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Heading north, Angola and DRC visas ?
Hi there,
I am currently in Lusaka, Zambia, but on my way to Cape Town. The plan is to travel north as far as Douala, Cameroon, from South Africa. Has anyone been successful or heard of someone who had been in getting both the Angola and the DRC visas while in S.A or Namibia ? I am a E.U pasport holder. Here in Lusaka the Congolese denied my application since I am not a resident of Zambia. Thanks and happy trails. Levelo. |
i did hear that Lusaka was the best place to getr the DRC visa, so i dont know....to get the Angola vias is a pain for non residents...probley faster and easyer to contact a agency in your home EU country ( london only processes uk and irealnd residents)
i belive its sometimes possable to arange the angola visa in capetown via the agency that work witht the flamingo lodge in angola. ( check out the lodge site for info) but its probley easyer and cheaper to send your passport to europe....as you need to book acomidatrion in the lodge and its expensive drc...i have no idea about......have you considerd becoming a reident in zam...i dont know if its possable, but it may be...its possable in togo thats how we got our drc visa |
Just look how other did it on the west route recently:
Here i try to maintain a list of travellers who have a website/blog Trans-Africa: Gerade Unterwegs... Most travellers do it the oposite way - downwards... But at leat one did it too upwards recently, a swiss guy. Angola should be available on the way, the DRC one is more complicated.. Also when you are able to optain them - the border guys want that the visa is issued in your homecountry... Maybe not that helpful, but here is also an article about Visas on the west: 4x4tripping: Westroute Afrika, aktuelle Visa Situation 2013 There are many backlinks to the Hubb - so the use of the search function will bring you the informations too ;-) Surfy |
Cape Town was the only option a year or two ago when heading north - search this site as I posted a lot about it previously, as did others. In a nutshell, don't do it yourself, they are awful.
There was a Portuguese or Angolan guy who would do it for you - speaking Portuguese in the embassy saves hours and hours of waiting… American lady with an English school will do the letter of invite for $80 - much cheaper than other options…? Google search like this (copy the following into your browser address bar): site:http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ angola visa cape town and change the words on the end. DRC - all change in the last few years. Did you stand your ground politely, look like you were going to cry, explain patiently the same things 27 times in the embassy?? Did you request a meeting with the Ambassador to discuss his difficult problem? Or did you look into getting temporary residence in Zambia? Once you get away from the ease of East & Southern Africa you need to be very politely firm - and annoying enough where they want to help you to go away, as opposed to banning you from the embassy ;-p |
Thanks for your feedback.
I did not insist very much at both the Angolan and DRC Embassies in Lusaka but it is always interesting to find out what their official requirements are . Just testing the waters really : I am cycling down to Cape Town where I am hoping to get sometime in mid or late March ( currently getting rained on in Vic Falls ). I will try my luck there but for me, as a cyclist, the validity of the visas will be a problem even if I am successful ( it is at the very least 3 000 kms from Cape Town to the Namibia-Angola border, 2 months in the saddle ). My best bet is definitely to apply in Namibia. I know that it is easy enough to pick up both the DRC and RoC visas in Windhoek. Someone I am in touch with just got them very recently without too many hassles. He also managed to get his Angolan visa there in 3 days with a letter of invitation which I will need and will have to get. But maybe the Angolan consuls in either Rundu or Oshakati will waive that requirement too, who knows... |
I was at the border in Ruacana Falls this week and denied entry because of no letter of invitation. I have a US passport. They said to try at Oshikango but after speaking with alot of locals here, I decided not to try. The rainy season will begin soon and all roads that are not paved will be inaccessible (according to locals here at the border).
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Angola processes all visas in Luanda. Embassy staff have no ability to give you anything. Extremely well connected people I know could only get a 7 day transit coming south for example. The consul in Oshakti is more of a military contact and will say yes and then delay and delay, pushing up the price for a not wholly official visa - expect to pay around 400 Euros in the end. This was my friends experiences (who speak perfect Portuguese) a few years ago. I very much doubt you will get a visa there when they are all supposed to be issued from Luanda…. Visas are checked in the country and I know of a few groups who have 'camped' by the police station for a night or two whilst the local police have checked them out. In case its not obvious, the Angola gov doesn't want you to go, they don't care about your trip, or you as a person, they will look at you in the embassy as a scruffy traveller and based on that decide not to help you. They are maybe the worst country in Africa for getting a visa? Shave, have a hair cut and dress up when you go to an embassy - they really are very fickle about this - I was denied entry to the embassy in Cape Town one day despite looking quite smart by overlanding standards…. So again, search the previous threads, there is some very solid info in there, then see what has changed since and act accordingly…. With Angola you are unlikely to be able to wing it, plan, research and then prepare to make endless pointless photocopies and trips to the embassy and you might be lucky…. ;-) Good luck… (that all said, I found the people there really nice and the police at roadblocks very friendly and helpful, so I tried to go back for a longer visit, hence I have knowledge of applying twice for visas, north and south of Angola ;-) |
Things change fast in Africa...
With a letter of invitation in hand one guy I am in contact with got his Angolan visa within 3 days in Windhoek. He was not a Namibian resident. On LP's Thorntree forum 2 guys posted to say that they got their ordinary, tourist visas without letters of invitation at the consulate up in Oshakati in October 2012. Just wanted to have confirmation of this with someone who's tried recently. RDC and RoC visas seem to be easy to pick up in Windhoek, too. |
I've been trying to get into DRC for months, starting from the East where it was unsafe to pass and decided to come back down in Lusaka from Kenya. I've just been denied entry into the DRC, and barred reentry into the embassy for being persistent (4 days in a row I appeared). I tried everything, handing over passport with money hidden in a page, making friends with the other Congolese in the embassy who were more than welcoming. I even pointed at the poster that said "Tourism R.D.C" - saying I wanted to go there. nothing.
My Zambian Visa expires Jan 15, so I think it is out of the question to get an Angolan one in such time due to Xmas and the fact that its going to take me 7-8 days to get to the Namibian Border, where I will try in Windhoek for either the DRC or the Angolan Visa, that is about as far south as I want to move as I actually started in Cape Town over 2 years ago. Any information regarding the letter of invitation or contacts would be appreciated for either DRC/Angola. Regards, Dave |
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Welcome to Nancy's English School and Guest House. Was $80 a few years ago - bare in mind it is quite a lot of hassle and bullshit for her, and sending the fax costs about $30... Dress up smartly for the embassy - they didn't like the look of me and refused me entry to the embassy a few days running (Cape Town). |
Update: Have got a hold of Nancy - It's now about $140 due to different fees and has to account for a driver to get into Luanda and such. No Big deal.
Was to get from Lusaka, had a positive experience at embassy where they asked for Letter of Invitiation, and Declaration Letter (Rough plan where I'm going, that sort of thing) along with $100. Seemed easy enough and very helpful. Sadly, it takes 15 business days, which I don't have. Cycling into Windhoek for the end of January and will try there. |
Hey Tiredofit,
I am also cycling. Currently riding my way south to Cape Town where I hope to be in a couple of months ( I am in near Nelspruit in RSA ). Then hopefully back up to Namibia where I will try my luck in Windhoek. Would you be kind enough to keep (me ) us posted regarding the issuance of the Angolan and DRC visas in Windhoek ? I will apply myself later in the year. Happy trails, Levelo. |
Hey guys,
To overcome the difficulties of the DRC visa it is possible to take a ferry from Soyo, Angola which will bring you to Cabinda and after that to Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo. Still you need the Angola visa. This is the road we are going to take in about two months coming from the North. Currently there is a guy on a pushbike heading south who did this road. It's a French guy and not a member of the HUBB. Cheers |
I am now in Windhoek, and after 4 days trying to chase down the Consular I finally have been told I can get my visa through Namibia for 350 NAD ($33 USD), although they can't do anything without a Letter of Invitation.
I've failed with AA Safaris, (she played like she didn't know anything when I emailed, and trying to find a better way than $140 through Nancy which I think is a bit high. Will try for a Hotel and start the search today). I know of the pushbike cyclist heading down - I've been asked to not speak about his Angolan Visa details until he exits, but he received it in Brazzaville. Will just say it seems alot easier coming from the North. |
Okay Tiredofit, good luck and let me ( us ) know how you fared with the invitation letter and the Angolan and Congolese visas in Windhoek. Would really appreciate it.
Currently in gorgeous Lesotho, have just tackled all the high mountain passes in the east of the country. Be safe, L. |
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
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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
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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. |
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 beer in it if I pass you out somewhere in North West Africa maybe! |
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. |
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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. |
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. |
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. |
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 |
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? |
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. |
Just a short update : I picked up my Angolan visa today. I am good to go.
Best of luck to all, Levelo. |
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 |
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 |
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Had an wonderful read through your blog with that stunning pictures :thumbup1: I guess a good part of your luckage consists of equipment for photography... Surfy |
To get the Visa for DRC only took 3 days at the embassy in Berlin but to get the Visa for Angola was a nightmare for me. They say it only takes 7 days at their webpage but i tryed more then one month at the Embassy in Germany and 3 Months at the embassy in Capetown AND windhoek. I did hundereds of phone calls, send them many emails, filled out the same documents again ang again in small letters, capital letters and computer written, angaged a visa agency to get the invitation letter but only after I personaly spend a few days waiting at the embassy my selfe I finally got 4 days transit for 166 Euro. By this time, my Congo Visa had expired allready:
http://afrikamotorrad.eu/?report=en_westkueste |
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