Visa question for recent returnees from Oman

[lahore]

Hi, those of you who recently visited Oman on Nautica - would somebody be able to tell me please what the situation was with Visas? The Omani website indicates that Australian and British subjects (us) and USA citizens (many of you) require visas, but that there is no Omani embassy in Australia...and that visas are issued on arrival at airports in Oman. Can you please advise what happened in Oman?

 

Thanks a lot in advance. I don't want to use a Visa-getting company, they are expensive and anyway there aren't many of them here.

[Druke I]

We were on Nautica, Istanbul to Singapore this past November,with a port call in Muscat, Oman. (Very clean city)

 

There were no Visa requirements for US citizens; our passports were stamped with both entry and exit stamps.

[lahore]

Tks Michael, that's as I hoped.

[Aussie Gal]

lahore,

 

I am interested in how you are going to obtain all your visas. We are sailing on 8th April from Hong Kong to Athens and we will need visas for Vietnam, Cambodia (we are going to do the side trip to Ankor Wat), India, Jordan and Egypt. I presume that we will be given a visa when we arrive in Oman. I think I have covered all the countries.

 

I usually get our own by dealing directly with the various Embassies in Canberra but timing is of the utmost importance in this case.

 

I will be interested in how you manage to organize all of yours and any tips you can pass on.

 

Jennie

[lahore]

Hi Jennie

 

How was your recent trip? Good I hope.

 

We will certainly be doing our own chasing around - it's not really that difficult in Australia as I am sure you know.

 

Here is what I have found out for our upcoming trip, or done in the past:

 

Vietnam - we have had to get Vietnamese visas twice; I think from memory we downloaded the form from the net and sent them off to Canberra; they weren't too bad in terms of time, less than two week turn around.

 

Cambodia: we just got back from Siem Reap this year. You get the Visa as you enter the airport - everybody does, it's expected and is not necessary to do anything beforehand. It cost USD $25. Exit tax also in Cambodia - a further USD $20. Siem Reap airport is surprisingly lux - presumably lots of US NGO $$ have gone into it.

 

India I have done before: the consulate is in Coburg. You drop it off there and pick it up about ten days later. I think from memory the Indian Visa is only valid for six months from issue, might be less. Check that out. They also have a website. Multiple entry visa is about $100 - again that is from memory.

 

Egyptian Consulate is in Exhibition St, and I am going there tomorrow so I will try to remember to post and let you know what I find out.

 

I am also wondering what happens with Oman, as you can see from this thread, but am thinking I'll just wait and hope we get one there. One of the posters on our roll call (Nautica, Nov 25th Rome to Singapore) has lived in Oman for a long time and he says not to worry about it.

 

Jordan: sorry, no idea. Wish we were going there though!

 

Cheers for now

 

Lyn

[Aussie Gal]

lahore,

 

Yes, we did have a great trip and have returned to freezing weather as you know. After 3 weeks of sunshine and warmth it is a shock to the system.

 

Thanks for all that good advice. I do have one question with regards to Cambodia. We are doing a ship's excursion to Ankor Wat from Saigon and returning to Bangkok. Do you think that picking up a visa at the airport would apply to that trip or perhaps I should just go ahead and get a visa here before we leave. I would hate to miss out on a wonderful excursion due to not having the correct paper work.

 

Jennie

[lahore]

Hi

 

Glad your trip was good. I wouldn't want to give you advice that turns out to disadvantage you, but all I can say is that I doubt that a single soul on the plane we caught (Air Asia from KL) had a visa before arriving at Siem Reap. It's just part of the process there; like going through immigration. If you want to be certain then get one beforehand; I have no experience of how long that might take to get one through the Cambodian embassy/consulate in Australia though - if it's like anything else to do with Cambodia it might be a while!

[Aussie Gal]

lahore,

 

Today after going into the shore excursions that are being offered for our cruise, we have just discovered that the side trip to Ankor Wat has been increased by nearly $500US p.p. on the price Oceania was quoting a month ago. They now want $1500US p.p. for 2 nights. I think we will miss this excursion as we feel we can fly to Cambodia in the future for a longer time and it won't cost us a whole lot more than $3000US that Oceania are quoting.

 

Jennie

[lahore]

Hi Jennie

 

Well it cost us AUD $20 each to get to Siem Reap from Kuala Lumpur - on an AirAsia special (get onto their mailing list - they have regulary 'crazy price' specials, although even their normal prices are peanuts). We stayed at the beautiful Sofitel for AUD$120 per night - so yes I think you could go three times for what Oceania is charging. I do recommend anyone go though - its a stunner.

[jimgib]

hi did the same cruise in spring 2006, from a brits point of view, you will need vietnam and indian visa, you are ok in oman and egypt, we were told a jordanian one could be purchase as you dock, however this was never offered nor was a visa asked for. all went very smooth. ont miss Petra the highlight of the cruise.

regards JimGib

[lahore]

hi Jimgib

 

My partner is on a british passport - so we can asssume from your experience that an Egyptian visa is not needed? I am on an Aussie one, so I am not sure whether to risk it or not. Can you describe what happened in Egypt? In some ports (e.g. China; Japan; India evidently) the local customs doods come onboard and check you off. What happened in Egypt please?

[jimgib]

Lahore, Egypt very simple just got up and off the ship, same as any 'normal' port. We were also on the previous cruise so did china and japan also. nothing needed for japan, but china needed a double entry visa, so if you are leaving china then returning later as we did that is leaving tiensin sailing to north Korea then back to shanghai, unless you have the double entry visa they wont let you off.

regards JimGib

[lahore]

Hi, thanks for that. When we did China we also needed the multiple entry visa. For Japan the local immigration officials came on board and we had to file past and have our faces matched against the passport. It's interesting that that didn't happen on your cruise.

[Aussie Gal]

lahore,

 

So, after all that, do we need a visa for Egypt or not? I don't mind paying out for one for peace of mind but then again what a waste of time if we don't need one! Let me know what you decide to do and then after your cruise let me know what happened I will use you as a guinea pig as you need yours well before we need ours!

 

Jennie

[lahore]

No problem. I still think I'll go ask at the Egyptian Consulate, but the weather has been so miserable I haven't felt like taking that lunchtime walk. I'll let you know here when I do; the way the weather forecast is looking that might not be this week!

[stingraynz]

Even though we are Canadians....so I know there could be different costs and rules etc.

 

My question is for those of you WHO DID NOT PURCHASE VISAS FROM OCEANIA. We are still quite confused. Our TA has contacted O and they claim that we WILL need a visa in Egypt if we did not purchase Their visa package. I would like some confirmation if possible (hopefully Canadians...but really anyone who recently went on a cruise there) if you did not purchase a Visa package from O...were you still covered? HOw did immigration work when you got to Egypt.

 

Thanks so much! I thought I had this all figured out until I had my TA contact Oceania.

[lahore]

hi stingraynz - nice to talk to you over here today! I think I'll start a new line (if you haven't already done so, I'll check first), to ask about Egypt. This one was headed 'visas for Oman' so maybe it won't attract the amount of responses we might otherwise get. Cheers, Lyn

 

I still haven't hoofed it down to the Egyptian Consulate; will do so soon; it's been very cold and windy here lately making an otherwise pleasant lunchtime walk into quite a battle.