Visas and Immunizations

I ordered Chinese food the other night.  The fortune in the first cookie read,  “You are one of the people who goes places in life.”  Still hungry, I opened a second cookie.  It had no fortune inside it!  Therefore, I can conclude:

(a)     I may go places, but when I return all my “fortune” will be gone; or

(b)   I may go places, but I can’t go without Visas and Immunizations, which cost a fortune.

The around-the-world trip comes with the frustrating process of obtaining visas.  Thankfully, I already had most of the immunizations required.  There is a University Hospital Travel Medicine Clinic right in Burlington, VT where I was able to call and give them a list of the countries we will visit, and they were able to schedule some updates for me – my Yellow Fever expired after 10 years, I needed a Polio booster,  and I also received a Typhoid shot. 

(1)    Hepatitis A - DONE

(2)    Hepatitis B - DONE

(3)    Typhoid - DONE

(4)    Yellow Fever - DONE

(5)    Tetanus (Tdap) - DONE

(6)    Polio - DONE

(7)    Flu Shot/Pneumonia - TO DO

So, with that done (except the Flu Shot, which I got the first of December), I turned my attention to the visa requirements.

When my cruise-mate and I met in late July, I printed off all the information pages for countries we will visit from a visa service firm, A. Briggs Passport & Visa Expeditors.  Holland America recommends and has a direct link for Zierer Visa Service, but according to information on the Cruise Critic website, the other company does a nice (better?) job.   We put all the pages into a 3-ring binder as I prepared a spreadsheet of the requirements and costs. 

I needed to send my passport away to get more pages inserted – that was also stressful, but the form and process were easy, and the passport came back in a timely manner.  Whew!

We had heard that Holland America would send out a letter approximately 90 days prior to the cruise with the updated visa and immunization information.  So, we waited and waited and waited.  I kept checking the Zierer website weekly to see when our cruise would be listed. 

When the letter finally arrived, it contained very little helpful information, and the Zierer website contained one line for combined Brazil and India visas and three more lines for just the Brazil visa, so I began to panic – what was I supposed to do, and how was I supposed to fill in all the applications correctly? 

I finally decided to sit down, call the two visa service firms, and get an idea of how to proceed.  I know I needed about six or seven visas, and it was now the middle of October with our sailing date the sixth of January!  Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Holland America was quite clear in their letter that if we did not have the proper visas, we would not be allowed to board and there would be no refund.  Talk about pressure!

Here are the visas I figured I would need:

Brazil                     India                      China

Australia              Vietnam               Indonesia

Jordan                  Egypt

One woman on the Cruise Critic website (Holland America/Roll Call/Amsterdam/World Cruise 2012) had researched visas and found that Australia was easy – just click on the website and fill in a couple of blanks and put the $20 AUS charge on a credit card.  Done, easy!  Thank you, “legally blonde”!

Oh, If they could all be that simple….

With Australia out of the way, it was time to tackle the others.  I chose to go with A Briggs Co. since they were the most helpful on the phone; I had already printed out all their instruction pages; and they seemed to have fewer “hidden” costs.

We were told that the Vietnam and Indonesia visas could be obtained on board for a small fee (if you call $50 small).  Since the processing time was so long and the cost higher for Vietnam, I didn’t add that one.  Indonesia was less money upon arrival in person, but I would have to go with Holland America on that one even if the cost was higher.  Holland America would issue an Egypt stamp, but since I was doing an overland excursion and would be in Cairo before the ship even docked at Safaga, I thought I had better get te Egyptian visa in advance. 

What I had not taken into account was the processing times for each consulate – Brazil: 10-12 days, Egypt: 12 days; India: 3-7 days; China: 4-5 days; Jordan: 5 days.  This being the middle of October already, I was looking at late December before my passport would arrive back with all the proper stamps (processing times means business days only, not counting weekends or the Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday).  Arrgghhh! 

Had I known there would be so little information in the Holland America letter, I would have started the process several months ago!

I sat down at the computer early one Monday morning (Oct 17) and worked my way through the on-line applications and order forms.  By Tuesday (Oct 18), I was ready to send the packet overnight  to A. Briggs in Washington, DC.  I received a phone call from a representative in Boston a day later, and he explained their process of sending the passport – first to Washington, then to New York City, then to him in Boston - to more efficiently process the visas.  I had to pay an extra fee for the Jordan visa because I was arriving in late March – there are complicated (to me!) types of visas –1 entry, multiple entries, 3 months, 10 --years.  But, the passport and all the copies were out of my house and in the hands of A. Briggs Expeditors, so I had to stop worrying.

……………………………

I am glad to say that my passport arrived safely back home the last day of November with all the visas stamped and entered – almost a month earlier than I had anticipated.  I will bring the Australian confirmation page and will also bring a couple of left-over passport photos for the onboard visas of Vietnam and Indonesia – just in case they are needed.

My advice to all who decide to travel to a foreign country – make sure you get your visas well in advance of travel.  If there is a choice of times (3 months, 1 year, etc.), pay the extra for the longer time.  My Brazil visa is good for 10 years - who knows, I might just have to go back to that country another time.