VISAS

Visas can take a while for me to obtain since the embassies and consulates are in a different city, or sometimes even in a different country. Where information needs to be obtained from the country I'm visiting, as is the case here, the often large time difference also plays a part.

Other international travel has cut short the window I could obtain the visas in. I use a company that specialises in visas - the extra cost is worth the peace of mind (for checking the applications are correct and complete), the chasing up they do with the embassies and consulates, the speed with which visas are processed (seems to be faster through them) - ie the convenience. I had almost 3 weeks to get the visas, which seemed ample in the circumstances. Nonetheless I got a call 2 weeks later that only one had been done and I would need to pay an expedite fee to get the other consulate to process faster. Oops that other trip may not have been so wise after all.

It was well that I did since even with this extra fee the passport was returned just a couple of days before my other trip. This is not the closest I have sweated it out - a few years ago I needed a replacement passport on short notice which arrived back the day of international travel.