And now, how to get here??
Jan. 28th, 2024 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut CRISTINA'S VISA HAS BEEN GRANTED!!
And so now we're immediately on to the next problem, getting from there to here. As an American I've always been able to book any flights around the world without worrying about such things as transit visas. When they've come up at all, like when I was transiting through New Zealand recently, it's a "oh you need to fill out this card before landing." But it's a different story for a Venezuelan like Cristina. So far the flights I've been able to find even involve a domestic flight in Chile for which she'd require a full visitor visa to Chile, or a two hour transfer in the US (SFO) for which seems like such a small simple thing right? No as far as I can tell you need a transit visa for even that, and that requires a visit to a US embassy, and the nearest US embassy is in Colombia. Next on my list is looking up booking flights through very specifically countries that won't require her a transit visa, which is looking like Madrid to Doha to Australia (that specific one is 60 hours with a 20 hour layover in Doha!). And I'm going to undertake applying for both the US transit visa and chile visa in hopes either one turns out to be relatively easy (haven't even looked into the chile visa yet, and for the US one I think they _could_ waive the visit to the embassy so I might apply in hopes they do that or worse case scenario she can always fly to Bogota for that).
Anyway, if anyone here happens to have useful wisdom about overcoming this next set of obstacles please share!!
And so now we're immediately on to the next problem, getting from there to here. As an American I've always been able to book any flights around the world without worrying about such things as transit visas. When they've come up at all, like when I was transiting through New Zealand recently, it's a "oh you need to fill out this card before landing." But it's a different story for a Venezuelan like Cristina. So far the flights I've been able to find even involve a domestic flight in Chile for which she'd require a full visitor visa to Chile, or a two hour transfer in the US (SFO) for which seems like such a small simple thing right? No as far as I can tell you need a transit visa for even that, and that requires a visit to a US embassy, and the nearest US embassy is in Colombia. Next on my list is looking up booking flights through very specifically countries that won't require her a transit visa, which is looking like Madrid to Doha to Australia (that specific one is 60 hours with a 20 hour layover in Doha!). And I'm going to undertake applying for both the US transit visa and chile visa in hopes either one turns out to be relatively easy (haven't even looked into the chile visa yet, and for the US one I think they _could_ waive the visit to the embassy so I might apply in hopes they do that or worse case scenario she can always fly to Bogota for that).
Anyway, if anyone here happens to have useful wisdom about overcoming this next set of obstacles please share!!
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Date: 2024-01-28 12:48 am (UTC)Congrats that is great news. Wish I could be of any help with the visa situation.
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Date: 2024-01-28 03:46 am (UTC)Also, OMG, how complicated.
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Date: 2024-01-28 02:44 pm (UTC)I’m so glad to hear she’s good to go! I wish I could advise on the visas but I don’t know.
I sent a message to a friend in Chile to see if she knows anything but I doubt she does unless she knows some Venezuelans.
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Date: 2024-01-28 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-29 12:03 am (UTC)It's funny that i was just in the Santiago airport just months ago. It definitely seemed highly geared up against drug trafficking. Hopefully with her onward ticket and all they grant her a visa
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Date: 2024-01-29 05:04 am (UTC)My friend did think the onward ticket would help!
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Date: 2024-01-28 03:18 pm (UTC)She can certainly get as far as Spain with no visa and has the same 90 day Schengen stay as most people. After that, I don't know. But Spain to Doha exists and from there directly to AUS?
So excited for you two!
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Date: 2024-01-28 09:54 pm (UTC)Wonderful news that Cristina's visa was granted!!! YAY!!! I have no clue about visas, but your idea of applying for several to see which one works out sounds like a good one.
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Date: 2024-01-29 01:51 am (UTC)No suggestions but congrats!!
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Date: 2024-01-29 12:33 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2024-01-29 07:35 pm (UTC)Yay!
Oh boy, the visa situation sounds complicated. Best of luck with that.
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Date: 2024-01-30 08:03 pm (UTC)