Wohoo! We got an Egyptian Visa. Last time a colleague had applied for an Egyptian tourist visa, his application was summarily rejected. Hence we were a little apprehensive.

If you have done any bit of traveling outside of India you will realize how difficult is it for an Indian to get visa for another country in comparison to other nationals. If you are an American or a European, you either do not require a tourist visa or you will get a tourist visa on arrival. On the other hand, if you are an Indian you will be required to get a tourist visa in India before you hop on a plane. You will always find India in the exception list of countries whose nationals DO require a visa, clubbed alongside with Pakistan and Nigeria.

Of the countries that I have visited there are only two where I got visa on arrival. They being Cambodia and Thailand.

The process of getting a visa pretty much puts a damper on “let’s go to a country and explore it impromptu”. You need to submit an itinerary, confirmed hotel bookings and confirmed flight tickets to and from the country along with a visa application form. Travel agents through whom you would normally get your visa processed( until and unless you want to go to Europe or the USA. These countries require a personal interview even for a tourist visa) will insist on your submitting a bank account with a hefty balance or proof of foreign currency bought. This is not mandatory. But a bank statement definitely helps.

Let me put down a list of documents that I have submitted every time I applied for a visa.

1. Country specific visa application form
2. Passport and a copy of the front and back page of your passport
3. Photograph as per the requirements of the country
4. Letter from your organization stating that you are going on vacation and you will be back in your office after your vacation. This definitely helps as a lot of countries are skeptic about the return of the tourist.
5. Confirmed airline tickets.
6. Hotel bookings for the first couple of days
7. Cover letter
8. Salary slip for the last 3 months and
9. Last year filed IT return.

Next post on how to plan a trip yourself with loads of flexibility despite of all the rigidity required in order to get a visa and on how are we planning our Egypt trip!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 9:38 am and is filed under Travel, Visa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.