Border Crossing: Jordan

Date of Border Crossing	May 2006
Point of Entry	Aqaba by ferry from Egypt
Passport and Visa	Passport has to be valid for at least another 6 months. You need a visa, but you can get the visa on arrival at the border in Jordan. When arriving in Aqaba you are issued a special 30 day visa, since Aqaba is a 'Free-trade-zone'. This visa is special in that in can only be extended in Aqaba. So if you plan on arriving in Aqaba and want to stay longer than 30 days get a visa before you come to Aqaba at a Jordanian embassy.
Insurance	They make you pay insurance for the length of your stay. We bought insurance for 30 days which cost us 21.50JD per bike.
Drivers Licence	Did not get checked, but I am sure that officially you are required to have one.
Motorcycle papers	You need a carnet de passage to bring a vehicle into Jordan.
Licence plates	Own licence plates are sufficient.
How it went	While on the ferry a Jordanian Immigration Officer came by and collected our passports. We were handed a receipt and told to collect the passport at Immigration upon arrival, make sure you tell them you want it for 30 days, otherwise you will get a 10 day visa. On boarding our bikes got put on the second floor of the ferry, where as all the trucks got loaded on the first floor. So in Aqaba we had to wait for all the trucks to get off, before we could disembark. Therefore it was already pretty late and I got the impression, that the people processing our papers, just wanted to have us out of there, so that they could get home. The Customs officer told us we had to go Immigration on the Second floor. On the Second floor they didn't really know what to do with us, but eventually they found the person with our passports which had already gotten stamped with a 30 day visa. Then we had to buy insurance, which was 21.5 JD per bike and pay 11 JD processing/entry fee for each bike. We were handed a receipt for the insurance and a vehicle registration card. The carnet got stamped and we were free to enter Jordan.
Point of Exit	North of Irbid to Dera in (Syria)
How it went	We got to the border and the officer who stopped us took quite an interest in me (cecilia). After some heavy flirting we were allowed to proceed to the immigration office. The instructions for leaving the country were printed in English on a notice board: 1. Pay departure tax 5 JD per person 2. Get passport stamped 3. Pay exit tax for vehicle (5 JD) 4. Get carnet stamped 5. Proceed to gate And that is exactly what we did. No problem at all.
Additional Information