We’ve written before about some of the complications of obtaining visas in order to visit certain countries, and what you can do to ease that process. Typically, this involves utilizing the service of a visa processing agency that will take much of the pain out of the experience, but will hit you with a sizable fee in exchange.
For those who want to go it alone and complete the process themselves, this can be relatively easy to do, provided you live in a large city that houses the consulate of the country you’re trying to visit.
My own personal experience in obtaining a Vietnamese visa was somewhat nerve-jangling.
If you travel frequently – as I do – you’ll find that simply parting with your passport is quite difficult to do. Once I’d gotten a block of a few weeks when I was going to be home, I downloaded the appropriate forms from the Vietnamese consulate’s website.
Immediately, I was hit with a question that had contradictory answers: did I need a single or multiple-entry visa?
This is where you need to pay attention to your itinerary. For example, since I am only taking in the cruise portion of my upcoming Mekong adventure, I will only need a single-entry visa for Vietnam. Had I been doing the full cruise-tour, I would have needed a multiple-entry visa, as the full itinerary enters, then leaves, then enters the country again.
The form also requires you to submit a passport-style photo, so off I went to my local store to get four small passport-sized photographs taken professionally. The same rules apply here: no laughing, no smiling. Glasses off. Look unhappy. Perfect!
Cost: $14.
Then, it was off to the Consulate. Add $15 to park in downtown Vancouver at the height of the workday. I learned that the $90 fee for the visa was payable in cash – but ATM’s “conveniently” only dispense multiples of $20 or $50, so I swung by Starbucks for a $5 latte and some change.
The process of submitting my application and photograph – and money – at the Vietnamese consulate was friendly and efficient, and I was issued a receipt to return in three days and pick up my passport with the shiny new visa embedded within. Be aware you’ll need a blank, full passport page to place the visa into.
Total cost for the visa, photos, and – let’s face it – parking, lunch and a latte: $140. Not to mention the two mornings I lost dropping it off and picking it up. However, the benefit of doing it yourself is: you get your passport back a heck of a lot faster, since you’re not waiting on priority courier services to shuttle your documents back and forth. And, I still saved about $60 over what some visa services wanted to charge me.
Still, it’s an extra cost worth being aware of when you book your river cruise abroad – visas for a family of four could easily run up an additional $500 cost that may not have been budgeted for.
Do you have any tips and tricks for obtaining a tourist visa? Let us know!
