Originally Posted by
Brave New World
Sorry for OT, but visa on arrival in Belarus? I'm not aware this is/was possible except during some past sport event, can't recall though which one it was?
I've entered NZ three times in the past two years and never had any issues, but I always held a visa so that'll be the reason. But I do know about a story from a girl I met a couple of months ago, and she experienced a similar scenario to the one of the OP - she was on a small ROW trip and had to present all sorts of documents. It's striking that she, like the OP, just wanted to get a visitor stamp on arrival. I suspect they are way more cautious about those kind of people, even when they shouldn't.
Apart from that I only travelled a bit outside of Europe so no bad experiences yet.
I'm not sure what the current policy is, but in 2012 and 2013 one could get one with a passport of a country which did not have their own embassy of Belarus. Belarus doesn't have an embassy in Dublin, so I was able to get a VoA.