Visiting other countries or obtaining visas hasn’t been on my radar during my past travels as I have always went to places where I was granted a visa-on-arrival or didn’t need one. This is quite different for my train travel from London to Singapore as I’ll cross Russia, Mongolia and China. All of which require a visa up front. I did a search on visa requirements and how to get a visa for certain countries. It turned out to be more difficult than I’ve anticipated. I’d like to share some of the resources I have used and the steps I went through to get my visas.
Visa Requirements
First I had to check for which countries I do actually require to get a visa. The first site that comes up when doing a search was VisaHQ. On their website it is easy to see if you need a visa for a country just select your home country and the one you intend to visit and the site will show you what kind of visa you require. Also on Wikipedia I’ve found a world map that indicates the Visa requirements for Swiss citizens. It gives a good overview is however a bit outdated and not accurate. Best is to check with the nearest embassy/consulate of the country you want to visit.
Applying for Visa
I had two choices of how I am going to apply for a visa. Either through an agency or directly with the embassy. In my case it was actually cheaper and less cumbersome to go with a visa agency. I went with Visaworld.ch as they are able to provide me all visas I require on my trip. They where very helpful and provided me with all the information I need to fill in all the (online)applications. At the time of writing I still wait for my visas so can’t give a complete review feedback yet. UPDATE 22.2.2013: I have now received all the visas and can recommend the services of visaworld to anyone else needing help getting visas.
So hopefully all my visas are sorted soon. In the mean-time I am putting together a packing list, which I’ll put up soon on this blog.
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