into Nowruz, and let us look at the calendar with you before you commit.
Tell us the rough weight, the contents and the destination city.
A real person at your Bengaluru door, at any hour.
Tap WhatsApp with your pickup details, or call directly. The HSR Layout desk answers 24×7 — international bookings included.