Visa service

Dorothy Thompson September 12, 2016 at 4:27am

You're certainly right about the rules being complex and changing. Thank you for the tips.

Craig W. Roark said:

Scot McKay Brought up good points. Where you live, where you're going of course is another thing. What nationality you are is another. Being blessed living in San Francisco takes out a lot of cussing of obtaining Visas.

Example if you're applying for the first time for a visa to Angola, you must show up at the consulate or embassy.

The same with Venezuela, the same for Paraguay for a while that you had to be present when applying, now you can get visa on arrival at Asuncion Silvio Pettirossi Intl. Airport yet not at land borders.

Dorothy Thompson September 12, 2016 at 4:25am

Thank you.

Leslie Kelly said:

Not simple but quite doable ... took about ten days (excluding weekends) to get it all handled. Travisa assigns a staff member to guide/manage everything through the hoops. They even had all of the documents translated into Russian and English and several other languages.

Craig W. Roark September 11, 2016 at 6:36pm

Scot McKay Brought up good points. Where you live, where you're going of course is another thing. What nationality you are is another. Being blessed living in San Francisco takes out a lot of cussing of obtaining Visas.

Example if you're applying for the first time for a visa to Angola, you must show up at the consulate or embassy.

The same with Venezuela, the same for Paraguay for a while that you had to be present when applying, now you can get visa on arrival at Asuncion Silvio Pettirossi Intl. Airport yet not at land borders.

Leslie Kelly September 11, 2016 at 12:53pm

Not simple but quite doable ... took about ten days (excluding weekends) to get it all handled. Travisa assigns a staff member to guide/manage everything through the hoops. They even had all of the documents translated into Russian and English and several other languages.

Dorothy Thompson September 2, 2016 at 1:26am

Thank you. I'll keep track of the recommended services. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in finding the visa-getting process to be complex.

Leslie Kelly September 1, 2016 at 4:17pm

I have had great service from Travisa. Did a round the world trip -- to included the full Trans Siberian Express route -- and they handled all Visas.

Dorothy Thompson February 13, 2016 at 12:58pm

Scot McKay said:

Hello Dorothy.

Perhaps weirdly, we've found that it depends on the destination country. Are you headed anywhere in particular?

The frustrating part is that the whole realm of visa/entry requirements is probably the most unreliable topic on the whole internet to research. It often seems like false information gets plagiarized from one source directly to another. For instance, we were told to bring five crisp $10 bills to the Kenyan border on at least three different sites. We got there and they were like, dude...you could have put it on your credit card.

Also, since visa requirements tend to be VERY fluid, you can only really trust information that's very recent. For example, a 2012 web site won't cut it.

But even then, just recently we found at least four different sets of information on what the Kuwaiti requirements are. Even the Los Angeles Kuwaiti consulate's info differed from what their embassy in Washington D.C. told us.

Usually, the US State Department's information is as good as any. Go figure.

Specifically, here's what I can tell you;

When it isn't just flat-out cheaper and more efficient to send our passports directly to an embassy, we've used both Travisa and Visa Express (both .com) with good success. Their communication was fine and they did what they said they were going to do in a timely manner. But we only use them when a country (e.g. Russia, India, China) either requires that passports be walked into their brick and mortar facility elsewhere, or is so freaking confusing/complicated that the process is impossible if you don't speak their language.

AND...it's always best to have real, reliable information on VoA situations, too, because most of these companies will gladly take your money (and your passport for three weeks) when it was ultimately unnecessary.

Additionally, the itinerary you're on sometimes matters. For example, if you travel between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda you actually only need a single entry visa for Kenya. And all three countries had VoA, even overland.

Finally, some countries are far easier to get visas for if you use a reliable local "fixer" to sort it all for you. That was the case for us with Belarus, and most definitely the only way to go for DPRK.

Thank you, Scot. I'm making note of those visa service names. Bolivia is the one I'm currently concerned with but this issue keep popping up and you are right--reliable information is difficult to get as well as reliable service. I know I'll be needing a couple of challenging ones later this year and I will check the sites you mentioned. Thanks for your help.

Scot McKay February 13, 2016 at 9:42am

Hello Dorothy.

Perhaps weirdly, we've found that it depends on the destination country. Are you headed anywhere in particular?

The frustrating part is that the whole realm of visa/entry requirements is probably the most unreliable topic on the whole internet to research. It often seems like false information gets plagiarized from one source directly to another. For instance, we were told to bring five crisp $10 bills to the Kenyan border on at least three different sites. We got there and they were like, dude...you could have put it on your credit card.

Also, since visa requirements tend to be VERY fluid, you can only really trust information that's very recent. For example, a 2012 web site won't cut it.

But even then, just recently we found at least four different sets of information on what the Kuwaiti requirements are. Even the Los Angeles Kuwaiti consulate's info differed from what their embassy in Washington D.C. told us.

Usually, the US State Department's information is as good as any. Go figure.

Specifically, here's what I can tell you;

When it isn't just flat-out cheaper and more efficient to send our passports directly to an embassy, we've used both Travisa and Visa Express (both .com) with good success. Their communication was fine and they did what they said they were going to do in a timely manner. But we only use them when a country (e.g. Russia, India, China) either requires that passports be walked into their brick and mortar facility elsewhere, or is so freaking confusing/complicated that the process is impossible if you don't speak their language.

AND...it's always best to have real, reliable information on VoA situations, too, because most of these companies will gladly take your money (and your passport for three weeks) when it was ultimately unnecessary.

Additionally, the itinerary you're on sometimes matters. For example, if you travel between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda you actually only need a single entry visa for Kenya. And all three countries had VoA, even overland.

Finally, some countries are far easier to get visas for if you use a reliable local "fixer" to sort it all for you. That was the case for us with Belarus, and most definitely the only way to go for DPRK.

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Visa service

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