While AirTreks can’t legally advise you on visas for countries other than Australia (which is the only visa we issue in house), we can definitely tell you a few things about the travel documents you’ll need.
The following information is as up-to-date as we are able to make it, but we encourage you to verify information essential to your plans, especially visa and border-crossing requirements, directly with a diplomatic office of the governments of the countries you are planning to visit.
Passports:
You will need to be carrying a passport that is valid for at least 6 months after you return from your journey. Some countries will prohibit you from coming in if your passport doesn’t have at least 6 valid months remaining after your scheduled departure date. You can apply for a US passport at most post offices nationwide, or if you want a little help you can contact VisaHQ.com for assistance with both passports and visas.
AirTreks recommends that if you don’t have a passport, or need to get your passport renewed, you should start the passport application process 4 – 6 months before you plan to leave for your trip. It’s certainly possible to get a passport in less time than that, but to avoid any last minute snags or drama, it’s best to give yourself plenty of time before you begin traveling.
Keep in mind also that your name on your tickets needs to appear exactly as it appears on your passport. This includes all your names, first, middle, and last. If your passport only includes your first and last name, your tickets should appear as such. If you’ve recently gotten married and you haven’t amended your passport, your maiden name should appear on your travel documents. If you’ve amended your passport, your tickets should appear according to that amendment. Failure to match up your tickets EXACTLY with your passport can result on you not being able to travel without making costly changes to your tickets. Please advise your AirTreks Personal Travel Consultant of your name as it appears on your passport before you begin the booking process.
Visas:
Depending on what type of passport you’re holding, you can obtain visas upon arrival for many countries worldwide. It’s always best to check directly with the consulate or embassy for each country you’re going to visit to make sure that you have all the information you need before you depart. The consulate or embassy will have the most accurate and up to date information for each country’s entry requirements. Our partner VisaHQ.com will give a good cursory overview (for US passport holders), but again, it’s best to confirm by checking with each embassy to make sure that the rules haven’t changed. It’s better to cover your bases than to be thrown out at home plate.
Some countries where you will definitely need a visa in advance if you’re traveling on a US passport (and this list is by no means comprehensive) are: China, Vietnam, Brazil, Russia, Australia, and India. As a matter of fact, the latter’s visas are notoriously difficult. Here’s an informative site to help sort out your Indian visa.
If you’re going to be staying in one country for an extended period of time it might not be possible to get a tourist visa (they aren’t always valid for long stays). You should check to see if you will need a special visa if you’re going to be spending more than 3 months in any one location.
For visa research we also highly recommend “The Visa Book” by Christine Gilbert.
It has an easy to digest layout and simple navigation with a well-defined index page. You simply pick out the places you’re going from the list and get visa and other vital information right there.
The other thing about this is because it’s an ebook, it can be updated easily, and it’s clickable, making it possible to follow links to the State Department website, to Wikipedia and Lonely Planet for travel info, and to a form that allows you to report your own findings.
The Visa Book is currently only for U.S. Citizens and it only covers tourist visas, which means it excludes those for extended stays and working. But as the majority of AirTreks clients are just passing through, this may be a perfect resource.
It’s $10 to initiate the download in a simple process, which overall, I’d say will be made up ten-fold in its headache-killing usefulness.
Click the image to download.
