Mauritania and Mali VISA at Rabat

[yyz100]

Background:
- read Lonely Planet Thorn Tree (LPTT) frequently, but late Dec LPTT is CLOSED, so looked for another source.
- only found this thread last night when searched for... Mauritania AND Mali ...did not find it searching on only Mauritania (probably on search results page xx)
- Before reading The Hubb comments, intended to arrive MAUR. embassy at 6:30 or 7:00h which i thought would be good enough considering this other traveler Brendan (google "Brendan's Adventures Africa Mauritania visa") who arrived at 8:00h and had no problem.

But, after reading this thread, people arriving at 5 or 3 and not getting visa...well, i headed there and arrived 4:30h.


Facts/Situation:
1. At 4:30h i was #6, but 6 people in camper van, so i was #12. At about8:00h, about 40 to 45 people there
2. 1 person does NOT equal one passport/Visa. A few people, of the people i spoke with, represented multiple passports
3. Opening time: 7:30h .... wow! (not 9h , not 8h)
4. Documents
(a) passport
(b) passport id pages ... 1 copy only
(c) photos ... 2
(d) copy of Morocco Visa registration number/stamp page ... not sure if required ... i did not hand it over at first and asked if it was needed and the Embassy officer did not even answer... and did not even look at it , just added to the other pages and stapled all together
(e) application form .... the Embassy does not hand these out (well, not before 8am). Instead, there's a man 4 metres across the street selling them for 10 MAD ... i think you can find it on internet and print
PUT SOME ANSWER IN EVERY QUESTION, especially PAGE 2 ... many Moroccans and one Spaniard were sent away as their applications were "incomplete"/"missing information". Funny thing, for a couple of us from English-speaking countries, the officer barely looked at our info
(f) Entry Date ... couldn't quite figure out on the application form if it was the Date on bottom of page 1 or middle of page 2 ... i asked and the officer hand-wrote my date at bottom of page 1... although now i am going to try to phone the embassy to change the date to earlier ...just read about mold/dirty/filthy hostels in Essouria and cockroaches in Casablanca and figure to leave Morocco sooner
(g) cost: MAD 340 for Tourist, Ordinary(30 day) visa .... apparebtly there still is a Transit Visa, but no one has mentioned the price, and why should a 3 or 5 or 7 day Transit visa cost the same as a 30 day 'full' visa ?


5. Visa/Passport collection: same day , at 15:00h


6. Transportation from Medina area to "embassies area" (Souissi) ... bus #66 , and possibly other buses. On return, took bus #26 on road Mohammed VI (main road perpendicular to the embassy road) which stops
near Medina with easy 5 or so minutes walking. Cost of bus: MAD 4.00

Taxis charge 50% surcharge from 21:00h to 06:00h (apparently factored into the meter price, because all you pay is the meter price). And after 6:00h , buses are available, so , your choice.

Ok, now for my attempt to phone the embassy to change the Entry Date

[yyz100]

the embassy is apparently very efficient, since at 12h-ish, they have already "scanned" the passports and prepared the visas.

This phone number below works

(+212) (537) 65 66 78
so, i guess i have to stay some extra days in Morocco ... maybe sleeping in my tent is the most clean option for sea-side towns IF there is some organized camping place (otherwise, a solo tent in some location, not good for safety) ... one part of me just wants to get out of morocco , not wanting more filth/dirt/mold.

[trevor warman]

its all true. i was with the guy above. in fact the hardest part of the whole situation was finding the bus to go pick up the visa. took a taxi back. 20MAD for 2 is ok. and a bus 26A back.
and really..... rabat is quite ok. a hassle free place.cheap food.
YHA is 60. clean. hotel marrakech is 80 for very clean and pink walls.

[Roger Bruton]

Kicking off in Mali????

France joins fight against Mali Islamists, Hollande says - MALI - FRANCE - FRANCE 24

[Roger Bruton]

Absolute madhouse this morning!! They started at about 8:30 and by 9:00 had closed as they had gone over the 100 limit. We hung around hopefully until 11:00 together with scores of other people. Tomorrow will be "interesting"!!!

[priffe]

90% of the applicants when I applied were car dealers mostly Senegalese.
If they don't sped up the process it may become hard or impossible to get the visa in Rabat.

[alanbrent]

Is it possible to get the maur visa at the border from morocco?

[priffe]

Originally Posted by alanbrent

Is it possible to get the maur visa at the border from morocco?

No!

[thejointmaster]

Originally Posted by alanbrent

Is it possible to get the maur visa at the border from morocco?

Not a chance!!!
I crossed the border two days ago (with a visa from Rabat) and asked the question. The reply was Rabat.

[Roger Bruton]

The "customs" officers at Diama - yesterday - charged the usual 250 euros for a 3-day passavant for my 1999 Mondeo, after the normal three hours of negotiations!!

[holtandmelton]

Hello HUBB. First post here from new HUBB members travelling from Denmark to Ghana on two KLR650's.

We referred to this thread quite a bit before leaving, but it has been quiet for a while, so we wanted to post an update based on our experience on June 2, 2013. Since January, it seems that the process for obtaining a Mauritania visa has been significantly improved. We posted a more details version of our experience here (Mauritania visa in Rabat | Holt and Melton Constable) but the main points are:

* The application includes: a form that is handed out around 8:45am (it has both a front and a back, and you must use this form since it is now signed and dated by the embassy), one photocopy of your passport (black and white is fine), two passport photos, and your passport.

* Applications are accepted starting at 9am. Pick-up is the same day at 3pm.

* You can line up before 9am, but note that this line will be disbanded later. We arrived at 7am to wait in line, and we were around #7 (our line established numbers since there's no official numbering system). The people in front of us seemed to have slept in their cars the night before, and even some of the people who slept in their cars went into line behind us. It was relatively calm and organized. At around 8:45am, someone from the embassy will open the door and hand out applications, which are now dated and signed (you can NOT fill out the application ahead of time). Then, the original line disbanded and essentially meant nothing. The real line starts once you have the application form and have filled it out (you have to get back in line).

* There are two lines: one for men (right side of the door behind the red and white railing) and one for women (left side of the door). The order theoretically goes: 1 man, 1 woman, 1 man, 1 woman, etc. (although sometimes they let all the women go first since there aren't that many women there). This is true for both applying for the visas and for picking up your passports. Since we are traveling as a couple, we could take advantage of the line for women and we got our application in and picked up our passports very quickly.

* There doesn't appear to be a limit on the number of visas handed out, or at this point of the year they don't appear to be reaching this limit. We met someone who got his application in at 11am (he was the last application that day because they stop accepting applications at 11am, not because of an application limit)

* The embassy has cracked down on hawkers – there were only two guys there who mostly were helping people fill in the form if they didn’t understand it. You need to get an application form from the embassy yourself because each form is signed and dated.

* It seems that one person = one passport now.

In summary, the process for getting a Mauritanian visa in Rabat seems to be much easier and more reliable than it was in January 2013. We don’t know if this is because it is low season or Ramadan is approaching, but we’re going to credit the Mauritanian Embassy with cleaning up the visa application process significantly. It was a relatively painless and straightforward process and can be accomplished in the same day.

[den and mandy]

We crossed Mauri border at no mans land on the 8th Nov 2013 and outside customs is a paper advertising cost of visa for Mauri 2 different prices one for arabs and one for Europeans the cost here is higher than in Rabat I think the single entry price was 50 euro but it was possible to get your visa at the border after crossing. We got ours in rabat applied in the morning opens at 9 no big queue then, returned at 15:00 started to queue at 14:00 by 15:00 the queue was huge got our visas by 16:30 price was 340 dirham single entry.