Posting passport in Africa - is it safe?
 

If my Australian passport gets rejected in Senegal for a Ghanan visa, I will have to send my British passport back to the UK from Senegal for one month to get a visa for Ghana. I will have to have it forwarded to an address further down the road, for example somewhere like the Sleeping Camel in Bamako, Mali. My plan was to use my Australian passport in Dakar and come up with a good excuse, I have been in Europe for over a year, I already have a flight out from Ghana and a flight back 3 weeks late (as I have to fly back to Europe for a couple of weeks), and my girlfriend also has a flight back to Ghana with me to go to South Africa (she has a return flight from SA)

Does anyone have experience posting their passport to-and from Africa. Is it secure postage? Is it expensive? Is there anywhere you've had great luck, and anywhere you wouldn't trust at all.

Thanks

P.S I can not apply for a Ghanan visa right now as I don't have time

Forget 'the post' it rarely works & I'd never trust a passport to reach it's final destination.

Most of the time I use DHL to West Africa, not cheap but safe!

You can get a Ghanaian visa in a day in London - not sure where you are now ...

I am in Spain now. I can leave my British passport here in Spain for my girlfriend to post to London if I can't get it in Senegal with my Australian passport. I've heard Rabat takes 10 days, 10 days I don't have. I then heard Dakar takes 3 days if you're a resident, or you have a good excuse. I also heard you can get one in Burkina Faso if you have a good excuse, but waiting until Burkina Faso is pushing it for me as if they didn't issue it I'd be f#!$ed. Right now I'm hoping Dakar will play the game and issue the visa, maybe a bit of extra cash (what it would cost me to DHL from London to somewhere in Africa) can smooth along the process if need be. I have a return flight out and then back into Ghana, if I can't get that visa I'm stuffed

Please don't ever offer extra cash, it makes it difficult for the rest of us even when we have all our papers in order. Africa is a growing continent, it's not the dark continent that relies on backhanders anymore

If you have a problem after Dakar, PM me, I have contacts ...

In addition to Creer's post above, I add that trying to bribe a Ghanaian official can become a very expensive proposition. Ghanaians are usually proud and not as corrupt as many we can find in the rest of Africa. Your offer can be simply ignored but there is also the distinct possibility that by trying you end up enraging the official who, then, makes it impossible for you to get a visa anywhere else by denouncing your attempt to Accra.

Ghana is somewhat different than the rest of the countries in West Africa and Ghanaians are trying to move their country forward and quite happy of their progress which already makes them different from their neighbors.

Also, as mentioned by other posters, I reinforce the advice for don't even thinking on relying on regular post in Africa for anything more important than the family postcard. Reliability is not their strong suit. DHL is indeed the way to go.

Plooking

Not sure when you were last there, Ghana over the last year has become incredibly corrupt and the progress is going backwards fast ... The country has become farcical which is really sad. However having said that, Ghanaian officials in Embassies overseas won't take kindly to attempted bribery!

WOW!! Those are unexpected news, Creer!

I was last in Ghana in 2013. During the 2000s I had some business relations there and had to relate extensively with the Ghanaian government and government officials. To put it mildly, the relations I had with Ghanaian officials were far, far different than those I was used in other countries in the region. In Ghana money was not the way out for everything and everyone and they have a functional judicial system which handles (or used to, at least) those cases with a very heavy hand. They made a point on more or less obeying the rules and not cutting as many corners as was the rule even in Senegal. I also noticed that there was, in general, a dim view on being bribed. More like an insult rather than something normal like it happens in Nigeria (one of the worst offenders) and other countries in the region. It was from these dealings and life during the periods I spent in the country that I extrapolated for those who serve in the embassies. On another note, given that I don't need a visa for Ghana I never set foot in one of their embassies but I believe that the public service culture should be the same as in other government departments. Even the Ghanaian police I think they must be the least corrupt in the vicinity. They are correct, strict although a little naive at times what makes for some laughs. But they didn't have their hands out for a gift like most of those in other countries in the region.

Ghana stayed in my heart and I went back there in 2013 for an extended period exclusively for tourism purposes. I really enjoyed the country and if not for some personal issues, I could live there.

What happened lately that had them backtracking?! Ghana was moving forward at a reasonable pace and they were getting the fruits of progress. What happened in the meantime?

It's a very sad situation.

Ghana is far more corrupt than CI these days, particularly over the last year. I also spend a lot of time with govt. officials for both my work and NGO organisation.

Police will stop you on the road (in public transport) and blatantly ask for money (for instance, the fork just before Busua is a well-known 'Obruni' catcher - you aren't going to the beach unless they get some sort of present!)

Two weeks ago I crossed for the 4th time this year, the border between Noe (CI) & Elubo (Ghana) and whilst waiting for my immigration stamp watched over 20 people hand money to the Health Service guy, from 1,500-2,000CFA per person. I also watched money being handed to immigration to facilitate a bus group going through. Unfortunately I know very senior people in both these sectors and despite talking to them about it, nothing is being done.

My Ghanaian friends are fed up with the situation; I've seen it spiral since Atta Mills died. In my own opinion I can see the elections at the end of this year turning ugly, hopefully not too bad but there's a lot of discontent and NDC vs NPP feuds going on.

Hoping this doesn't go against the regulations of HUBB but you might want to look at getting this book if you're interested although it does have a particular party slant to it Book

Things change so quickly in Africa, particularly in this region; hoping for stability & prosperity soon!

The most recent thing I heard was having to bribe officials in Rabat to give a visa start date of a couple of months down the track, 20 euro.

At the end of the day, if I can't get a visa in Dakar then I'm screwed. It will cost a fortune to DHL my passport back to get a visa and then DHL it forward again. My only other option would be to try in Burkina Faso later down the track, and if I didn't get it there, then I'd be even more screwed as I would be that much closer to Ghana and have much less time. (I have to take a flight out of Ghana and back after a couple of weeks, so there is pressure to get there by these dates). It might suck for other people later on by encouraging this, but it would already suck for having to pay a bribe to get a visa anyway, if they're only issuing it to Senegalese residents. I also desperately need it to be multi-entry.

If anyone else knows other options then let me know.

It also sounds like there is a lot of conflicting information on a TIP for Ghana too. I have no carnet and have heard of people getting waved through after arguing their case at the border for a bit, others having to pay about 80 euro, and others having to pay a deposit of almost 1000 euro to collect at the same border on exit. It's never easy :/ If anyone has information on that too I'd love to get clued up

I'm astonished at your post, Creer. Ghana is one of the African countries in which I have very high hopes for success but these news leave me sad.


!! That didn't happen neither 10 years ago nor in 2013. At all! There were tons of police controls, that is true. But they didn't use to ask for bribes. Even to obrunis! They could occasionally hint something but if you played dumb they wouldn't press or ask for it directly.


So the obsession with the yellow fever certificate vanished? They had an obsession with that in every border. So now one just pays his way in like in most of the rest of Africa?


The NDC vs NPP feud is old news. But Ghana managed to make the transition from Rawlings to Kufuour smoothly and then to Atta Mills. When Mills died Mahama assumed office with normalcy, without any sort of hick-up. The attacks between both parties have always been contained and more or less civilized. Nothing which could make me predict any sort of violent clashes in the horizon. Fair, it's not Germany or the UK, but for regional standards the political situation in Ghana was light-years ahead from all others. How did it deteriorate so fast? Is Mahama behaving so badly as to destroy the legacy he received from Mills and Kufuour, thus causing all that resentment? Is that the newly discovered oil is making too many eyes shine too much?


Thank you for the sugestion. I'll look into that book.


Yes, that is quite true, they change really fast but Ghana had been stable for several years now. The system more or less works, the judicial works, education was improving steadily and society was united towards progress and proud of their superiority relative to the others in the region, specially the Nigerians. I truly expected Ghana to keep on moving ahead but these are not very good news.

Ghanaians lament on their situation & how Cote d'Ivoire has surpassed their economic progress (which is slipping backwards daily). That the Ivorians have a good standard of living, things are moving forward yet had the crisis only 5 years ago ...

Sorry to other posters I'm :offtopic:

Thank you very much for your very enlightening reply.

That is not, at all, the Ghana I knew and I deeply regret hearing your report on the situation in the country. It really went downhill fast! It seems, though, that economic problems are at the bottom of the issue. The GhC has been falling for some years now and it seems that the effects of such are, now, being felt.

I am truly sorry for Ghana's predicament.

:(

My experience with African post:
I sent a package to Congo-Brazzaville, it was lost for some time but did arrive two months late. My friend there told me a story of receiving a 'Happy New Years!' card... in September.

My passport (!) was sent to South Africa via the post, the sender assuming that South Africa, of all places in Africa, would have their shit together. It has been 3 months and nothing yet.

So in summary, don't send anything you ever want to see again via the post in Africa. Other shipping companies may work, but my experience is that they will use a local shipping service once the package enters the African destination company. Multiple companies increases the opportunity for problems.

Though expensive, use DHL, they have a presence everywhere in Africa.

International doc courier
 

If you want to courier passport or docs from South Africa then a good/cheap way to do so is to use Aramex.

They have boxes in most Pick and Pay retail shops nationally. Just ask for a blue sleeve bag. Has costed R299 (rands) for the last couple of years. Our money is worth nothing at the moment and for the foreseeable future.:(

You can then send to anywhere in the world.
Dead easy put your passport in bag, seal it, fill in waybill, drop it in the box.

I have not used the international service yet, but the local "red" bag service has been very good, with next day delivery nationally (1500km away).

Check if you have an Aramex option in the country where you currently are.