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

• 
• 
• 

 

[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.

 

[jgm]

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….

I'm still waiting, it's been just on 48 hrs. How long did your +1's take?

 

[Cossie]

.

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.

When my then girlfriend and I applied for an Indian visa in London, early 1980's, I basically got mine on the spot, she had to wait weeks. I had UK resicdency at the time, although and Australian passport, she had an Australian passport only, so all the details had to go back to Australia. We had time.
When we decided to come back to Australia at the end of 1985, we walked into a British Rail station and asked for 2 one way tickets to Moscow, USSR as it was then. Poor guy was shocked. Nobody buys a one way ticket to Moscow!
We had further travel booked via In Tourist to Beijing via Mongolia, so didn't we need a return. All good fun in those days......

 

[SYD]

I'm still waiting, it's been just on 48 hrs. How long did your +1's take?

About 48 hrs