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Visas to get before heading off. Visas to get before heading off.
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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon



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  #1  
Old 22 Jul 2015
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Visas to get before heading off.
Riding through West Africa down to Cape Town in November. From what I gather most people get visas along route, some of these seem rather easy and get be bought on borders other ones seem to be an absolute nightmare.

I was just wondering which are the tricky ones and is it possible/worth it to get them in advance back in the UK?
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Old 22 Jul 2015
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One possible trap in getting visas before you leave is that they often have fairly tight windows for first entry after which they expire, so any accumulation of delays during your trip can mean you get to a border with an expired visa. On the other hand, some countries insist on you getting a visa by personal interview back in your home country so ....

Wikipedia can a page with worldwide visa info for Australians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_r...alian_citizens which probably has a British citizen equivalent and might be useful as a starting point.
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  #3  
Old 22 Jul 2015
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Jimmy,

Depending upon your route, the difficult visas to get en route are:

Ghana
Nigeria
DR Congo
Angola

The above 4 are all possible en route but require patience and a degree of perseverance!

All of the others you can get usually without too much hassle.
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Old 23 Jul 2015
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Originally Posted by jimmyha View Post
and is it possible/worth it to get them in advance back in the UK?
No. Most of the Visa expire after 3 months so as ong as you dont just want to rush through Africa you have to get them on the road. For me Angola was a nightmare: http://afrikamotorrad.eu/?report=en_westkueste
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Old 23 Jul 2015
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Amazing, thanks everyone. Really helpful!
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Old 24 Jul 2015
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I would definitely try to get DRC in the UK.

Depending on your circumstances, it is probably easier to get Nigeria, Angola and Cameroon in London as well. It saves a lot of anguish later on.

Cheers.
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Old 26 Jul 2015
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Hi,
I am just in Nairobi and did the west coast earlier this year with my partner and we had EU passports. Here is some info of visas:

Nigeria, we got ours in Burkina Faso. very easy. Apply every Tuesday and Thursday. Needed just application and pictures. Cost 40,000cfa for one month visa. We also had to have a talk with the guy who gave the visas, he was traveler him self so no problem. Took one week to get it

DRC We got ours in Benin, was easy application. We needed to have a proof that we will return to home country. Our previous jobs wrote a letter that we will return to work 2016, you can make one too. Took 2 days

Angola This one was hard one. We got our two transit visas, for 10 days from Dolisie, Congo. Cost 200ush per visa. We went back to the consulate for 6 times.. on a seventh time it was ready. Pain.

We met this big overland truck on a road. Organized tour from England. They got basically all their visas in Ghana. Was fast and easy. Nigerian, DRC and Angola (150usd for 30 days). If we would have known that, would have done same.

Cameroon visa was easy in Calabar, Nigeria. Took 15mins to get one. Congo was easy too in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
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