First time we look into visa rules and conditions was 8 years ago planing our trip to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Before that we never left European ground where we could move as freely as we wanted.
In our family it is only me that doesn’t posses a red Danish passport which means that I always need to check and double check both entry rules for myself and the rest of the family. Back in 2017, before Croatia was part of Schengen, I was the only one needed to apply for Thai visa in advance, others in our family could get visa on arrival. That meant I needed to send my passport and the application to Thai embassy and it was very nerve-racking as I was sending it with the postal service and it is very well known that danish Post can often loose letters and packages and I really didn’t have time to travel for applying for a new passport in case it went missing.
But, I had faith it will go well and it did. I got my visa and we traveled only for a month without problems.
Three years ago, after spending 6 months in Croatia, we found Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic (for European countries) do not require visa to enter for truism or business purpose but you might need to purchase a tourist card upon arrival. If you overstay in DR the duration of the tourist card (visa) you will be ask to pay a fine exiting the country but without any further problems entering the country again (at the other point).
We ended paying a small fine as we stayed longer than 90 days but have met people living on the island for many years and then paying significantly higher fines but still in the range of affordable. It is kind a thing you just do entering and staying in DR for a long time.
Our next country after DR was Colombia. I can see now that for EU citizens Colombia doesn’t require a tourist visa before arrival. To enter Colombia without a visa, EU citizens must meet the following requirements:
A valid passport (valid for at least six months beyond the intended departure date).
Proof of onward or return travel (such as a return flight ticket).
Proof of sufficient funds for the duration of the stay.
No prior issues with Colombian immigration (such as overstaying on previous visits).
Back when we were entering Colombia, we needed to apply for e-visa on the official government site which was very straight forward and without any costs, the issue back then was that you couldn’t do it before 72 hours prior entering the country otherwise they could decline you entering the country but replying if doing it wrong in the first place was a kind of a pickle as the system didn’t allow multiple applications.
It was there the nervousness about not being able to enter a country came in.
It was a combination of unknown if you being denied at the immigration desk and all the plans and money invested in your stay in a certain place. With 3 very small kids back then, it was something that we became very aware of.
We managed to get in Colombia without any issues but the days up to travel and all the questions opened up for a dark space inside us that started to react in those stressful situations.
My nature of being and living doesn’t often react out of fear but in the proximity of nervous systems of those that do react in those highly stressful situations, I might become nervous too.
Plus, visa rules, exemptions and people writing and telling all these scary stories about their experiences really do get you if you start imagining the worst.
So being prepared and do your own research is the best way to prepare and then take it easy and believe it will go through.
But
There is always a but.
When traveling is your life style and you move around a lot - you need to really do your part of work diligently. Every country is different and the rules changes with the time, depending on the countries you come from.
Again, this year, I couldn’t enter Thailand for the whole duration of my stay without applying for the visa in advance, one month ago they changed their visa requirements again and now I can easy get visa on arrival.
The trick can also be to know when are the deadlines for sending your applications. Nowadays for Thai visa, Vietnam and Japan you can apply for e-visa. For some countries (including Thailand and Vietnam) you need to apply from your home country before travel. For others like Japan and Bali, you can do it if you already are traveling.
Japanese tourist visa is very straightforward and gives you 90 days of tourism purposes.
Visa for Bali can be tricky, but it is defiantly not (for us) being a hurdle I have heard so much about. People even pay very expensive agents to do applications for them.
And there are so many agencies out there that is hard not to be confused taking agencies for being official website.
We ended applying over Indonesian official immigration website: https://molina.imigrasi.go.id
There you can find all different kind of tourist visas and requirements and the site is made very professionally and without any confusions. We got 211A tourist visa that allows staying in duration of 60 days. The best part of doing it by yourself online is that you can very easily extend it the same way as the initial one - you log in with your profile and fill out 3 easy steps and it comes online in your app/web portal.
Indonesian visa has two big “but” for me: it is pricy and you need to be aware that from the date you have been approved your online visa you have 90 days to enter the country as the visa issue date is valid from the date it is approved in your app/website.
You could, also, just apply for visa on arrival for the duration of 30 days but if you then want to stay longer, you need to go physically in the immigration office and do it in person. According to my partner, it is also very easy and straightforward.
Indonesia, at least Bali, has high standards in operating their tourist entries - from the airport, official portals and apps and immigration offices. In my opinion one of the best and smooth ones that we have tried.
Here comes our challenges so far: I have search all our Indonesian visas - making and filling in all the informations creating profile for each of us. Our visas came on the clock and without any delays. Very important note: remember and double check requirements and documents you need to upload (passport, passport pictures and bank account statement that has your personal name on it saying that you have at least 2000 USD founds on it)r. Other than that is not a biggie.
We were staying longer than 60 days so we needed to apply for an extension. Very easy, except that at the end on the website they ask you to choose your payment form (credit card or bank transfer to Indonesian account) and I accidentally pressed the second one when filling out for my husband meaning I couldn’t proceed with the payment and ending with me sending a new request after 24 h when the payment for the first one expired. That ended in a bit of a mess. See, we couldn’t apply for the extension prior 14 days before the expiration of the first 60 days and they used more than a week to process the request. My extension and those for our kids came together one Thursday 7 days before our visa was expiring, my husband’s one didn’t. And we waited and he panicked - it was and probably still is one of his biggest fears not getting a visa and loosing all expenses for the flights and bookings. We made backup plan and at the end he went to immigration office and sorted everything out there. It turned out that he wouldn’t get one approved on time due to that issue with the payment I accidentally made.
Funny at that same week, he applied us all for Australian tourist visa that is automatically approved in the frame of 24 h, expect for some cases, one of them being me.
As we did it pretty late, but still with plenty of time considering official guidelines, it was a nerve racking and even calling official numbers couldn’t help much in speeding a process. It took over a week and one last call to Australian embassy in Denmark to make it happen just 3 days prior to our flight. In any other situation I would take it super easy and just work around to make our travel plans more flexible but we need to get to Melbourne that day we had our tickets for as our first pet sitting was starting that day and a whole family dependent on us coming that day on the time so they could manage to catch their flight.
Those days in Bali with me not getting my Australian visa and my husband not getting his Indonesian visa extended were very comical and tragic at the same time. It was a big learning process for us for sure.
And for those traveling too and knowing how much work visa can create, I deeply empathise with all the time and energy being invested and the time waiting not knowing but hoping for the best.
What I really want to say here is: there is no straight way except: checking all in a good time, preparing all needed, knowing your deadlines and having some backup plans. There are usually always visa fixers/agencies that you can contact too if something doesn’t go as planned but in my opinion that is definitely the last choice I would make if everything else I personally did, didn’t work out. Have a lot a patience and know your requirements - everything else will work out.
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