The worst visa you've had to apply for
 

I can only guess a good proportion of users here are of 'Western' origins, so the idea of visas can all too often be regarded as a ridiculous endeavour which can be easily avoided by going somewhere that doesn't need a visa. But no doubt some of you have gone through the trials and tribulations of applying for one sooner or later, so:

What is the worst visa you've had to apply for and why?

Having spent the last few weeks going to various African embassies in Moscow (where I'm based) seeking information about what is required for visas, it's proved to be an interesting exercise. Particularly when some requirements were somewhat gladly substituted, if not waived altogether by simply asking! Whilst I haven't applied for any visas in the region (yet), others have proven...interesting. Here are my top 3:

1) Turkmenistan - went to the consulate in Moscow (which involved a chaotic wait of about 3 hours), asked if a proposed route would be accepted for a transit visa (i.e. DME-ASG then by land into Bukhara, the reverse was deemed invalid). Applied, which involved a detailed description of my trip to be written by hand in Russian (which I do not speak...thank god my husband was on hand to help!) and plenty of details regarding employers (standard I know), went back to submit everything and 2 weeks later, got a phone call from my employer telling me that the Turkmenistan embassy called THEM to confirm my application was rejected (surprise surprise). Needless to say, I'll stick with travel agencies...

2) Azerbaijan - as a budget traveller, I opt for hostels/dormitories etc, and luck had it that there was one situated in the heart of Old Baku. So I applied at the Azerbaijani visa centre in London, only to be told that the place I was staying was regarded as a private residence and required a letter from the owner (who didn't speak English, thus I was contacting her daughter) effectively inviting me to stay there. After emailing the letter initially written, it was returned specifying further details needed like exact dates, passport number of the owner, number of days I was going to be there for (which had to be a minimum of 3, but I was there only for 2, otherwise it would be an automatic rejection) and so on. Having emailed the owner back and forth for several weeks, I finally got the letter exactly as needed and got the visa within a week!

3) Uzbekistan - incidentally I applied with ease in Moscow last year, but it was in Riyadh and Almaty where it was problematic. In Riyadh, they demanded the 'letter of invitation' from me, despite me being a passport holder exempt from such letter, and as I lived a considerable (kind of) distance from Riyadh, going back and forth to the embassy was too difficult to do. So, I opted for Almaty. Queuing up at the embassy requesting a transit visa, I showed copies of flights from Almaty to Bishkek by way of Tashkent and was told that it was simply impossible to issue a transit visa in one day, the minimum processing time was 3 days. Even for a higher price they wouldn't do it, but hey, c'est la vie.

And now, I'm potentially facing places like Angola (which sounds surprisingly easy from the second in command of the Angolan Embassy in Moscow!), Nigeria, Burundi, Benin, Sierra Leone etc over the next year...!

this is easy
 

An easy question for me. India.
Two visits to a ugly office in an out of the way shopping mall. Long wait times, disengaged staff. They charged for everything - including photocopies. The staff treated people so bad. Complete disrespect.
The wierd thing was the place had ads for a "new" expedited online process which Modi was trumpeting. It was complete BS.
I complained and there was no follow up. None.
I later learned that they treat Indian born nationals even worse. As a result, Canadians of Indian descent decline to disclose their India origins! How counter productive!
(BTW, the best was China - single visit, no waiting, modern facility cw wifi!)

The worst IMHO is the visa to United States. Not for me because I have two citizenships but, for Brazilians in general, is a nightmare. You need to bring tons of papers to prove your financial situation, all documents about your trip (air tickets, hotels reservations, etc), credit cards balances, etc etc etc. And now, under the Trump era, the things are getting worse. Some years ago my stepdaughter made an interchange on USA and we spent more than two months only to get the visa. Completely crazy.

I don't remember problems taking a visa. The worst for me was to Vietnam 10 years ago when I was need to send a "invitation letter" from a travel agency. Except that, even in Africa, I never had problems (should be because I'm born in a poor country too).

For me, probably most of you will disagree, China!
And it is still ongoing...
First time I went to the embassy in Brussels with the needed documents. Turns out the photo was not good for the application. Ok, this was my own fault because it is all clear on the internet how strict they are about photos...
The second time I went back and turns out I didn't book all my nights and they want no GAPS in the itinerary... A nightmare for a traveller who doesn't plan everything in advance...
The third time I arrived and they told me "oh.. But your name is not written on this hotel booking. It must have your name on it!". So leaving the building made rage to this lady but I had just enough self-control.
The fourth time I arrived with confidence but then they say "Oh, but you're going to North Korea. This document is not enough, we want an invitation letter from your tour organisation that goes to North Korea!" ................................. I really had to say to myself "stay calm, stay calm".

I contacted the tour organisation but because of UN sanctions my tour manager is stuck in North Korea for a few weeks. So they can't sign a letter of invitation for me??? I don't even know how I can fix this. Everything is booked already... Hotels, flights, ... pisses me off.

aussie visa...
 

......s gave the wife a visa but denied mine.

all the supporting documents were in my name too haha.

probably a dartboard method or they choose an anchor and i was it.

No question at all: India.

Total hassle since I needed a lease agreement and utility bill (and a ton of other documents) and then because my wife's name was not on the utility bill, they said that they were unable to verify that she lived with me and therefore could not issue a visa. They would not take my word for it that she lived with me (what are they smoking?).

I had to get the cable company to add her name and issue a statement while doing all this from a Kinko's near the consulate... and a useless trip to the consulate which is a 5 hour drive each way. Everyone there was lazy, useless and unwilling to acknowledge what was blatantly obvious.

I'll never apply for another Indian visa.

Interesting posts RE: India visas. I thought my fear of not getting one for not having 2 consecutive blank pages from an agency in Riyadh (which turned out to be a load of BS in the end, it was fine) was bad enough! :S

Angola used to be an absolute nightmare. Things have improved markedly in last 24 months. Not sure about consulate in Moscow but London can now issue in less than a week.

My experience as a Canadian:

1) India ~ 20 years ago. Had to drop off passport at the consulate and pick it up a few days later. No big deal, seemed like a money grab more than anything. Visa was rubber stamped into my passport, taking a full page.
2) Indonesia twice. Similar process to India but needed to take passport photo. The visa is a work of art: sticker the size of a full page pasted into the passport, engraved like a banknote, official stamp embossed into the paper. Very formal as these things are in Indonesia.
3) US was the worst. Applied for a NAFTA TN visa about 4 years ago. PITA!!! Mucho useless paperwork. Presented an employer's letter that was copied from another person's who already had the visa - just changed the name and date. Was initially rejected due to a trivial technicality (but they let me in for a short visit anyway). Changed one word in the employer's letter and got approved the next trip. After the Indonesian work of art, the US TN visa was scrawled into the corner of a page with a Bic pen :rolleyes:.

One of my former employers had a pair of offices in India, and none of my coworkers who spent time there had good things to say about the visa process. On one trip, my boss was there for a month, and his wife tried applying for a business-spouse visa so she could visit him for the last week before they vacationed elsewhere. It was such an enormous hassle that she wound up just entering on a tourist visa instead.

I've avoided visa hassles so far, thankfully. I had been planning on visiting Russia last year, but getting letters of invitation from my hotels sounded like enough of a hassle that between that and the deteriorating US/Russia relations, I opted to visit Vilnius and Kyiv instead.

As a Canadian, the only visa I've had to apply in advance for was to visit Russia, and that one wasn't too menacing. Odd visiting the consulate and seeing the photo of Putin observing me in the waiting room. I need to go get a Chinese visa in January, so that one ought to be fun.

India for me.

China was bad during the run-up to their Olympic games, when they stopped issuing 1 year visas, then no 6 month, then not even a 3 month multiple entry.
I had to make two visits 2 weeks apart, and ended up having to get the second one during a stop-over in Seoul.

Another vote for India.

Easiest was France, but then I can't imagine student visas ever get *too* difficult in those circumstances.

As a UK citizen, it's all been pretty easy for me. All of India, China and Myanmar were easy and I haven't done any others. But a friend of mine who had been to Iran for a television programme on gardening had a total nightmare trying subsequently to get a visa to the USA - so much so that he decided not to bother going.

India by far. Had to watch the video numerous times and it was still rejected initially because I didn’t have a printed fed ex return label. Trying to remember my grandparents names was also very difficult. Trying to call the Indian consulate also was frustrating. I almost considered flying to Chicago to do it in person. China is a piece of cake compared to India.