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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
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Photo by Ellen Delis,
Lagunas Ojos del Campo,
Antofalla, Catamarca



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  #1  
Old 18 Feb 2013
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Gabon Visa in Cameroon
Hi all,
Please be aware that as of 1st Feb 2013 the Gabon embassy in Yaounde has moved over to a new biometric visa system.
We have speculated about whether other embassies have also got the new system, but we don't know either way.
The new system poses issues for the average overlander, primarily because they must have a letter of invitation/certificat d'hebergement, notarized by a mayors office in Gabon (this makes the usual Photoshop solution almost impossible).
Without this, it is a simple case of 'computer says NO'.
We met with the Ambassador himself about the issue, unlike the rest of the staff there (they're a mix of nasty, arrogant and useless) he is a very reasonable and professional guy, unfortunately his hands are tied. He simply doesn't have the power to use his discretion any more (He said himself, if we'd been a few days earlier, he would just have stamped our visas and got on with something else....simple!).
He does see the issue and is trying to find a work-around (for us the best he could come up with was trying to get his daughter to write our invites!!!), but for the time being it would be best not to leave Yaounde as your last resort for Gabon visas.

Happy travels
Sam & Catherine
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  #2  
Old 18 Feb 2013
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African countries sure making it difficult for multi-country voyages.

Potential Solutions?
1. Make a hotel booking for a couple of days.
BUT
(a) how is one supposed to get the mayor to notarize? [how to pay someone to do it and how much? just not practical] and
(b) receive such original copy??? [courier must cost $100+]

2. Gabon diplomatic missions below: seem to recall some ppl getting visa in Abuja (but possibly now need to be resident). But try Lome and Cote d'Ivoire
List of diplomatic missions of Gabon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Alternative routes if in Cameroon cannot get Gabon visa?
(1) Congo->DRC->Angola (another visa difficult to get) ->....
(2) CAR-->Chad->Sudan South->Ethiopia ??

By the way, did you attempt and succeed to get visa for Equatorial Guinea?
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  #3  
Old 18 Feb 2013
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If you are in Yaounde without a Gabon visa, making enough paid reservations with hotels to cover a plausible route across the country (roads are for the most part perfect, so two would probably do it) is your best bet.
We've discussed between ourselves if it would cut it, but we're not certain either way (they implied the letter was the most important thing, but left a glimmer of hope open on the reservations front).
We were able to get a proper letter, so we did.
Didn't go for Equatorial Guinea.
We certainly wouldn't entertain alternative option 2!
Did discuss alternative 1 (Cameroon direct to Congo), but haven't done enough research to comment. (Any informed opinions anyone??)

The bottom line, in our opinion, is try to sort it before you get to Yaounde if you can.
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  #4  
Old 23 Feb 2013
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Hi Sam and Catherine,

You mentioned you were able to get a proper letter.
Could you explain how you got this "proper letter"... that is
(1) signature of a mayor of a city in Gabon?
(2) in what form did you receive this letter...original signed letter (by courier?)? faxed copy of signed letter? an email copy of signed letter?

Hopefully you are able to explain without revealing any secrets or compromising any persons.

i do have an interesting/small funny/a bit more unique reason for going to Gabon...it should probably hold no weight, but perhaps it could help to get this Visa from one of the Gabon embassies

Safe travels.
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  #5  
Old 23 Feb 2013
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Hi,
No tricks i'm afraid, we have a family friend in Gabon.
He went to the relevant mayors office filled out the form and they stamped/notarized it.
From there, he emailed it to us for us to print.
This seems the normal way of doing it and it was exactly what they were after at the embassy.
We didn't do it initially as we had been told by a fellow traveler ahead of us that it was easy and straightforward (it turns out he got in there a couple of days before they rolled out the new system). We really didn't want to bother our parents friend if we didn't need to as at that stage we'd never even met him.

Happy travels
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  #6  
Old 25 Feb 2013
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Luckily the rules haven´t yet changed in other embassies. I got the gabon visa in luanda today. Just needed a passport copy, copy of vaccination card and 2 photos. Express takes 2-4 days and is 150 dollar. I took the "superexpress" for 200 dollars and got it in half an hour!

Cheers!
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  #7  
Old 27 Feb 2013
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Going direct from Cameroon to Congo is doable, but certainly not as easy as the great sealed road into Gabon. It's mainly logging tracks and then somewhere north of Oyo you'll bump into the new sealed road, or at least the road builders.

A couple did it in a landy when I was passing through to avoid the Gabon visa back in 2010 - and a Swiss couple did it a few months back in a newer Toyota - username surfy I think.

The route is also roughly described in Overlanders Handbook (updates welcomed!).

Tourism is hard enough in Central Africa, talk about shooting yourself in both feet with a machine gun. Yaounde embassy was extremely arrogant when I was there as well - some were like that in gabon as well ;-p

Good luck!!

Edit: Noels blog is offline now, so no pictures, but you can read a little starting from here about his Cameroon/Congo drive:
http://web.archive.org/web/201204260...gory/cameroun/ )
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  #8  
Old 28 Feb 2013
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Not good news.

I'm in Limbe right now and headed that way. I hadn't even considered the idea that I might need to do this. What mayor's office in Gabon are we supposed to get it signed from???
Are there hotels that might be willing to do this for you in Gabon as long as you stay with them when you get there???
Absolutely no way around this is there? I'll be there in about 2 weeks and need to get this sorted quickly.

Cheers,

B.
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  #9  
Old 4 Jan 2016
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We got Gabon visas today in Yaoundé. It was same day express - 10am submitted and 5pm picked up. Normal service 3 days. No invite letter was needed, although I had to go back and buy long trousers as they refused to let me in in (decent) shorts. They were particularly picky about insurance. As per previous comments I had prepard for the arrogant lady and was at my best behaviour when we spoke with her.

You need ro bring photocopies of:
- vaccination card
- passport
- hotel reservation (cancellable on booking dot com)
- travel insurance
+
- 50,000cfa regular or 80,000 same day
- 2 photos
- passport
- patience, because the lady is indeed pretty arrogant

---

We also checked with the Republic of Congo what they would need:
- 2 photos
- copy of passport
- copy of vaccination card
- hotel reservation
- copy of vehicle registration papers
- bank statement to prove salary (revenue)
- 60,000cfa for 4day express, 30,000 for 7day regular.

Also note that they have recently moved and are tricky to find. Here's the map:




https://goo.gl/maps/QkdV5kSLUzR2
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  #10  
Old 17 Jan 2016
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We had no such a good luck in Yaounde getting the Gabon visa. Good to hear the rules have loosen a bit. Seems like there is still the same lady working tho..
But for everyone who won't get the Gabon visa, going through Congo is not bad idea at all. Matter of fact we enjoyed it, lot of wild camping and good roads (thanks to Chinese..)
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  #11  
Old 17 Jan 2016
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Not very helpful but just incase anyone is reading this before they get to Cameroon.

I'm currently in Libreville and got my visa same day in Lome. Hotel reservation, photocopy of bank card and yellow fever. V easy and friendly staff.


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