African Visa Summary - North to South

[Indlovu]

Africa Visa Summary

Attached is a summmary for all the visa information related to our trip along the West coast fo Africa. It includes all the costs for the visas, places we obtained them, time it took and other associated costs for the vehicle and crossing borders.

The toughest three countries to get visas for were : Nigeria, the DRC and Angola. Here is the best way we discovered, retrospectively, to get visas these three countries (other than applying in your home country):

Nigeria – The embassy in Guinea-Bissau gives Nigerian visas out without hassle, just make sure you get them to post-date it for when you expect to arrive in Nigeria. Otherwise, plead your case in the nearest embassy bordering Nigeria.

DRC – Find someone in the DRC, in one of the major towns with a DMG (immigration) office. Ask them to fetch a form, fill it out with your details and get the officials at the DGM to stamp it. You may need to supply copies of your passports for the forms to be released at the DMG office. The stamped forms can then be scanned and emailed through to be presented at the DRC embassy. We know the DRC embassy in Libreville accept this method, although cannot vouch for other DRC embassies.

Angola - The quickest options we know of for obtaining the visas en-route and out-side of your home country are to 1) obtain it via the Angolan embassy in Accra, Ghana. We met an overland group who confirmed that as of Jan 2013, they were still issuing visas to non-resident. 2) obtain a letter of support from someone in Angola and have it faxed to the embassy in Matadi (DRC), where you can then get either a 5/6 day transit or one month ordinary visa.

If you are interested in reading our story about how we obtained our visas, not knowing the information above, look for the blog entry entitled 'Visa Conundrum' at Indlovu

Anton and Tina
Indlovu

[Surfy]

Thank you for sharing actual informations!

I still suggests to get as much visas then possible - before someone starts, to make the trip easier

Surfy

[Dumaunimog]

Hi Tina and Anton,

Where are you at the moment?
We also had our fun getting the Nigeria visa in Burkina Faso (around February 15th)
We were lucky enough to have the ambassadors of our countries to call the Nigeria ambassador so the visa was issued on the spot.

We are in Abuja trying our Angola visa. According to the Angolan embassy our tourist visa was approved but the printing visa system is down and they cannot print it (we have been here for 10 days already and have been 5 times to the Angolan embassy. Still waiting.

We will try the Congo visa tomorrow (march 13th).

After reading your story about DRC we are really concerned.
We met 3 Japanese here in Abuja that got their DRC visa here without any issues so maybe we should investigate. They also got their transit visa for Angola here.

Here is our blog Duma Travels (still need to update it).

Rosana

[yyz100]

Hi Rosana,

How is Nigeria driving and safety?

Angola visa -- what types are available? how much?
I'm in Accra and applied for the 30-day visa since it was the same price as a 7-day Transit Visa. On first visit, senior consul officer was quite picky about my docs, wanted something in addition to my "Nigerian template visa submission package", and said pick up on Thurs/Fri. On second visit (the next day/yesterday) they tell me it can be up to 10 days.
Do they send the docs to Angola? How long did it take for approval?

Luckily i have a budget/low cost hotel so it doesn;t cost so much to wait. ANy budget accommodation in Abuja? (aside from the Sheraton hotel parking lot)
I have some hotel points from all that corporate travel, but not that many to wait out some embassy's printer not working.

[Surfy]

@Rosana: a nice blog - had much fun to read em!

Maybe our "how to handle" is helpful for you: don`t stop at the checkpoints - when possible. Safe you time and hassle. Just do like you don't see the police.


The "Tourism Protection" letter is a funny idea too

[Niva Say Never]

Hi all,
These are our experiences from around the same time as Anton and Tina (Hi again guys, hope everything's going well )
Visas | Cape to Cape

We need to update with Gabon and Angola (will do that later today i hope)

Happy travels
Sam & Cat

[Dumaunimog]

Angola visa
3 Japanese we met at the Sheraton applied for the 5-day transit visa (130 US$ - has to be paid in dollars) and got it. But the embassy made a mistake and printed it with the valid from date the printed date. In the end the embassy admitted they made a mistake but could not reissued it. They left with a letter explaining the error. I'm not sure what the border officials will do with it.

We applied for the tourism visa although we were told by the receptionist (not friendly) that it was not possible. We insisted in talking to someone and since I'm from Brazil and speak Portuguese it helped.
We were told we needed a letter from our embassy but t is not written on the requirement's list for the visa.
Our embassies never provided the letter but called them to say it did not make sense.
So in the end they accepted our paperwork on a Wednesday and according to them it was approved on Thursday (next day) but since Friday they were closed because of a holiday and Monday and Tuesday their system was down we only got the visa on Wednesday.
Our 30 day tourism visa costed 100US$ (yes 30$ cheaper than the transit visa)

We took the border from Benin close to the town called Nikki. The roads were bad. When we finally got to tar we had potholes after potholes. It took us 3 days to get to Abuja.
Many police stops but we did not pay any bribes.
It was easy at the border but the officer did not want to give a 30 day stay in Nigeria although our visa is for 30 days. He only gave us 2 weeks and asked us to go to the immigration office in Abuja to get it extended. We did not do it and heard from the Japanese (who had the same issue) that could leave the country without paying any bribes just explaining the visa was for 30 days. We will try the same.

We got the Congo visa (30 day) on the same day for 13000 Nairas

The DRC visa costed 17000 Naira and got it next day but since they say the normal process takes 3-4 days and they were so "kind" to work late to have our visa ready they expected us to give them something. Unbelievable. We did not have a choice because they had our passports. We gave them 4000 Nairas for 4 passports. They were not happy. Said it was "too small"

Now we are missing the Gabon visa and we will try it in Yaounde.

In Abuja we stayed at the Sheraton. Paying 500 pppn only to use the toilet/shower. If you want to use the pool you have to pay 2000 pppn.
Not really nice. You stay in the back of the hotel (not in the parking lot) where there is garbage and some very aggressive dogs on the leash.

We are leaving tomorrow at 6am so we will not have Internet access for a while.
Will update the blog a soon as we can.

Yes, we do have a "protection of the tourist" form and had to use it a few times.

[ajctraveler]

Originally Posted by Dumaunimog

Yes, we do have a "protection of the tourist" form and had to use it a few times.

What is this form?

[Surfy]

It seems to be a self created - but official looking form.

It would be nice if someone could show here a sample.

[Dumaunimog]

I dont have an electronic version and our computer just died so it is hard to give you the example but it is a self created form that looks official. Just copy the logo from the Ministry of foreign affairs from your country and BE CREATIVE....