Sudan visa for Americans? Should we apply in Cairo, or can we apply anywhere (Tunis)?

[monkii]

I am an American who would like to visit Sudan by motorcycle. Does anyone know how likely it is that I will be granted a visa by the Sudan Embassy in Cairo? What documentation do I need, and how long does it take?
Can I apply in Tunis, Tunisia instead? This would fit my schedule better to have the visa before arriving in Egypt. Or is this too difficult from anywhere but Cairo?

Thanks.

[5 Eyes]

I travedlled this route going up and got the visa in Addis Ababa no problem. The thing to remember is that you must ask them for a transit visa .
I think you could get it in the embassy in Cairo but you must make sure you have the Ethiopian visa already on your pasport as then they know that you intend to leave .

[MountainMan]

Hi Monkii,

There are a couple of recent posts talking about current processing times but to recap, as of December 07, the processing times for a Sudanese Visa in Cairo varied between 1 day and 2 weeks. We spent a fair bit of time at the embassy so can say that there is no rhyme or reason as to their processing speed. Nationality, day of the week, or wearing your Sunday best all seem to make little difference.

I met four different Americans, they were told anything between 10 days and one month and they received them after about two weeks. One was on motorbike. He finally received his Sunday afternoon and rode thru the night 1,000km to Aswan to catch the Monday ferry.

It is so variable that I would apply back home, if you don't get it (a couple of Canadians with us waited three months before giving up hope) then hit Cairo right away and apply. If timing was tight and I was coming from Jordan, I would consider flying into Cairo to start the process and then spending a week in Jordan and a week in Egypt. They give your passport back to you after your initial "application".

The average processing time for all nationalities was slightly less than a week.

Almost none of us had an Ethiopian visa beforehand. I did hear this mentioned by a couple of people so it may have been an old requirement, a visa for an ongoing country. It was never brought up by the Sudanese and we all picked up our Ethio visa in Khartoum.

Hope this helps.

[nickt]

We got our visas in the US, I'm a brit and my wifes American. No problem, though we did need an invitation and it took around 6 weeks. We were there last Jan, and I highly recommend the services of Midhat Mahir - based in both Wadi Halfa and Khartoum. You can email him midhat.sudan AT gmail.com

Great service, he got the invitation sorted and made everything go very smoothly for us. He can help you on the Aswan side of the border too.

HTH,
Nick.

[petefromberkeley]

I agree that using the services of Midhat Mahir is a good idea.