Important info; Passport, Embassy and Visa

Register your trip:

Worldwide, each Department of State encourages all travelers to register with their local Embassy or Consulate when arriving in a foreign country. Registration helps the Embassy to provide important services for citizens residing or traveling abroad. Some of these services include:

• Locating individuals in cases of family or personal emergencies,
• Relaying important travel and safety information about the region,
• Arranging evacuation transportation in cases of natural disaster or civil unrest,
• Issuing replacement passports when originals are lost, and
• A number of other administrative services relating to personal documentation.

Without the information provided through registration, the Embassy is severely hindered in its ability to provide these services. Many of these services involve emergency situations and time constraints, therefore failure to register will almost certainly lead to delays at moments when you can least afford them.

What is a Travel Visa?:

Everyone always dreads the idea of getting one. They may trap you in boring embassies for hours on end, but when you’re finally through that long queue it’s all worth it. What else is nicer than to have a good looking visa in your passport.

Now before you get on the bus or in your car to get to that embassy the first step is to find out whether you need a travel visa or not. If you do, how does your destination like to serve it up?

There are two ways of getting travel visas: you can get them from the country’s local consulate before you go, or in the country upon entry. Do your research or ask Blue Label Diving – it’s no good for anyone to turn up at a border expecting to be able to breeze through it only to find you were required to apply three months ago. Most visa’s will cost around 20$.

There are essentially five types of visa (but each can have varying categories such as length of stay, and single or multiple entries). They are transit, tourist, business, student and working-holiday visas. The one that’s used for tourist is abvioulsy the tourist visas.

Of course, if you have an EU passport, you’re in a different position. You can go anywhere within the EEA (the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). There’s also the Schengen Area, a common border and visa area for some but not all EU countries. Applications for these visas should be made at the embassy or consulate of the country you will be visiting. Confused? Most consulates and embassies now have their own website. Go online and work out where you’re going and check the individual country’s entry requirements.

Bear in mind the following when gearing up to apply for visas:
Nine out of 10 visas are valid from date of issue, which means that you’ll be getting most of them on the road. For instance, a visa may run for three months from date of issue, so you’d only get one in advance if this was early in your itinerary.

Visa requirements can sometimes be affected by the transport you’ve used to enter a country. For instance, you could be able to get visas on arrival if you fly into the country, but have to arrange them in advance if you go overland.

In some instances you can get a longer visa if you apply before you travel. For instance, some visas give you six months if you apply in your home country but only 30 days if you rock up at the border.

You may have to consider the relationships between the governments of the countries you’re visiting. It’s rare, but sometimes if you have a stamp in your passport from earlier travels then it can cause problems when entering subsequent countries.

Passport info:

Passport/Visa Note: Passports of all visitors must be valid for at least six months after entry date. Please make sure your passport is in good state. If there is even one little rip in a page or bend the officer at the customs can deny entry to you. Check your passport way ahead of your travel date, so if something is wrong you can have it changed in time. In several countries Visas can be issued on arrival, but it is highly recommended that visitors obtain visas prior to arrival. At least one blank page is needed in passports, reserved for use by the Immigration Authorities.
Passport and visa requirements are liable to change at short notice. Travelers are advised to check their entry requirements with their embassy or consulate.
All travellers must hold onward or return tickets (otherwise a deposit must be paid before arriving at your destination, which is equivalent to the cost of a flight to the country of origin).