International Travel Tips – Visas
Most countries today require that you have a visa in addition to your passport for entry. Visas are full page stamps or additional pieces of paper glued to a page in your passport. They are issued by, and placed in your passport, by the embassy or consulate of the country you wish to visit.
General Visas types:
Note: The country you are planning to visit may have additional Visa types or may have strict definitions of who can get each type of Visa.
Work Visa – you will be working as a native, probably paid by the company in the foreign country.
Business Visa – you will be visiting companies in the foreign country for the purpose of conducting business with them.
Tourist Visa – you will be visiting the country for the purpose of sightseeing or vacationing.
Family Visa – you will be visiting family members that live in the country.
Diplomat Visa – you are a member of the American government on official government business in the foreign country.
Student Visa – you will be going to school in the foreign country.
Duration of Visa:
Visas are valid for a fixed time from the time of issue. Some may be for six month, others for one year, five years or ten years. The maximum duration for a business Visa to China is six months, the maximum duration for a tourist Visa to China is one year.
Number of Entries:
Visas can be single entry or multiple entries. With a single entry Visa, you may enter the country only once. If you are on a one week trip and take a side trip out of the country, you may not reenter if you have a single entry Visa.
Multiple entry Visas allow more than one entry during the duration of the Visa.
Duration of Stay:
Some Visas have a duration of stay that is much shorter than the duration of the Visa. If you have a tourist Visa with a maximum duration of stay of 30 days and you wish to stay 90 days in the country, you will have to leave and come back before any stay of greater than 30 days.
Caution:
Do not make flight arrangements until you have your Visa!
I sent my passport to a Consulate in San Francisco for a Visa using United States Postal Service (USPS) Priority mail which they advertise as taking two days. In this case it took nine days. If I had already made travel arrangements, I could not have gotten my passport back in time. Never send your passport via USPS, use FedEx or UPS.
Me wife sent her passport to get a Visa only to find that the consulate was closed for 10 days for a holiday in the country she wished to visit. Embassies and Consulates usually close for the holidays of both the country they represent and their host country.
Second Passports:
It is possible, in rare circumstances, get a second passport.
1) To wish to visit a country that refuses to give you a Visa because of entries from certain other countries.
2) You need a passport for immediate travel because of delays in getting a travel Visa or some other foreign government process that required you to submit your passport. I believe an example of this could be that you are an American citizen in Brazil for a week. While there you plan to visit Argentina for a day. You are notified that you must travel to Togo, Africa, next week. If you submit your passport to the Togo Embassy or Consulate, you will not have it to travel to Argentina. A second passport could be sent for the Togo Visa while you continue to travel on your first passport.
Second passports are valid for a maximum of two years. The United States Passport agency is reluctant to issue a second passport; you may have to present a strong case to get one.
Visas are usually not much of a problem when traveling. Just be sure you research the countries you will be visiting and then request Visas early so if there is a problem you have time to rectify it.
Enjoy your travels.
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