What changed in August 2024
On 14 August 2024, Pakistan scrapped its e-visa fee for citizens of 126 countries and cut the application down to a much shorter form, as reported by Dawn and VisaGuide.News. The free list covers essentially every market this site's readers come from: the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU member states, among many others.
The change was not a token gesture. National Geographic's October 2025 trekking feature credits the "newly free e-visa system", an expanded domestic flight network and improved security as the reasons the Karakoram is finally opening up to ordinary hikers, not just expeditions.
Under the scheme the government targets fast turnarounds for the standard 90-day tourist e-visa — many applicants report approval within days. Even so, apply three to four weeks before you fly: it leaves room for follow-up questions, and busy holiday periods slow processing.
Who still pays
If your passport is not on the 126-country list, the portal calculates your fee under the old reciprocal arrangements and shows it before you commit to anything. Nothing is charged silently, and the amount depends purely on nationality.
Business visas, work visas and long-stay categories were never part of the waiver — it applies to the tourist e-visa. For a trip to Hunza, Skardu or the Karakoram Highway, the tourist e-visa is the right category, and for most readers it now costs nothing.
How to apply (and the documents that matter)
Apply only at visa.nadra.gov.pk — the official portal. You'll create an account, fill in the shortened form, and upload a passport scan, a photo, and proof of your plans: either a Letter of Invitation (LOI) from a licensed Pakistani tour operator or hotel booking confirmations. An LOI is the smoothest route, and any reputable operator — ourselves included — issues one as standard when you book. Our full step-by-step visa guide walks through every screen.
Once approved, print the e-visa and carry copies; you will show it with your passport at airport immigration and at the routine checkpoints along the Karakoram Highway. No separate permit is needed for Hunza, Khunjerab, Skardu, Deosai or Fairy Meadows on a tourist visa.
The mistake that still costs people money
Search results are full of lookalike third-party websites that fill in the same government form and charge a hefty "service fee" for it — some travelers have paid more for the middleman than the visa ever cost. Now that the visa itself is free for 126 nationalities, any site asking for payment upfront is a red flag. Type the official address directly, and if a fee appears where you expected zero, stop and check you are on visa.nadra.gov.pk.
