Originally Posted by
sokolov
Real Life Story: An Australian friend of mine was taking the "trip of his life", flying around through Europe and North Africa for over half a year, with some trains or buses thrown in. He had saved years for this trip. At the end, he wanted to travel in style on the Transsiberian railway from Europe to China and fly back home from there (maybe Hongkong).
But he needed a Russian visa. In Australia he was told that he can't have a visa more than six months ahead. He should apply in Europe. In Vienna, he went to the consulate one morning, stood in line for hours and when it was his turn they closed. "Come back tomorrow." But tomorrow he was in Budapest already. So he went to the Russian consulate in Budapest, where he was told that he had to apply at the Russian consulate in Australia since his residence and/or citizenship was in Australia.
He never went on the Transsiberian railway and spent his savings in other countries.
Now if he had needed a visa for the Schengen area, it would probably have been no better.
I can beat that story. A fried of mine died, at 38. All his family, except a brother, who was working in an Indonesian port city, for a Hongkong based company. We decided to holf the funeral for the brother to arrive. The brother had been to the U.S. many times and had never overstayed his visa.
- He went to U.S. Embassy in Jakarta with a letter from his company that it would be responsible for his expenses in the U.S. The consular section, of the U.S. Embassy told him to apply for the visa in Hongkong.
- He flew to HKG where the U.S. Embassy told him to apply from India as he was an Indian citizen,
- He took the first flight out of HKG to BOM. In Bombay, he was told he had to apply in Calcutta, since his address was listed in the eastern part of India, which fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. consulate in Calcutta.
That was really horrible.