Visa Solutions

Post date: 03-May-2009 04:10:19

Our travel agent did a large amount of homework for us and found out something that she suspected all along about our Visas. She phoned various consulates and found out that they will grant some of our Visas ahead of time and will issue the Visa as being valid for the days that we'll be in that country. For example, the Russian Visa will state that it's valid for the dates we'll be in Russia. The Russian Visa take 14 working days to process and will cost us $184.00 each.

The Philippines Visa takes 12 working days, costs $100.00 and is valid for 12 months. The China Visa takes 12 working days (I am sensing an average here), costs $145.00 and is good for 6 months. It turns out the Mongolian Visa (which in my last post was the only Visa we thought we could get ahead of time) is now the only Visa we can't get ahead of time. We'll likely get the Mongolian Visa in London and it takes about 2-5 working days and will cost us around a $100.00 each. Paris will be our back up location for getting this Visa.

Therefore, the total cost for our fancy cardboard pieces of paper called our Visas will be about $900.00 for both of us. It must have been a really fancy tree that was killed to print those visas.

The AMA will help us send our passports, visa photos, and filled out visa papers to the appropriate consulates. However, we must first book our airfare and receive our letter of invitation from the Russian tour company. The Russian letter from the train tour company is required for us to get the visa. I think it will basically state that we'll be staying in Russia for 2 days before we take the Trans-Mongolian railway through Mongolia and into China. I believe the person we're staying with on a hospitality exchange in China is going to send us her business card and address which should help us get our Visa. You often have to supply the address of where you will be staying to get your Visa. We may also have to send a financial statement for one of our Visas. I'll keep you posted as we fill out the forms because we need to get our applications mailed this month.

82 days until we leave for the trip and 56 more work days...