In late May / early June, I’m at that point now where everything seems to be about boring but essential paperwork to hopefully make the entry into certain countries as simple as possible. Am having to do several trips in and out of London to various visa application centres and embassies. It’s not too bad, just over an hour each way on the train to central London.
Perhaps one of the frustrating things about applying for visas to different countries where you have to physically visit the visa application centre or embassy, is the timings. There’s no issue with visa application processing times of 3-5 working days each, but nearly all have application times in the morning and the collection times in the afternoon. This makes it difficult to pick up a visa and go to the next embassy in the same day meaning I’m having to go into London more often even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
Yes, it is possible to apply for some via a postal service or on line and for those on line, I will. However as good as the postal and courier services are in England, am just a little reluctant to trust my passport with them, especially as have just had some visas issued. If my passport were to now get lost or stolen, I would have to reapply for the visas all over again with a new passport which will be expensive and time consuming too.
London is a great, vibrant city so instead of trying to get back before the evening rush hour starts, I figure I may as well make the most of it and take in some of the sights.
A few of the visas are valid for about 3-6 months from date of issue, meaning that if I apply for them now before I start travelling then they will expire by the time I get to the country in question. So I have applied, at extra expense for year long, multi entry visas for some places. Places like Thailand, I can get a 30 day visa exemption stamp on arrival, but as I will be staying more than 30 days, I will need to visit one of the immigration centres and pay about THB1900 (approx £45).
The good news is that now I have my visas sorted for China and India. I was quite apprehensive about the potential bureaucracy and red tape involved, but thankfully all went smoothly. For Morocco, being British, I don’t need a visa for the length of time I will be there and in Egypt I know from previous experience that I can get a visa on arrival for about £20-£25.