Check out Japanese Customs under
Glimpses of the Road, back on
Randy's Travel Page.
When it comes to baggage inspection, show no reluctance. Don't wait to be asked, put your bag on the counter and begin opening it. In many places, there is almost no baggage search at all and they will just wave you on through. Sometimes it depends on where you came from or what you look like, and in some places it takes all day! Again, answer any questions quickly and honestly. Personally, I have a great deal of reverence for the customs officials in most countries. They can often tell when you are lying about anything. Professional smugglers may be cool, but your best bet is to be clean and honest.
If you have anything really interesting, like a big camp knife or lots of medicines, place them in the bottom of the pack where only a thorough search will turn them up. I once carried a big camp knife all through Central America; it was only found by one customs officer as I was leaving Honduras, and he let me keep it. If you have items of a personal nature like birth control devices or tampons that you don't want soldiers delving into, carry them in your clothing. Some people swear by putting dirty underwear at the top of their pack to shorten inspections. A few countries (e.g., China) are very interested in the reading material you have. They may confiscate anything that looks moderately objectionable -- morally, politically or otherwise -- or just be suspicious of anyone carrying a lot of books.
Check out Japanese Customs under
Glimpses of the Road, back on
Randy's Travel Page.
There is usually not too much hassle in leaving a country, but
there are exceptions. The Currency Declaration Form mentioned
above is one possibility. Another is exit permits, which are
discussed below. It is rare to have your luggage inspected by a
country you are leaving, but it can happen if they are
looking for illegal exports, especially of "cultural treasures".
They can also try to prevent foreigners from taking local money
out of the country, or locals from taking foreign money
out of the country. Go figure.
Another very important official duty is obtaining visas. The official etiquette is very similar to border crossings. Wear your best clothes and be on your best behavior. If they don't want to give you a visa, you may never visit their country. If they want to be really nasty, they can stamp your passport with "visa refused" which means that no other embassy will give you that visa either.
Not all countries require visas for all nationalities. You may be able to show up at the border and get a "tourist permit" without having to get a visa at all. Check with a travel agent for the latest requirements for where you are going.
To get a visa, you must go the embassy, high commission, consulate, or delegation of the country you wish to visit. The embassy officials are representatives of another country, although the office people you deal with may be locals. Know what the requirements are before you go -- photos, letters of recommendation, air tickets, lots of money to show. You may be asked for all of these before you can even apply, so make sure you have them on you. Visa application hours are notoriously short, usually just a few hours in the morning. Get there early since there may be a queue. The amount you pay and the length of stay you receive all depend on your nationality. Sometimes you can pay more to get faster service.
It usually takes one to three days to get your visa. In the meantime, you (often) have no passport, so make sure you have changed enough money and won't need your passport for anything else. Ask to get a receipt for your passport, so you can prove to any policeman that you have one; you also have some recourse if the embassy loses your passport! I would like to say "demand a receipt" but you cannot do this at embassies; they are the lords of their domains. I have been told several times that receipts are not necessary; "If anyone asks, tell them to call the embassy."
Like borders, different embassies for the same country may vary greatly in their policies. Some require air tickets and give shorter visas, while others give longer visas and require nothing. Ask other travelers along the way and try to get this information. An embassy in the nearest country is usually the one you will visit, but it will also be the most crowded; we're talking about long, long queues and impolite clerks, but that's often what you get. Check the embassies a few countries away to see if they can issue you a visa; it is often much less hassle.
I got my Pakistan visa in Turkey, and my Indian visa in Cyprus. In both cases, the consular offices were almost empty and I got personalized service. I convinced the man at the Pakistan Embassy to give me a double-entry, two month (per entry!) visa which was very useful indeed. The immigration officers in Pakistan said they had never seen one before!
The visa application form has those two very important sections called Occupation and Purpose of Visit, which I discussed above under Immigration.
You may also be asked for your Port and Date of Entry. This may be harmlessly ignored, or might occasionally cause problems. If your port of entry is some obscure backwater on the Nicaraguan border, you may be suspected of not being a "touristy" enough tourist. Once you have your visa, it only matters if some restrictions are printed on the visa about when and where you can enter. They rarely expect you to show up on exactly the day you specified, but you could even be denied entry at a port that is not on your visa. While this is usually just an excuse to make things difficult for you, they could stand firm, and some countries do occasionally restrict the entry of tourists through certain border points.
Expiration Date: There are two important time intervals on your visa. The first is the amount of time you are allowed to stay in country, and the second is the time the visa is valid for. Visas must normally be used within six or twelve months of issue. If you get your visa too soon -- and it turns out to be good for only three months -- it may expire before you can use it! Then you just have to get another one.
The Chinese used to (and probably still do) issue some pretty funky visas that had only one date. They were good for entry immediately and expired at the end of the allowed stay period; a two-month visa expired two months from the day it was issued and that's when you had to be out of the country!
Multiple Entry: If you know that you will be coming and going from a country, it is very useful -- but sometimes difficult -- to get a multiple-entry visa. You usually have to ask for this specifically and you may be ignored at the more crowded embassies. You usually pay more for each entry, but it can save a lot of hassles!
Earlier, I mentioned going to the Indian embassy in Cyprus, where the charming and gracious consul issued me a triple-entry visa! She did this by writing the word "Triple" over the "Double" on the double-entry visa. When I went to leave India the first time, I was hauled away by Indian Immigration at the airport to explain why I had this "bogus" visa. After issuing a groveling denunciation of my own stupidity and worthlessness, I had to write a formal letter of apology and was finally let go just in time to make my flight, with funny writing all over my visa. It still worked fine on my second entry into India, but I never attempted a third.
As a last resort, buy the cheapest ticket you can out of that country, hoping that you can cash it in later. A ticket that the airline might actually refund or trade for another later is usually only bought directly from the airline -- not an APEX ticket from some bucket shop -- and this will still not be cheap.
There used to be something called a Miscellaneous Charges Order (MCO) which was like a coupon from an airline which could only be used to buy a ticket from them, but which has no destination or flight. You can carry one of these around and use it instead of an onward ticket on numerous occasions. Unfortunately, there are lots of embassies that stopped honoring them, and I rarely hear of them anymore.
When I went to South America, I had bought a round-trip air ticket from Costa Rica to Colombia. When I returned several months later, I still needed another visa to get into Costa Rica. The Costa Ricans are very nice and very civilized, but their embassy (in Colombia) would not give me a visa without an onward ticket, out of Costa Rica.To no avail I pointed out that like many travelers I would take the short bus trip to Nicaragua or Panama, which costs only a few dollars; certainly there was no question that I could afford to do this. But the consul held firm -- no ticket, no visa. A five dollar bus ticket would do, but where could I get a Costa Rican bus ticket in Colombia? Nowhere! Would I have to go buy an airline ticket out of Costa Rica?!
Six Months Earlier: Costa Rica was such a lovely place, I needed to extend my visa to stay on for yet another month or two. The Costa Ricans are very nice, but they are pretty sticky about people staying too long in their country. On my third, and what I thought was my last trip to the Immigration Office for this particular extension, the agent's official stamp hovered over my passport and he asked to see an onward ticket out of the country. I had already shown him all my money and a credit card. Certainly I could go down to the Tica Bus station at any time and buy a cheap ticket to Nicaragua or Panama. But no. "Sorry", he said: "No ticket, no visa extension."
So I walked a mile or two down to the Tica Bus International Bus Office and bought the cheapest ticket, to Panama, for about US $5. Then I walked back and waited again to see the agent, who happily stamped the extension into my passport.
Back in Colombia: I now remembered this previous inconvenience and began rummaging around in my money pouch. Sure enough, there, behind the traveler's checks and among some receipts was that old green Tica Bus ticket from San Jose, Costa Rica to Panama City, with an "open" date. When I unfolded it and handed it proudly to the consul, he smiled. He knew exactly what it was, he had seen many before. There are probably plenty of people who plan ahead well enough to take this precaution on purpose; but my pride was in my blind (stupid) luck. He stamped the visa into my passport and wished me a very pleasant stay in Costa Rica.
Should you try to get all your visas before you leave home? If you're going to five countries in three weeks on one round-trip airline ticket, this would be a good idea, and your travel agent should be able to arrange it for you, for a fee. If you'll be traveling overland for a year, it's usually way too much trouble. If you start your long trip with a long flight, your travel agent should be able to arrange for at least the first visa you need (if any).
First of all, embassies in far-distant First World countries (like mine) are used to seeing tourists on excursions with round-trip airline tickets and fixed entry and departure dates. They often have strict rules about onward tickets, or showing money, or letters of recommendation, or such, especially if you are not one of their model tourists. It can be much easier, faster, and cheaper to get the visa in a neighboring country, but it still takes time out of your travels. Yes, visa fees vary greatly depending on your nationality and which embassy you go to; those in "rich" countries tend to charge the most.
While it may take one or three days to get a visa in person, it can take weeks if you must mail your passport away to get the visa. If you need eight of these, it could take months! In this case, a Visa Service in your home country is a good alternative. They can do it much faster and easier, and should be able to give a good idea of just how long it will take to get all your visas. Expect to pay an extra fee for each visa they get for you.
Still, there may be some embassies that either will not give you a visa without an onward ticket, or a few who have to mail your passport back to the home country(!) -- which takes many weeks. China can be one of these, and if you're planning to enter via Hong Kong, it is a breeze to get a Chinese visa in one day there; your hotel will get it for you!
Getting a visa extended after you enter the country can be a real pain, since you must go to the immigration department. It is not uncommon to spend several days visiting four or five different offices, buying at least one set of revenue stamps, (usually from a small cafe across the street!), and going all over the city, just to get your visa extended. In some places, travel agents will do this for foreigners for a fee, and if you are in a hurry, or have better things to do, it may (or may not) be worthwhile. Make sure you get a receipt for your passport.
There is often only one place in the country where you can extend your visa -- back in the capital city -- and sometimes you are not allowed to do so until your original visa is almost expired! This definitely puts a cramp in your travel plans. Go down and ask how soon you can extend, and do it as soon as possible. An alternative is just to go into a neighboring country for a short visit and come back in again. You may have to get a new visa, but this is sometimes no more trouble or expense that the extension.
Registration: A few counties require all foreigners to register with the authorities -- usually the police or local government -- within a few days of arrival. You cannot do this at the border. Egypt is one example, and your hotel will take care of this for you painlessly for a few dollars.
In some countries you are required to get an Exit Permit before you are allowed to leave! This usually applies only if you have stayed beyond a certain time, which may have required you to get your visa extended already. It is just one more long hassle to go through, especially if the immigration office is far from your exit point.
I once got a visa extension in Nairobi, Kenya in ninety seconds! I arrived when the doors opened, with my application already filled out. Stamp, stamp, done! That is one immigration office that really "works"!
Aside from exit permits, there are any number of other permits you may need to get in some countries. They are usually for entering "restricted" areas or for exporting goods. In some areas, most notably in some African nations, you must obtain a photography permit before you are allowed to take photos. This is basically a tourist tax, but you have to go through the bureaucracy and pay the money. Sometimes you buy the photography permit at the border, and sometimes in various towns or tourist sites you visit.
Sometimes you get these permits from the immigration department, police department, or commerce department. In China you can get your visa extended and a travel permit at any police station in the country! Once again, you never know how sticky the particular official you see is going to be, but be on your best behavior. When things bog down, don't get angry. Look distressed and ask their advice on how you should take care of the problem. Women can still get a lot of action out of crying at the appropriate times; don't discount it as a viable technique.
[Continued on next page...]
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