Posts from — August 2009

As we are going to three countries that demand visas, I thought I would start this process early.

China

I’ve been to China before in 2006 and the procedure is simple: You need to have a real one page visa included to your passport, this means sending your passport (or taking it to) the Chinese embassy of Helsinki.  Along with your passport, you need to send a passport picture of yourself and the form of application. The fee of the visa in 2009 was 40euros. You will be asked questions like “Do you have aids or leprosy?” (if yes, then don’t even think about coming to China)  and you need to provide your plane tickets.  Also, if you are a journalist of any sort, it’s probably best to mention it… Just tell them that you are a tourist. You never know with the Chinese, their paranoia is quite world known. The visa is valid for 3 months after you get it, so be sure to book it in the time frame of your trip. The bonus of 2009 is that you cannot send the passport and application in with a mail, so make sure you have a relative in or a visit coming up to Helsinki.

The bunch line is: Finland – Because life is not difficult enough!

Australia

For Australian visas, there’s plenty of websites that try to charge money for it. Better to use just the immigration services of the Australian government.  If you are just visiting and not immigrating or working there, then you should get eVisitor Visa for free. They also email it to you, so no big trouble getting one immediately. It  allows you to travel to and from Australia any number of times over the next 12 months. On each visit to Australia you can stay for a maximum of three (3) months.

USA

Well, I’ve never been to America before, but I have been told what to expect. Apparently, if you visit Canada while coming from and going to USA, it doesn’t really count like leaving the country… Thank goodness. You can find out pretty much all you want to know from from the US embasy in Helsinki.  There is a Visa Waiver Program which allows you to enter ‘without a visa’ for business or tourism, but only if you are eligible meaning that you don’t have a disease, criminal record, swine flu or other barrier of entry. Of course you also should not have had anything to do with the nazis or helping them. At the end, it’s a pretty easy procedure. They accept you online. Of course I am prepared the customs to be quite nasty. The day that I will arrive to the american soil, will also be the longest day of my life, lasting something like 47 hours. It’ll be something to write about at least I suppose.