overseas work visas: more pain than gain

“Regarding me coming to Japan, it will be very difficult… I can’t get the working holiday visa anymore because I’m over thirty. I was going to look into scholarships to study cuisine or nutrition there, but again, I think they’ll give me a difficult time without a degree (I’ll contact the embassy anyway). I get visa on-entry for ninety days max, so I’d have to take a trip to Korea and back to restart my time if I were staying longer.” (p. 100)

It’s one thing to arrive overseas with a backpack, ready to jump from country to country purchasing visas at the border or in neighbouring embassies (which is often cheaper than pre-arranging it back home). But when it comes to business visas, not arranging it in advance can be an excruciatingly painful waste of time.

When I was preparing to volunteer in Bangladesh back in 2006, I could have paid an extra $20 or $50 for a multiple-entry visa in Canada rather than a single-entry, but I was ill-advised to go for the cheaper single entry and arrange a longer visa upon arrival (though I knew I would likely travel for a friend’s wedding in the Philippines). When I got to Dhaka, I found a military coup of sorts (and another one a few months later), which included changes to immigration/visa policies, meaning I couldn’t get a new visa for more than thirty days, inside or outside of the country. I spent more time in immigration than in the office, and ended up having to leave early when my final visa extension (after pulling some strings with contacts in India) was handed down with seven days to get out.

In Namibia, I filled out all the necessary paperwork in advance, but it was sent to Namibia for processing, rather than being done in an office overseas. After three work visas and a threat at the border to throw me in jail rather than let me leave the country when one of the visas had expired, I left eleven months later without ever receiving my work permit.

In Mozambique, I arrived on a thirty day tourist visa, was advised by a business contact to go to Swaziland for a longer visa, paid for a three-month multiple entry visa with thirty days entry permitted per visit, but was given a three-month visa with a useless ten days per entry permitted (meaning every ten days, I would need to travel to South Africa or Swaziland, then come back for ten days, and continue like that for the duration of the visa).

Next option was to talk with immigration in Maputo, where I was advised to apply for a six-month multiple entry visa, thirty days entrance per visit. When I finally got news back, weeks after the indicated pickup date (after trying to pick it up more than ten times), they asked me to pay for a one year residence permit instead, recently raised to roughly $850 USD (which would have been great if I had a business partner to pay for it, but that wasn’t the case). After spending days in offices talking with officials, I was eventually told I would get the original six-month business visa, to be picked up three days later. I went every day to the pick-up window, until I finally received my visa and a stamp allowing me to be in the country for five days (before exiting and being allowed to re-enter for twenty five (not thirty) days), expiring the day before they handed it over to me!

Back up to the offices, back and forth until I was told to apply and pay for yet another urgent extension, handing my passport back over and hoping I get it back this time with a valid entrance/exit stamp to let me out without paying $100USD per day in fines (from whatever date they stamp me in until). I paid for three visas in a matter of six weeks, currently have two valid visas but no exit stamp, and have just paid for another visa extension. Hopefully it comes back on time (without having to pay any additional favours) so I can catch a flight out of the immigration office and onto another country with less bureaucracy, and more time doing actual work.