Visa & Passports

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Visa & Passports

mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

Almost just got hosed over by the Taiwanese consulate. I had to apply for a visa (as a non-American), the guy looked over the documents and said I had enough money in the checking account and didn't need to provide booked accommodation, which I had with me. It'll be fine, come back in 3 days he said. This morning I get a call that they visa is not approved yet... because they want to see more money and the hotels. Fuuck.

Thankfully it was enough to email some pdfs from booking.com but it will now take another three days. C'mon. Also most SE Asian countries (including Thailand, Macao and HK) either don't require a visa at all or provide one on arrival and not for $100 like this one.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2017 18:14

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mobby_6kl: Aug 9, 2009; by Fluffdaddy

dougdrums posted:

I was really surprised when I showed up as an American in Taiwan with bank statements and stuff and they just stamped my poo poo and told me to have fun. I'm don't want to pry, but I think they usually want to see a statement with at least $2 or $3k USD for short trips, if that helps.

Like I think it took longer for PRC citizens to get through.
...

Definitely had less than $3k at the time, my regular account tops out at about that and everything else goes to savings. So it was less after buying the tickets and paying rent of course, but had a clear history and got topped back up today. I'm just annoyed they said it was ok when I was there in person as I could've easily transferred more money there on the spot or provided a printout from the savings account. I forgot to mention it in the initial post but I'm supposed to leave next Sunday so this is cutting it unpleasantly short for no good reason.

Saladman posted:

I bought a ticket to Namibia transferring through Luanda, and now I'm a bit paranoid that I might need at least one transit visa. Any idea how I can find out if the "onward travel without visa" rule actually applies reliably or not? I've seen that you don't need visas for stays in Angola of < 24 hours as long as you have a forward-bound international ticket, but now I wonder how much trouble we might have. Luanda's current airport does not have an international area, so everyone arriving goes through immigration, although we might be lucky and their new airport might open before our flight (April 2018) which would probably eliminate this problem.

Flight is Lisbon->Luanda ; change planes ; Luanda->Windhoek (with non-deplaning stop in Lubango).

We bought our tickets with TAAG so I'll call them and the Angolan embassy, but I'm guessing that what the employees at the embassy might tell me will have about as much weight as what strangers on the internet can tell me (i.e. very little).

Did you figure this out? Because it reminds me of getting a 12-hour Ethiopian visa on my trip to South Africa. They wanted me to go to loving Moscow to get the visa even though I live in the EU, the logic being based on my citizenship (which isn't Russian but we don't have a consulate) and not residence. In the end I just showed up in Frankfurt while I was on business there and got it done on the sport, thankfully.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2017 11:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Visa & Passports