Does anyone know if we can get a Visa for Tanzania upon arrival at Kilimanjaro airport? We were able to obtain one last year at the Dar Es Salam airport.

Yes you can obtain one there.

You can also obtain it in advance for a nominal fee through the Tanzanian embassy.

If you want the info for the embassy, let me know. I'll have my assistant pull the information.

Larry,

The Tanzania visa is $100 upon arrival. Should take about 15 minutes to process. I personally like to have everything done ahead to facilitate transiting an airport.

Mark

I agree with you.

You can get the visa at the airport, but I always worry that the relevant bureaucrat won't be there when I need him. It is, after all, Africa.

I use VisaHQ.com to process any visas I need prior to departure from the USA. The peace of mind is more than worth the $50 or so that the service costs me. It usually takes them about 3 days for the transaction.

Probably a good idea, but I don't like mailing my Passport to someone.

I've been using VIP Passport Services for nine years and am always happy with their service. A little extra money for piece of mind - no question in my book.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys01:
Probably a good idea, but I don't like mailing my Passport to someone.

Use Federal Express. My travel document expediting service will not do it any other way.

BTW, you have to mail your passport every time you renew it anyway.

And I always get my visas ahead of time. I just don't like to leave things to the last minute. Murphy's law, you know.

My son & I are off to Tanzania for the last two weeks of October. We decided about a month ago that arriving with visas was a good idea, rather than waiting until we got to JRO.

We used visahq.com in Washington DC. Highly recommend these folks.

Used FedEx pre 10am delivery - monitored tracking numbers both ways - VisaHQ emailed us at each stage as well. Sent passports on a Thursday, and got them back the next Wednesday. A no-brainer, IMO.

Gracy Travel handled the flights for my Tanzania trip. They also took care of the visas for a small fee. It was well worth the money to bypass the visa line in the DAR airport.

Good advice, I'm sure. Last year it took all of 10 minutes at the Dar Airport. This year Robin Hurt tells us we can get them at the kilimanjaro Airport with no problem. I'll let you know how we do? Concern now is waiting on approval from Amsterdam for our Firearms.

larrys01 -- My recent experience:
We did not get the firearms consent forms back approved fron Dutch Customs until last Saturday October 4th. We submitted the forms via fax on September 16th. We are to transit Amsterdam on October 20th on KLM with firearms and ammo.

Apparently the Dutch are efficient, but the most urgent needs are met first. Call them on the phone if you are getting close to crunch time and want to check on status. They're real nice folks to talk to and can tell you where you stand.

Thanks for the info, I plan on calling them Friday if I haven't heard from then by then.

Received the Fax's from Amsterdam yesterday. Time to start packing.

It's an awful nice feeling walking past the lines after 24 hours of planes and airports at 10:30 at night because your visas are all in order.

When I arrived in Arusha this past August we waited in line a good hour for our Visa then they also took us for an extra $100 for the two Visa's. Next time I would do it before hand....

Mac

Now I know why I made a good decision to arrive at Kilimanjaro arport with visa in hand.

We had been travelling some 28 hours & of course very little good sleep. Our KLM flight was a Boeing 777 with some 330 passengers which absolutely flooded the terminal with people upon arrival.
I sure was proud to be able to bypass the swamped visa desk and get on to the task of clearing the guns and getting out of there ASAP.

quote:

Originally posted by 415sbaird:
Now I know why I made a good decision to arrive at Kilimanjaro arport with visa in hand.

We had been travelling some 28 hours & of course very little good sleep. Our KLM flight was a Boeing 777 with some 330 passengers which absolutely flooded the terminal with people upon arrival.
I sure was proud to be able to bypass the swamped visa desk and get on to the task of clearing the guns and getting out of there ASAP.

Wow, only about 10 folks got off and 3 or 4 got on in Kilimanjaro, and we were off to Dar.

We noticed the same thing. However about half had Viia's and after the power went off 3 times and we got our Visa some of the people with Visa's were still waiting in line. So I guess I would get my Visa there if I had to do it over again. Thanks all for the reply's.