1. Does the country that I am traveling to require a personal interview for processing a visa application or can I get my visa done through a travel agent?
2. Why does the consulate require confirmed flight tickets? Is it worthwhile to shell out all that money even before I get a visa?
3. How do I get confirmed hotel booking? How do I find good and cheap hotels in a city in a foreign country?

For now, let us assume that you are going to a country which does not require a personal interview. You can find this out by googling for the consulate’s number. Give the consulate a call and someone will be more than happy to tell you whether your presence is required or not at the time of granting a visa. As far as I know, only the US and the EU countries require a personal interview.

1. The first step would be to find a good travel agent in your city. If you are in Bangalore, I would recommend Mr. George at Orion Travels. The travel agency will be responsible for taking your passport along with all supporting documents, to the consulate and submitting it there. It will also be responsible for couriering back your passport to you, once your visa has been granted. Hence the emphasis on a good travel agent.
2. Booking confirmed flight tickets – Ask your travel agent to block your tickets instead of buying them. Once you get your visa, you can either buy these blocked tickets or go online and buy tickets from there. For our Egypt trip we bought out flight tickets from MakeMyTrip . Your flight tickets will constitute 60% of your trip cost so do a lot of research before you buy these.
3. Finally and by far the easiest step is to get confirmed hotel reservations. I discovered HostelWorld two years ago and since then I have been an absolute fan. A lot of the hostels mentioned here are safe, clean and fun. You pay 10% of the amount at the time of booking a hostel and the rest when you finish your stay with them.

With the above 3 things taken care of you can apply for your visa and in all probabilities it will be granted to you. Once you get your visa, you can re-plan your whole trip or not plan it at all depending on your whim! However, the one thing that you must absolutely have are return tickets from your country of travel. I also recommend a 2 day hotel booking in your city of arrival if you don’t know what your itinerary will be once you enter the country – makes life easier at the immigration.

Next post on, what if I want to go to the US or Europe for travel? How do I get my visa then?

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!