What’s the most difficulty you’ve had with getting a visa?

[TMP]

Chile. Awful experience. Will never go back until they change the process. Gave me a taste of what Australia puts other countries through. The highlight was having to pay via a bank transfer to a bank account of the Melbourne based consulate.

 

[RB001]

Chile. Awful experience. Will never go back until they change the process. Gave me a taste of what Australia puts other countries through. The highlight was having to pay via a bank transfer to a bank account of the Melbourne based consulate.

Thread 'Chile is now visa free for Aussies!'

Sep 19, 2025

Read on a FB group I'm a member of.....Chile is no longer requiring Aussie passport holders to get a visa for visits of up to 90 days effective immediately!

E-visa para Australia - Chile en el Exterior

www.chile.gob.cl

Via Google translate:

Australian citizens are advised that, starting September 17, 2025, they will no longer require a visa to enter Chile for less than 90 days.

Do you have any questions? Send them to: [email protected]

• kpc
• Replies: 33
• Forum: Passports, Visas, Immigration & Customs

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[SYD]

Just applied for one yesterday. It’s a shocker and makes Indonesia eVOA look like a walk in the park.

One question is countries visited in last 10 years. I had about 40+ but it’ll only accept 20 max…. So I thumbed through my PP and made sure anything with a stamp was covered. Intra Schengen zone went into the bit bucket….

Well, at least it was approved in less than 24 hrs (much less than the 1 wk I’d read online).

SYD+1 is still waiting > 24 hrs….

 

[Cossie]

Coming back to Australia from London in 1989 after an across Africa trip which took 5 months. My passport was nearly full, I applied for a US visa in London as I was visiting soon to be Mrs C who was living in Vancouver and we had plans to cross the border south for a few days.
Visa refused as I needed more than one blank page in my passport. Went to Australia House in London where the 'remarks' page was altered to accept a visa. The yanks again said no. Arrived in Vancouver, went to the US consulate there, was told in no uncertain terms from a rather coughy person that it wouldn't be happening, if I was rejected in London, that was good enough for her to reject me. I still have the note written on consulate memo paper "Under no circumstances will we consider issuing a visa in this passport". Bloody annoying as several countries including Canada would add extra pages to a passport.

Got back home, determined not to be beaten, got a new passport and applied again at the Embassy in Canberra, as you could do then.
Explained the situation and was immediately granted one. I then went and visited the future Mrs C for 2 weeks and we went down into Washington state for a quick vist as well as a trip up the Inside Passage. We went into Alaska at the Stewart/Hyder border post, no passport required and Canadian dollars used.

Probably cost way too much money for such a short trip, but I hate being beaten......

Backpacking in my younger days, waiting for a visa and waiting for money to arrive were two very common reasons for many to be in major cities twiddling their thumbs.

We had to wait for a couple of weeks in Algiers to get a visa for Tunisia in 1979. Annoyingly we could have got one the same day in Rabat in Morocco, I figured Algeria would be the same.

Slightly digressing, the best visa I ever acquired was an Iranian one in Kabul. I was going overland to the UK. The Iranian borders were closed due to the revolution, the visa was easy, waiting in Herat for a week was a bit of a pain. The Iranian visa was in Farsi and English, any mention of 'royal' or the like was crossed out with a biro.

 

[jastel]

Russia was my most complicated Visa form.
Does anyone actually answer YES to "Are you a Terrorist?" "
I had to attach ALL countries visited on what dates, which made me think...
But I now have the list which I keep adding to.

I remember getting it back and it was a very impressive Visa Page.

 

[Tiki]

Ahh the good old days of waiting around in major cities for visas to be issued. I was stuck in Cairo for 2 weeks waiting for a Sudan visa in the late 80's when I was backpacking around Africa. Most African visas were like that, you had to go to the consulates several times to apply, check on status, get passport stamped. I used the Lonely Planet guides as a reference on which consulates were cheaper, took less time, were friendlier. I once used a Press card acquired on Khao San Road in BKK to get a journalist visa for Afghanistan as no tourist visas were being issued. I was in Dubai at the time, mid 90's. And I can relate to waiting for money to be sent to the local Amex office and picking up traveler's cheques and using it as a mail stop for letters from home. That or Poste restante.

 

[Melburnian1]

Russia but moot point now because I doubt I'd go back

When I visited Russia more than a decade ago, my travel agent facilitated the visa.

However once in Moscow off my train, I needed an extra slip of paper, so I found a local travel agent who provided this for a small fee.

Within a day or two, I was pulled up on a metro station by an unfriendly large fellow who barked 'Passport?' at me. It wasn't my usual practice to carry it in cities but fortunately I had it. he saw the piece of paper and let me go. Had I not had it (or if I'd left my passport at my accommodation), it would have been a +US$200 fine I gather.

India was also a pain, even though the visa arranging contractor has an office in Melbourne's Swanston St.