Just wanted to write a little bit about arranging Visas for the few countries we have visited the last few months. Hopefully this post may come in handy for anyone thinking of venturing to this part of the world.
So the three places we have stopped off are Thailand, Vietnam and finally settling in Australia. The main aim of our travels was to live and work in Australia for 12 months therefore this was the first visa we arranged. I had been researching for ages about the best way to go about this and we eventually decided on USIT, well I decided, Jamie had little or no input!
I called in to their Cork office one day during my lunch break and got some great advice off them, so definitely drop in to them for a quick chat over the counter. This may even trigger some ideas for your travels. For instance, I spoke with a guy and he suggested when travelling to Thailand, perhaps fly out from Dublin, stop off at Dubai, and spend a night or two there and then on to Bangkok. Now, we didn’t end up doing this rather fly from Cork to Amsterdam and from there to Bangkok. To be honest, I wanted to fly out from Cork (because it’s closer to home!) and to have more time at home but look everyone’s different so chose what’s best for you!
That guy also suggested that we go with practically an empty suitcase and pick up everything in Thailand for dirt cheap rather than having to buy new stuff in Australia. Which, I have come to learn is so expensive! So we did do that, a little bit at least!
Eventually I popped USIT an email and one of their offices around Ireland will respond with all the answers to your queries. In this case, I was dealing with USIT in Limerick and I arranged everything via email/online with them. The forms were sent through, I filled them out and scanned them back to a lady named Susan. I then received a secure link for payment and literally within a few hours our visas were granted. I would advise also paying by Debit Card rather than Credit Card if you can as there will be an additional handling charge of about 2% and when there’s two visas being applied for this can be as much as €25. This is a massive charge so try save your few bobs and pay by Debit Card!
We paid €619 per person and this included the Working Holiday Visa for Australia, 12 months Worldwide 'silver' travel insurance, Australia Jobs Access, Bank Account set up (which I mentioned in my MELBOURNE!!!! post) and your Tax File Number set up. Regarding the Tax File Number, although I haven’t received mine yet, you are required to contact USIT in Australia as soon as you arrive in the country, supply a valid address and they will issue it to you. Otherwise you will get taxed massively when you do start work and I think this could be as high as 50% of what you earn!!!!
You can also apply for the Australia Working/Holiday Visa via the Australia Embassy which is more than likely cheaper so if you’re on a strict budget maybe this would be the better option. More details can be found at; https://www.border.gov.au/
So…. next up was arranging our visas for SE Asia. There are a number of countries that are eligible to enter Thailand without a visa and Ireland is one of these. Instead, you get a stamp when entering and you can stay for up to 30 days only (if entering by air). Also,
when you are on the flight to Thailand you are given an entrance/departure card from the air host/hostess. You must fill this out with your details, such as name, DOB, country of residence, passport number etc. One section is an ‘entrance card’ which they will detach when you are going through passport control, the other section is the 'departure card' and you must retain this for you when you are leaving the country. Some hotels in fact will request to see this so best to keep it somewhere safe. Further details can be found on the Thai Embassy website here; http://www.thaiembassy.com/
We travelled Northern Thailand for three weeks, four weeks travelling Vietnam and then came back to Thailand to do a further three weeks in the South of Thailand. Therefore you are entitled to another 30 days when you re-enter. As far as I know if you enter by land you are only given a 14 day visa however best to check all this out online to be sure.
Finally our Vietnamese visa. I did endless research on this online, some advising to do it online yourself, some advising do it in Thailand when/if you are there and the option we chose (which was definitely the most expensive at around €150 each) was to apply via Trailfinders.
Basically what we did was apply on the Trailfinders website http://www.trailfinders.ie/visas/vietnam-visa where you are re-directed to the Vietnamese embassy site. You fill out an online ‘editable pdf’ document and then you are prompted to print. When completing the form you MUST fill in the exact dates you plan on visiting Vietnam which in turn will determine what day you leave i.e. 30 days later as these will be printed on the visa and finally pasted in to your passport. This form, along with another Trailfinders form with payment details AND your passport (yes, you have to send off your passport too, eek!) is to be sent directly on to them.
You can chose how quickly they prepare this for you, obviously the more you pay the quicker they’ll have it back to you. However when we applied we paid for the cheaper/longer option but we received it in the same time it would have taken had we paid more i.e. two weeks. Happy days! Oh and send all the forms and passports via registered post. That way you can track it god forbid it went missing!
So that’s that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Be sure and pop me a comment below or via the contact form here should you have any queries guys!