Visas for cruises

[BigTimeCruiser]

We are new to Viking and have 3 cruises currently booked.  Our first cruise is to Asia in September, followed by the Amazon and then in 2025 the World Cruise.  Our question is--do most people utilized the GenVisa service?  Please let us hear you thoughts on this subject.

[Fieldofdreams]

We recently completed for Australia/New Zealand, we completed it  directly through the country sites, very easy and I believe $20 or so per country so there is some cost savings.

[Jim Avery]

Have used GenVisa on World Cruises.  It's always been an included perk.🍹

[Pushka]

We have just had to get Visas for India and Saudi Arabia. Sadly not a world cruise 🥹. We applied directly through their Governments websites. We don't use a third party unless compelled to. 

[Peregrina651]

If I can get a visa online or at the airport, then I don't need a visa service.  

 

However, if getting the visa involves presenting myself at a consulate passport in hand, then I'm happy to let a service stand in line for me.  

 

Jl

[Clay Clayton]

We got our visas for China in 2019 directly from the Chinese embassy.  We had to present ourselves due to our need to keep our passports as we were traveling in and out of Canada and couldn’t use a service.

[Peregrina651]

8 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

We got our visas for China in 2019 directly from the Chinese embassy.

 

 

In 2010, China visas meant two trips to the consulate (which was in New York City). Between drive time, parking, gas and the hassle of driving in NYC, using a visa service was cheaper and less stressful than going ourselves.

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

In 2010, China visas meant two trips to the consulate (which was in New York City). Between drive time, parking, gas and the hassle of driving in NYC, using a visa service was cheaper and less stressful than going ourselves.

Understand, but since we couldn’t give up our passports we had no choice. Worked out fine for us, we spent a weekend with friends in Chicago, dropped off our passports on Friday morning at the conciliator, picked them and the visas up on Monday morning. 

[jmfdr]

Thank you so much for this question about the Genvisa service that Viking encourages.  We are doing a three week Asian cruise next October and will need visas for several countries.  I would much rather get evisas online myself  than pay the hefty fees required from Genvisa and without need to mail off our passports.  

Edited February 1, 2023 by jmfdr

[CurlerRob]

19 hours ago, BigTimeCruiser said:

We are new to Viking and have 3 cruises currently booked.  Our first cruise is to Asia in September, followed by the Amazon and then in 2025 the World Cruise.  Our question is--do most people utilized the GenVisa service?  Please let us hear you thoughts on this subject.

 

Visas seem to fall into three categories, in our experience.

 

1 - Simple and straightforward e-Visas. Oz and NZ are excellent examples. No need for a service at all.

 

2 - Moderately complex e-Visas. These have worked fine for us in the past, but tend to be more complex to navigate and introduce a bit of angst - especially if there's a wait for receipt. Examples are Sri Lanka, India and oddly enough, Bermuda last November (the stuff went into a black hole for a month, but did emerge properly).

 

3 - Nerve-wracking. Some of the Asian countries (Vietnam comes to mind) have had a lot of volatility in rules and/or type of Visa more recently. This might be an area where the service would be worth it's high cost.

 

For the WC, I would assume the service is included, so it would make sense to use it if your timelines permit. 🍺🥌

[BigTimeCruiser]

Thanks everyone for your feedback on Visas!