Visas

One of the steps to traveling the world is getting the Visas on your passport. 


Our first step was to send our passports in to get 25 extra pages.  Luckily we did that in May.


Oceania uses a service, CIBT, to process some of the visas.  They were VERY helpful.  They said that if we had had to fill out a Russian visa application, none of us would have gone on the cruise!


This is because we had three insane applications to fill out:  India, China and Brazil.  Each country had their own directions for how to fill out the form.


India:
You fill this out online with CIBT.  Sometimes it will accept your entries, sometimes not and then you start over.  Date order:  day-MONTH-year.  They ask your religion.  David put "animism" .  He had to list when he had been to India before, which was in the Peace Corp in 1966.  NO punctuation allowed at all.


China:
requires the year, month and date in that order.  N/A has to be in every box that doesn't have an entry.  ALL CAPS ONLY.


Brazil:
This application is filled out online on their website.  When you are done, you fill in a captcha to have it accepted.  If you don't get this right, you have to start all over.  You have to note the number they give you.  You are supposed to be given a .pdf of your Request form receipt.  You better print it out then and there because it goes away.  Your signature has to be entirely in the box, not outside it in any way.  The name of your contact person is - you!  Date is day/month/year.
 
In each port, you have to write who the contact person is.  This usually takes up to 6 lines of name and address.  It has to be exactly correct. 
For India:
JM Baxi & Co
Godrej Coliseum Phase 2
C Wing near Priyadarshini Sion East
Mumbai 400 022
Think you can find it?


Later we got a rush request to fill out an Australian visa which we had to mail in with photos.
Then we got another rush email saying the Myanmar visa application had to be completed.  Two copies, two photos, each.  This one we bring with, and is required in order to board the ship.


We each got a total of 6 sets of passport photos. 


This effort took us over a week, many reams of paper, re-reading the instructions many times, double checking by each of us, copying for our records, and sending, with our only passports, to CIBT with a prayer.  The expected due date for return is December 19th.


No visas, no passport, no go.