Extending a Ghana Visa in Accra?
 

Hello all,

We are in the middle of a large-type detour in our African trip, and intend to skip Central Africa and the Congo shenanigans, plus Nigeria as a whole. As such, we plan to ship our car to Cape Town from W. Africa, and the only sane way to do that appears to be from Ghana (the one place we were skipping with the VTE visa -- go figure)

We apply in Abidjan (with a backup in Ouaga, and a tertiary in Washington DC -- we're American), but our options seem to be the Single/30 day or the Multi/90-day.

Since we're basically begging for an exception to protocol (which is "no, get it from home"), I'm not keen to push our luck too far, but I think arranging ocean container shipping may take more than 30 days.

My question: Once in Ghana on a Single/30 day visa, can it be extended? If so, where? I was unable to find this situation in my searches here.

We could also depart Ghana before the car, try to get our Carnet stamped for 90 days, but that seems to invite trouble from the border personnel AND the freight forwarders. Still, it's an option.

Thanks for any insight. Happy 2017 from Abidjan! :D

- Mike

I can't give you a specific answer, but I can assure you that Ghanian bureaucrats are in general experts at making things as difficult, time consuming, and expensive as possible. Anything you can do in advance to avoid having to return (for a paperwork adjustment, extension, or other change) is strongly recommended.

The only exception I've ever witnessed personally was when a friend had a personal immigration official on retainer. That man made all sorts of things possible at a very nominal price....but it takes time to build such a relationship.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark