Go Back   Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB > Regional Forums > sub-Saharan Africa
sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

The only impossible journey
is the one
you never begin

Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia



Like Tree2Likes

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #16  
Old 14 Feb 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Iceland
Posts: 131
speaking from experiance...i would not say its easyer coming down...plenty of people dont make it with the visa...just look in the guestbook when you get to the hippocamp in braziville...lots of sad storys
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 14 Feb 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Iceland
Posts: 131
and im sure you dont want to hear it...but.......if you are in a nice westernised place like namibia then it would be so much easyer to send your passport to a agency in europe...depending on your natanality
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 24 Apr 2014
Registered Users
New on the HUBB
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: On a Bicycle
Posts: 9
Just a headsup and update -

I'm in Luanda now, after getting my visa approved in Windhoek for $35. It took repeat visits, but finally they issued without forcing me to send back to Canada.

I crossed at the Cunene crossing - very quiet, no hassles.
After 25 days I headed to the SME office to extend another 30 days. This time it was 9000 Kwanza (About $95). Different from a friend who was heading south and only paid 2000 Kwanza. My visa is a Visto Ordinaro and can be extended 3 times before running out.

I'm a day away from knowing if I get a DRC visa or not - 6 month Multiple Entry for a $550 kick in the pants. No receipt issued, so I'm hoping that it gets pushed through. I will cross into Matadi and then head back down to Lubumbashi and spend some time in Zambia before returning back up to Kinshasa and crossing into Brazzaville.

Good luck.
__________________
Pedaling around the world since 2009
Tried of I.T! http://www.tiredofit.ca
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 26 Apr 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Posts: 20
Thanks for the updates. I'm currently in SA, getting ready to head north (driving!) - planning to spend June in Angola and then DRC and onwards.

I'm about to send my passport off to London to get my Angolan and DRC visas, planning to try and get the others locally en route.

Can you please keep me updated as to how you get on with visas for RoC, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria? Much appreciated! There's a cold in it if I pass you out somewhere in North West Africa maybe!
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 29 Apr 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 234
Thanks for your updates Tiredofit. I'm about to cross into Namibia and head up to Windhoek to apply for both the Angola and DRC visas.
Could you be more specific about how you managed to get the Angolan visa in Windhoek ? Did you have a letter of invitation ? Did you get it though a hotel booking ? Also where did you get your visa extension ? In Luanda ?
Good luck with your ride, looking forward to hearing from you mate.
Levelo.
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 3 May 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Posts: 46
Quote:
Originally Posted by Itsalongwaytotipperary View Post
Thanks for the updates. I'm currently in SA, getting ready to head north (driving!) - planning to spend June in Angola and then DRC and onwards.

I'm about to send my passport off to London to get my Angolan and DRC visas, planning to try and get the others locally en route.

Can you please keep me updated as to how you get on with visas for RoC, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria? Much appreciated! There's a cold in it if I pass you out somewhere in North West Africa maybe!

Hi, we have just failed to get our DRC visas in Lusaka so having to resort to sending our passports back to London. Just wondering if you were going through an agency back in london? Tricky trying to explain to them we are going overland, not flying in as most of the paperwork they request seems to be geared towards people flying in and out on tours. So how have you gone about explaining how you are entering and exiting the country? Hope all is good on the road and hope you have success with your visas. Archie

- For anyone hoping to get the DRC visa in Lusaka in the future its sadly not possible unless you have residency here. Anatole, the Chancellor, was very friendly, helpful and shockingly uncorruptible! We tried pretty much everything under the sun even with the idea of getting a volunteer work permit which gives you two years in the country, but no luck.
__________________
www.archieleeming.com
Edinburgh to Cape Town - Feb to Nov 2013 - http://www.facebook.com/WildTracksInAfrica

Last edited by Arch; 3 May 2014 at 10:36. Reason: Additional Information
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 7 May 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Posts: 20
Yea, I went with CIBT visas. They're pretty expensive but seem experienced at the Angolan visa (in for processing at the moment), organised and are pretty responsive to my many questions at the moment.

For DRC I said I was going overland which CIBT said meant I needed to get:

"Applicants travelling from the UK to an interim destination prior to arriving at Congo D.R. overland must provide an original personal statement stamped by the local Direction Generale de Migration and the local Agence Nationale de Reseignement security service explaining the route of travel and including the car registration details."

and

" A copy of the hotel confirmation showing paid in full and legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs"

They weren't able to give me much clarification as to what the first request meant. I'm flying back in to Jo'burg on Friday and am going to visit the DRC embassy there and see if they can help with these last bits of paperwork. I managed to find a couple of hotels where I could get a booking confirmation without paying anything which I may be able to... fix to seem like it's paid in full, i'm hoping that this combined with all the details from a friend in Kinshasa should be ok.

Any tips from anyone else would be appreciated.

I'll keep you updated as to how it goes.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 13 May 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Posts: 20
I visited the DRC embassy in Pretoria yesterday hoping that they could write me a letter of introduction which might cover some of the requirements the embassy in London are looking for. While they were extremely polite and courteous they were unable to help or even shed light on what exactly London seem to be asking for.

They also confirmed that they weren't allowed to issue visas to non residents, I didn't follow up on this so i'm not sure if this is flexible at all.

I'm now in contact with a fixer in Kinshasa who has worked with a friend of mine who might be able to get the required letters from the ministry of foreign affairs and immigration services in country.
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 14 May 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 826
Some of the boarder guards know that we travellers have to optain the visa in our home country. Google will let you find out more about, too at HuBB.

So you can run into a bribery scenario easily when your Visa isnt issued in yor home country (if it has to be actually).

For shure it "looks" (and is) cheaper if you bribe, but this makes the life of the next traveller not easier. This was at 2012/13 - i dont know if the rules are the same - but it looks like if they dont want to give you a visa in Africa.

Surfy
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 30 May 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Posts: 20
I just had my Angolan visa issue in London with no problem thanks to a great Letter of invitation (LOI) from a friend there.

Sadly my DRC visa application wasn't even accepted at the embassy even with a LOI from an NGO there, organised by a fixer in Kinshasa, that had many stamps on it including one from City Hall authorising the letter.

I see from another post that Tiredofit seems to have gotten a visa for 550USD in Luanda and successfully entered at Matadi with it.

How did Levelo and Arch get on with your plans?
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 2 Jun 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 234
Hello there.

Windhoek doesn't seem to be such a bad place to apply for visas after all...

- Angola.

I HAVE YET TO RECEIVE IT ( been waiting for more than a week ) but my application was accepted thanks to the incredible kindness of one of the embassy staff after she took the time to listen to my story ( she waived the Namibian residency requirement, amongst other things ). You will need a notarized letter of invitation, though. They want it to be faxed to them but their number/fax machine must be defective so make sure you are sent copies via email and bring it to them. They want to see copies of your vaccination card and travel insurance, too. It is only N$380 for a one-month, visto ordinario, you pay at the FNB bank across the round-about.
Heard that the consulate in Oshakati might be a much easier place to apply, no LOI needed, but it is also considerably more expensive.

- DRC.

It took a couple of visits but they are a pretty friendly bunch. Again, they waived the Namibian residency requirement and the return ticket for me but still wanted to see both a hotel booking ( easily done through one of the expensive Kinshasa hotels ) AND a " Note Verbale ", kind of a letter of support from my embassy. This I was very nervous about since I was going to a potentially dangerous country and I have had problems with this requirement in the past but much to my surprise they issued me one on the spot. My application was accepted, I paid N$950. My visa was ready within 4 days, it is valid for a one-month stay in the country and 3 months overall, which is great. One of the embassy staff actually called me up to let me know that my visa was ready, drove up to my hostel and delivered it to me in person. An absolute first in Africa !

-Congo-Brazzaville. The easiest of the 3. Incredibly friendly and helpful staff. It is N$ 700 for a one-month stay in the country, you have to pick your dates as it is time-specific. They just want a color photocopy of the first page of your passport and the usual 2 photos. Takes 2 days to issue.

Hope that helps.

Happy trails,

Levelo.
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 3 Jun 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 234
Just a short update : I picked up my Angolan visa today. I am good to go.
Best of luck to all,
Levelo.
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 5 Aug 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Posts: 46
Applying for a DRC Visa

Hey,

Its been a while but we finally managed to cross the Congo! A month to get the visa in Zambia and another 2 months in the Congo. Apologies for not replying earlier with the information on obtaining a visa.

This is what we had to do as UK passport holders:

Our original application at the Zambian embassy was rejected as we were not residents of Zambia. We looked into applying for a volunteer permit which would have given us a year residency, but this was not a guaranteed route. Also the embassy said we could re-try at the Ndola consulate, but again this was not guaranteed as we were down on the system as rejected. Sadly the suggestion of bribe was not accepted, so after all this we were forced to go with the route of sending our passports to the DRC London embassy.

We used the agency Visa HQ and sent our passports via DHL (approx. £19 GBP).

It was a bit of a nightmare to organise as VisaHQ weren't custom to applying for visas for people who wanted to arrive to the country overland so were forced get a rather large selection of official stamps and documents from various congolese offices. We used the services of Michel from GoCongo tours who was a great help and very efficient with organising the documents.

Michel organised the following for us:

Notorized Letter of Invitation and a document with DGM Approval - 140USD pp

Hotel booking in Lubumbashi for one night as a booking is required to get the document - Cheapest hotel at 40USD (Hotel Soweto in Lubumbashi for a twin room)

Michelle then organised the following as the London embassy would not except just the invitation letter -

Signed and stamped documents from the following -

National:
- Minister of Tourism
- Minister of Interior
- DGM Director
- ANR Director

Province de Katanga in Lubumbashi
- Governor
- DGM Director
- ANR Director

Costs for these Documents:
Carrying the letters to the different services in Kinshasa : 25 USD
Carrying the letters in Lubumbashi : 25 USD

Michel advised us to get a guide for the arrival at the border as ANR would insist this, this however turned out not to be necessary as crossing the border caused no issues at all as we arrived before our guide did.

Transport guide to Kasumbalesa and back: 18 USD
1 day labour Guide Lubumbashi: 25 USD

This was all paid via western union

All these documents are acceptable as scans

VisaHQ costs for a 3 month visa with 3-4 business day processing - £254 GBP

We got VisaHQ to send our passports ahead of us to the Kitwe DHL office so we could travel while it was being processed.

The documents we had to then produce ourselves were:

- Passports
- Proof of address - we used a police background check which was faked
- Itinerary with flights to current destination and explanation of onwards travel - We faked the flights and gave a light version of our travel plans onward travel through west africa.
- Yellow Fever Vaccination copy
- Employment letter - Fake document from a relatives company saying we were on holiday and would return to full time employment after the trip
Bank Statement with at least 50USD for each day of your visa - Again we faked this.


I think thats about it! Otherwise crossing the border was straight forward and the officials were all very keen to meet us. We didn't pay a single bribe for the full time we were there. We had no issues with safety, but we stayed mainly in the west of the country. DGM officials will track you down in most towns and want to see your paperwork. This was only a time consuming process, and we just laughed when they demanded money and eventually they would get bored of us and let us be on our way.

Regarding cash - Cash machines only give out USD to foreign cards which you then have to transfer to the local currency.

Also there are catholic missions dotted all over the country who offer a friendly quiet place to stay.

Good luck to all people heading that way!

We hope to have a full account on our blogs soon. www.charliewalkerexplore.co.uk and www.archieleeming.com
__________________
www.archieleeming.com
Edinburgh to Cape Town - Feb to Nov 2013 - http://www.facebook.com/WildTracksInAfrica

Last edited by Arch; 14 Aug 2014 at 12:30.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 16 Aug 2014
Registered Users
HUBB regular
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 57
Hi,

We just tried the same a 1-2 weeks ago and we failed, but you can get a visa for Angola in Oshakati, Namiba, it's $100 for EU passport holders and it's ready in a day.

Good luck!
Might see you on the road?

http://www.facebook.com/waarisworteltje

Eef and Dries
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 16 Sep 2014
Registered Users
Veteran HUBBer
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 826
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arch View Post
We hope to have a full account on our blogs soon. www.charliewalkerexplore.co.uk and www.archieleeming.com
Thank you for sharing your trip, and details about your experiences about travelling upwards!

Had an wonderful read through your blog with that stunning pictures

I guess a good part of your luckage consists of equipment for photography...

Surfy
Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 Registered Users and/or Members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
WET SEASON Cameroon Gabon Congo DRC Angola Playmobil sub-Saharan Africa 6 9 Jan 2014 10:43
African Visa Summary - North to South Indlovu sub-Saharan Africa 9 28 Mar 2013 15:36
Visa Angola / DRC / Congo Anacondor sub-Saharan Africa 9 11 Aug 2012 18:39
From DRC to Angola via Banza Sosso? ydv sub-Saharan Africa 0 23 Jul 2012 21:24
Burundi/Ruanda to Angola - Via DRC Saiporai sub-Saharan Africa 1 13 Feb 2012 00:50

 
 

Announcements

Thinking about traveling? Not sure about the whole thing? Watch the HU Achievable Dream Video Trailers and then get ALL the information you need to get inspired and learn how to travel anywhere in the world!

Have YOU ever wondered who has ridden around the world? We did too - and now here's the list of Circumnavigators!
Check it out now
, and add your information if we didn't find you.

Next HU Eventscalendar

HU Event and other updates on the HUBB Forum "Traveller's Advisories" thread.
ALL Dates subject to change.

2024:

Add yourself to the Updates List for each event!

Questions about an event? Ask here

HUBBUK: info

See all event details

 
World's most listened to Adventure Motorbike Show!
Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...

2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.

2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.

"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)



Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance.

Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.

Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.

Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!


 

What others say about HU...

"This site is the BIBLE for international bike travelers." Greg, Australia

"Thank you! The web site, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks." Colin, UK

"My friend and I are planning a trip from Singapore to England... We found (the HU) site invaluable as an aid to planning and have based a lot of our purchases (bikes, riding gear, etc.) on what we have learned from this site." Phil, Australia

"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA

"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada

"Your worldwide organisation and events are the Go To places to for all serious touring and aspiring touring bikers." Trevor, South Africa

"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia

"Keep going the excellent work you are doing for Horizons Unlimited - I love it!" Thomas, Germany

Lots more comments here!



Five books by Graham Field!

Diaries of a compulsive traveller
by Graham Field
Book, eBook, Audiobook

"A compelling, honest, inspiring and entertaining writing style with a built-in feel-good factor" Get them NOW from the authors' website and Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk.



Back Road Map Books and Backroad GPS Maps for all of Canada - a must have!

New to Horizons Unlimited?

New to motorcycle travelling? New to the HU site? Confused? Too many options? It's really very simple - just 4 easy steps!

Horizons Unlimited was founded in 1997 by Grant and Susan Johnson following their journey around the world on a BMW R80G/S.

Susan and Grant Johnson Read more about Grant & Susan's story

Membership - help keep us going!

Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.

You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.




All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:55.