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OT:Obtaining a travel visa

mwulf

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Dec 15, 2013
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So next summer I am taking another big trip that will include stops in Russia Turkey and India. All 3 require a travel visa and it looks like the application process is a bit of a pain in the ass. Has anyone ever gone through this process for any of these 3 countries?
 
I thought the process for the Indian visa was really easy. It's usually an eVisa for most tourists. You will need to scan a copy of your passport and get a 2x2 standard passport picture, scan it and upload both of them for the eVisa. I think the visas come back via email within a day or two. Pretty quick.

https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/Registration

I haven't had to go through the process for Russia or Turkey yet, but I've heard they are more difficult, especially the Russian one.
 
I thought the process for the Indian visa was really easy. It's usually an eVisa for most tourists. You will need to scan a copy of your passport and get a 2x2 standard passport picture, scan it and upload both of them for the eVisa. I think the visas come back via email within a day or two. Pretty quick.

https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/evisa/Registration

I haven't had to go through the process for Russia or Turkey yet, but I've heard they are more difficult, especially the Russian one.
Agree on India, their visa process was pretty simple for me as well. Mine was back before the eVisa and took a few weeks, but still simple.
 
In Turkey you can just buy the VISA right on the spot in the airport, but for Russia I would suggest getting a least a year in advance. Not sure on India.
 
Russia is the one I am working on now and its for next June. Looks like about 350 bucks total but the E-Visa options for Turkey and India look simple.Thanks...Of all the places I am looking at I cant believe its so easy to get into Israel
 
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Many companies on the internet can help you with this problem. Still, you have to choose carefully for the best one because you can easily be tricked by different scammers who will only try to make money on you. This is why you have to search for an authorized company with a minimum of 5 years' experience in this business. When I worked as a truck driver in Canada, I had to pass the US and the Canadian border minimum once a week. To pass international borders easily, I made myself a fast commercial travel card on https://fast-card-program.com/fast-card-renewal.php. Having this card excludes you from a thorough inspection of the vehicle. I am sure you can find similar companies that work with other countries.
 
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Russia is the one I am working on now and its for next June. Looks like about 350 bucks total but the E-Visa options for Turkey and India look simple.Thanks...Of all the places I am looking at I cant believe its so easy to get into Israel
Turkey? Really? Good heavens. There's some cool stuff there but you're definitely a risk taker. Your life is worth about 5 bucks in Turkey and if you get robbed or killed they won't give a sh##.
 
Turkey? Really? Good heavens. There's some cool stuff there but you're definitely a risk taker. Your life is worth about 5 bucks in Turkey and if you get robbed or killed they won't give a sh##.

I've been to Turkey multiple times and have never had any issues. Really cool areas and had a blast there.
 
Turkey was AWESOME. Food was so good. Only drawback was having my hotel close to the Blue Mosque and that damn call to prayer. But still pretty cool. This was a thread from 2018 not sure what brought it up. I did just book a trip to Greece and Croatia for June/July. Day trip to Montenegro and Bosnia in the plans. If anyone has been I would take any advice they have on off the beaten path sights.
 
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Turkey was AWESOME. Food was so good. Only drawback was having my hotel close to the Blue Mosque and that damn call to prayer. But still pretty cool. This was a thread from 2018 not sure what brought it up. I did just book a trip to Greece and Croatia for June/July. Day trip to Montenegro and Bosnia in the plans. If anyone has been I would take any advice they have on off the beaten path sights.

Have you looked into Slovenia at all? We were all booked to go when Covid hit, but have some friends that have been that convinced us to go. Right in that neck of the woods. Croatia was cool, but I was only at two cruise ship ports cities and didn't really get to experience it.
 
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Trying to get a special permit to get into Indonesia for this summer. They are using a new eVisa process and it’s a convoluted mess of requiments that don’t make sense..

ie PCR test result in the application and a medical health certificate.. no idea where to obtain a health certificate.. what dr is going to want to certify anyway?

for all intents, travel outside the country seems tricky still .. but domestic is jammed packed. Not a single empty seat on my flight from Miami to Orlando this morning

will be in Omaha this evening, have to bury my mom. Natural causes they said, but travel seems jam packed in Florida
 
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Trying to get a special permit to get into Indonesia for this summer. They are using a new eVisa process and it’s a convoluted mess of requiments that don’t make sense..

ie PCR test result in the application and a medical health certificate.. no idea where to obtain a health certificate.. what dr is going to want to certify anyway?

for all intents, travel outside the country seems tricky still .. but domestic is jammed packed. Not a single empty seat on my flight from Miami to Orlando this morning

will be in Omaha this evening, have to bury my mom. Natural causes they said, but travel seems jam packed in Florida
Sorry for your loss. RIP
 
Have you looked into Slovenia at all? We were all booked to go when Covid hit, but have some friends that have been that convinced us to go. Right in that neck of the woods. Croatia was cool, but I was only at two cruise ship ports cities and didn't really get to experience it.
We are staying in Dubrovnik so we are kinda limited to that area
 
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I went to turkey, on a royal caribbean med cruise.....ephesus
before corona, it was just a reg passport...eygpt is the only country I went to where I needed to get shots
 
Trying to get a special permit to get into Indonesia for this summer. They are using a new eVisa process and it’s a convoluted mess of requiments that don’t make sense..

ie PCR test result in the application and a medical health certificate.. no idea where to obtain a health certificate.. what dr is going to want to certify anyway?

for all intents, travel outside the country seems tricky still .. but domestic is jammed packed. Not a single empty seat on my flight from Miami to Orlando this morning

will be in Omaha this evening, have to bury my mom. Natural causes they said, but travel seems jam packed in Florida

Sorry for your loss. :(
 
So next summer I am taking another big trip that will include stops in Russia Turkey and India. All 3 require a travel visa and it looks like the application process is a bit of a pain in the ass. Has anyone ever gone through this process for any of these 3 countries?
[/QUOTE]



Been to all three and lived in Turkey 3yrs. I would Google "Visa assistance whatever country". Gov't always got mine. You normally go through the nearest consulate. Get an early start on Russia, they like to screw with us.
Turkey? Really? Good heavens. There's some cool stuff there but you're definitely a risk taker. Your life is worth about 5 bucks in Turkey and if you get robbed or killed they won't give a sh##.
 
Turkey? Really? Good heavens. There's some cool stuff there but you're definitely a risk taker. Your life is worth about 5 bucks in Turkey and if you get robbed or killed they won't give a sh##.



Interesting. Lived there 3 yrs & made many friends. Must be luck of the draw.
 
Interesting. Lived there 3 yrs & made many friends. Must be luck of the draw.
Turkey is a mixing pot of different tribes and there are some really nasty people who live there. I have never been there so maybe my view is skewed by friends who have been. They were in the service and talked about never going anywhere unless you had a group of guys. I would imagine if you've made friends who are locals it is immeasurably safer. I've just read too many stories about UK and US citizens who either end up dead or robbed and left for dead. A family member was planning on going hiking in the mountains there and about then there was a young couple (American IF I remember correct) who were robbed and murdered while hiking. I guess I'm not very adventuresome.

There are so many places I either haven't seen or want to go back to in this country that I don't feel the need to travel to Turkey. I would like to go to Scotland and a couple of European countries that I haven't been to but Turkey isn't a place I would feel safe traveling to. Hell with all of the immigration France and Italy have become dangerous enough if you get in the wrong place. It's kind of like the border areas of our southwest now. There's just places you would be foolish to venture in to. A friend who does business down there with oil companies just had a multimillion dollar client shut down their field operations because it wasn't safe for their employees.
 
Turkey is a mixing pot of different tribes and there are some really nasty people who live there. I have never been there so maybe my view is skewed by friends who have been. They were in the service and talked about never going anywhere unless you had a group of guys. I would imagine if you've made friends who are locals it is immeasurably safer. I've just read too many stories about UK and US citizens who either end up dead or robbed and left for dead. A family member was planning on going hiking in the mountains there and about then there was a young couple (American IF I remember correct) who were robbed and murdered while hiking. I guess I'm not very adventuresome.

There are so many places I either haven't seen or want to go back to in this country that I don't feel the need to travel to Turkey. I would like to go to Scotland and a couple of European countries that I haven't been to but Turkey isn't a place I would feel safe traveling to. Hell with all of the immigration France and Italy have become dangerous enough if you get in the wrong place. It's kind of like the border areas of our southwest now. There's just places you would be foolish to venture in to. A friend who does business down there with oil companies just had a multimillion dollar client shut down their field operations because it wasn't safe for their employees.


Love to travel. Used to work for a government agency & been to more countries than I can remember. The countries you have to keep your head on a swivel are the ones you can just see the hate when you look at them, a couple of times I've crossed the street to avoid bad looking dudes. In the beginning I said two countries I wanted to avoid were Damascus, Syria and Khartoum, Sudan but as luck would have it my plane had a malfunction and had to overnight in Khartoum, definitely had my head on a swivel and under guard (no Visa). exciting times.
 
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So next summer I am taking another big trip that will include stops in Russia Turkey and India. All 3 require a travel visa and it looks like the application process is a bit of a pain in the ass. Has anyone ever gone through this process for any of these 3 countries?



Been to all three and lived in Turkey 3yrs. I would Google "Visa assistance whatever country". Gov't always got mine. You normally go through the nearest consulate. Get an early start on Russia, they like to screw with us.
[/QUOTE]
this was from 2018 ...ive already gone and been back for 2 years . no clue what brought the thread up again
 
Been to all three and lived in Turkey 3yrs. I would Google "Visa assistance whatever country". Gov't always got mine. You normally go through the nearest consulate. Get an early start on Russia, they like to screw with us.
this was from 2018 ...ive already gone and been back for 2 years . no clue what brought the thread up again
[/QUOTE]
Boris is up to his shenanigans.
 
Turkey is a mixing pot of different tribes and there are some really nasty people who live there. I have never been there so maybe my view is skewed by friends who have been. They were in the service and talked about never going anywhere unless you had a group of guys. I would imagine if you've made friends who are locals it is immeasurably safer. I've just read too many stories about UK and US citizens who either end up dead or robbed and left for dead. A family member was planning on going hiking in the mountains there and about then there was a young couple (American IF I remember correct) who were robbed and murdered while hiking. I guess I'm not very adventuresome.

There are so many places I either haven't seen or want to go back to in this country that I don't feel the need to travel to Turkey. I would like to go to Scotland and a couple of European countries that I haven't been to but Turkey isn't a place I would feel safe traveling to. Hell with all of the immigration France and Italy have become dangerous enough if you get in the wrong place. It's kind of like the border areas of our southwest now. There's just places you would be foolish to venture in to. A friend who does business down there with oil companies just had a multimillion dollar client shut down their field operations because it wasn't safe for their employees.
Whose your friend? Hunter b? #10%fortheBIGGUY
 
Been to all three and lived in Turkey 3yrs. I would Google "Visa assistance whatever country". Gov't always got mine. You normally go through the nearest consulate. Get an early start on Russia, they like to screw with us.
this was from 2018 ...ive already gone and been back for 2 years . no clue what brought the thread up again
[/QUOTE]



Just for my curiosity can I get your opinion of those countries at that time???
 
Turkey is a mixing pot of different tribes and there are some really nasty people who live there. I have never been there so maybe my view is skewed by friends who have been. They were in the service and talked about never going anywhere unless you had a group of guys. I would imagine if you've made friends who are locals it is immeasurably safer. I've just read too many stories about UK and US citizens who either end up dead or robbed and left for dead. A family member was planning on going hiking in the mountains there and about then there was a young couple (American IF I remember correct) who were robbed and murdered while hiking. I guess I'm not very adventuresome.

There are so many places I either haven't seen or want to go back to in this country that I don't feel the need to travel to Turkey. I would like to go to Scotland and a couple of European countries that I haven't been to but Turkey isn't a place I would feel safe traveling to. Hell with all of the immigration France and Italy have become dangerous enough if you get in the wrong place. It's kind of like the border areas of our southwest now. There's just places you would be foolish to venture in to. A friend who does business down there with oil companies just had a multimillion dollar client shut down their field operations because it wasn't safe for their employees.



Been to Moscow twice but the place I really want to see is the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
 
this was from 2018 ...ive already gone and been back for 2 years . no clue what brought the thread up again



Just for my curiosity can I get your opinion of those countries at that time???
[/QUOTE]
India is a place I am glad I went but wouldnt go back to. The heat would leave you soaked by 9am. On my way out caught Giardia which was not fun.Taj Mahal is pretty cool to see in person. In Turkey I was only in Istanbul. 5 days and it was pretty awesome. I paid for 3 days of guides to get me around and into the sites. The food was amazing. Cant recommend it enough but if you want to see the city and mosques and whatnot pay for a guide. Russia was REALLY cool. I would definitely go back. Was in St Petersburg for a week and Moscow for a week. Definitely needed a guide in St Petersburg to get to the various palaces. They are about an hour outside of the city center. St. P is a really cool city. The canals remind me of Amsterdam or Venice. Subways stations were really cool too. Moscow didnt need a guide stayed in the Theater district and could walk to Red Square. Kremlin was cool. Waited in line for 90 minutes to see Lenin's body in his tomb. I was really impressed with the area around Moscow where I stayed but I did not venture out too far from those areas. For the visa it was about 7 pages of info that was VERY detailed. I then had to mail that and my passport to the Russian consulate in D.C. About 6 weeks later my passports was mailed back to me with the visa inside. I had to say where I was staying and to get to internet I had to give my passport number.

Here are some pics
 
Been to Moscow twice but the place I really want to see is the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
My daughter hung out there with her Ivy League study abroad Russian Immersion group. She loved St . Petersburg but getting to her classes from her host family's place was an adventure.
 
Hermitage was cool but t was at the end of the day for me and after awhile I was over it and just wanted to get back to my hotel
 
Just for my curiosity can I get your opinion of those countries at that time???
India is a place I am glad I went but wouldnt go back to. The heat would leave you soaked by 9am. On my way out caught Giardia which was not fun.Taj Mahal is pretty cool to see in person. In Turkey I was only in Istanbul. 5 days and it was pretty awesome. I paid for 3 days of guides to get me around and into the sites. The food was amazing. Cant recommend it enough but if you want to see the city and mosques and whatnot pay for a guide. Russia was REALLY cool. I would definitely go back. Was in St Petersburg for a week and Moscow for a week. Definitely needed a guide in St Petersburg to get to the various palaces. They are about an hour outside of the city center. St. P is a really cool city. The canals remind me of Amsterdam or Venice. Subways stations were really cool too. Moscow didnt need a guide stayed in the Theater district and could walk to Red Square. Kremlin was cool. Waited in line for 90 minutes to see Lenin's body in his tomb. I was really impressed with the area around Moscow where I stayed but I did not venture out too far from those areas. For the visa it was about 7 pages of info that was VERY detailed. I then had to mail that and my passport to the Russian consulate in D.C. About 6 weeks later my passports was mailed back to me with the visa inside. I had to say where I was staying and to get to internet I had to give my passport number.

Here are some pics
[/QUOTE]
My daughter hung out there with her Ivy League study abroad Russian Immersion group. She loved St . Petersburg but getting to her classes from her host family's place was an adventure.



I worked in the Embassy both times I was there and both times I would I would play a little game when I went work everyday at the same time - when a different shift was on duty I would ask what time it was in Russian and nine times out of ten it would be different. Just a way to screw with us.
 
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