It's easy in these days of cheap flights and instant access to travel information to think that the world is your oyster. However, travel visas can be the little piece of grit in that oyster that sometimes stops us in our tracks and makes us reconsider the concept of easy travel. If you like to spend your holidays in the European Union or in well-established tourist locations, you might get through life without having to even think about visas. But , if you want to go to somewhere less established, a less developed part of the world or one where political systems are very different from here at home, sooner or later you'll face the prospect of getting a visa.
Why do countries have visas? ************************ There are many different answers to that question. In some cases, the government of a country wants to keep a keen eye on who they let into their country in order to keep out 'undesirables' or to monitor the ones they let in by keeping all their details on file. Countries where this would be the case include Russia, China, Vietnam and Iran. Other countries such as Turkey and Egypt may use visas as a sort of 'entrance tax' - you get them at the airport on arrival and they don't want any details from you about who you are or what you do, they just want your money.
Another reason countries may require visas is as a reciprocal 'punishment' to other governments who require visas from their nationals or as a one-way retribution for some other perceived offence. As an example of this latter case, the Portuguese government fell out with Australia a few years back over some East Timor. Overnight Portugal
changed the rules and required Australians to have visas to go to Portugal. As a result an Australian friend of mine missed his honeymoon on the Algarve and the husband of one of my Portuguese friends was left sitting at Heathrow as she flew home to Oporto for Christmas without him.
What sorts of visas are there? ************************ The most typical visas you are likely to come across are tourist visas and business visas - I don't propose to go into complex things like work permits because I know nothing about that topic. Visas can be single or multi-entry and typically last between 3 and 12 months.
How would I know if I needed a visa? ****************************** For both business and tourism, your travel agent should tell you what the visa requirements are for any country that you want to visit. Most airlines will not even let you onto their plane if you don't have the correct visas. However, it's ultimately YOUR responsibility to be absolutely sure and I recommend you check the current requirements with the Embassy or High Commission of any country you plan to visit. You can find details using the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website or try googling the country you want to visit along with the word visa and doing some research.
OK, so I need a visa, how do I get one? ******************************** Most travel companies will recommend that you use a visa agency and I would agree with that unless you have a lot of time on your hands and live near to a visa-issuing office. I have used the Indian High Consulate in Birmingham to get Indian visas but I had more time than money when I did that and I did a lot of research first.
If you are travelling for your employer on business, you can probably let someone else worry about the cost and complexity of getting your visas. Your company's travel agent will happily (and at great cost) get your documents picked up and taken to embassies and turned around quickly. If you frequently need visas you should try to get a second passport - I have had two passports for the last ten years or so because my documents have spent a lot of time going back and forth to embassies and consulates.
But if you are spending your own money, you'll need a cheaper but still very reliable visa service and the one I recommend is Travcour. I've been using them for over 10 years.
How did I find Travcour? ********************** Actually, Travcour kind of found me. The three companies I most often book holidays with - Explore, Exodus and the Adventure Company - all recommend Travcour. I've used them most recently to get visas for Iran - a country that receives relatively few tourists and has some odd ways of processing the paperwork. I only had six weeks from booking to departure so I knew I couldn't take any risks.
How do I use them? **************** If you book through any of the above companies they will probably send you visa instructions and Travcour paperwork with your booking. You fill in the forms, get your ugly little passport photos, and send them off with your passport and a cheque to cover the application fees, a handling charge (typically around £25-30 per country) and a fee for returning the documents to you by priority handling (currently £6).
In the case of Iran the tour company has to send your details to a government office in Tehran to get an approval code. This code is then given to Travcour to use at the Embassy in London when they apply for your visa. It's therefore important that the tour company and the visa agency work well together. I was impressed that Travcour informed us in advance that my photos would need to be taken with my head covered. I had previously applied for a business visa to Iran through one of the big business travel agencies (I think it was Hogg Robinson) and had to waste time and money applying twice because they wrongly said the head covering wasn't required.
How did it go? *********** Very smoothly. I was concerned that Ramadan might slow down the issue of the visas. I also tend to worry about whether my passport has got to Travcour and whether it's on its way back to me. This time I didn't need to worry at all. I received many email updates from Travcour - to tell me they'd received my paperwork, when it had been taken to the embassy, when the visa would be released for collection by Travcour and when it would be posted out. All through the process I was kept informed. I was so impressed that I wrote back to ask some questions and gave them a mini-interview by email.
Here's what I found out - my mini interview! ************************************** ** The History of Travcour The company started in 1986 when 18-year old Amanda Helmedy and a friend who had run an overland company started doing favours for friends and customers by queuing up for Nigerian and Russian visas. They learned about all the problems travellers could experience and spotted a gap in the market for providing a visa service. At that time there were no other dedicated visa services and most travellers got their visas through tour operators or by doing it themselves.
Amanda approached adventure tourism companies such as Exodus, Explore, Guerba, Truck Africa and Dragoman and offered to provide a visa application and collection service. She did all the embassy visits herself and got to know how to get the best out of each embassy and its systems. When her original partner left in 1999 she drafted in her husband as a new partner. He was obviously a good choice as his IT skills enabled the company to launch a website (www.travcour.com) to smooth the application process even further.
Today Travcour have four offices, eight advisors and six couriers who go back and forth to the embassies every day. If you visit their site you can find an alphabetical list countries and check out the latest info on visa requirements and download the application forms. They do not cover all countries but where they don't they provide info on how to contact the relevant embassy.
**Which are the most popular countries they get visas for? The most popular are China , Russia , India , Tanzania , Kenya , Nepal , Vietnam , Ethiopia , Iran , Pakistan , Cuba & Mali but the demand varies with the seasons. They specialise in obtaining more difficult visas for Central Asia , Trans Siberian routes, and Africa and Asian overland visas for both tour operators and independent travellers. In some cases several visas are needed and they can co-ordinate complex visa applications.
** Why do they think they are special or different from other companies in the field? Amanda puts a high emphasis on good customer care (through the emailing and access to advisors) but believes it's also very important to nurture the contacts at the embassies. By visiting all the embassies personally and talking to their staff, Travcour aims to understand what makes the work of a clerk in a visa office easier and which bits of information are absolutely essential to get right. They also specialise in the adventure travel market and employ an international staff who can communicate effectively with the embassies. They carefully check each customer's paperwork before they submit it to reduce the risk of rejection and will inform travellers of any changes that may need to be made.
** Are they cost competitive? They have to be! They do a lot of research on what their competitors are charging and also give a more cost effective service by giving customers real people to talk to without forcing them to go through premium or national rate phone numbers. They also save users time for their customers by making the visa application forms available on line for downloading
So would I recommend them? ************************* If you don't live in London or close to an embassy or high commission - definitely YES. If you do live in London but you are applying for a complicated visa - definitely YES If you live in London but don't have time to make two or more visits to wait around for your visas to be issued - again YES.
And finally………. ***************** Our Iranian visas arrived on Friday and I found much to my horror that the photo I sent with my application has been scanned onto the visa. I had hoped that nobody would ever get to see me in my headscarf but it's now there for the next 9 years until the passport runs out or gets filled up. And sadly it's in my jumbo double sized mega-page passport so I'm going to be hiding it for a long time.
Please note the Specific Criteria scores listed below are of course rubbish! They don't apply for a services such as this.
Great review! Have used them twice myself and always found them to be reliable, but somewhat expensive.
Vodkaboy 09.02.2007 18:24
I used Consular Services, another visa company, for some time and they were really helpful. They can be so useful, specially for some countries where you need to be in the queue by 8am or you won't get in that day. As you say, unless you have time to waste, these kinds of guys are worth every penny.
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