The Long Journey Home: Visa Applications

‘It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.’ – John Wooden.

The Trans-Siberian: An Idea

One sunny day in June last year, a group of us went to Somes Island for the afternoon. We had a picnic, took some photos and walked the entire circumference of the island. We caught the ferry home just as the sun was descending behind the hills that surround Wellington. The sky burnt orange and burnished gold as it dipped below the horizon.

It was on this boat ride, between taking photos of the sunset and discussing the possibility of spotting penguins, that P and I first talked about the Trans-Siberian journey.

To be honest, I can’t recall who brought it up first, or why. All I distinctly remember was our animated conversation as we walked home after disembarking from the ferry. By the time we reached the hostel, we had decided that if all went to plan, we would do it together the following year.

Bringing an Idea into Fruition

Since that day, we have had endless conversations about this trip. When to go, what we both want out of the trip and where we should go. How long for? How much money will we need and what we are both going to do afterwards?

Now, in less than two months, after all the talk and all the hype, we will be about to start our Long Journey Home together.

I’m telling you this to put our trip into some sort of context. It was born out of one discussion and carried on an idea that neither of us would let drop. Once we had decided to do it together, we were always going to do it. Now, the planning and preparation is almost complete. Most of what we can organise in New Zealand has been done. Our flights are all booked, the train tickets have been bought and we are just waiting to pick up our Mongolian visa, having already secured our Chinese and Russian visas.

I am really looking forward to bringing the stories from our trip to this blog. However, I’d also like to provide some useful information about the technicalities of this journeys, such as how to go about getting the notoriously difficult visas required to travel the railway.

Securing Visas for Travel

As UK citizens, both P and I travel on UK passports. We both currently live in New Zealand, so have been faced with needing to procure visas for this trip on foreign soil. This challenge concerned me a little. Getting Russian and Chinese visas can be notoriously difficult – would doing it abroad make it harder?

It turned out that the main frustration was the lack of helpful, clear information provided by the embassies on how to go about completing the visa applications. I am an organised person and the lack of easy guidance infuriated me.

With this in mind, I decided to write this post providing full information (correct as of March 2016) on how to apply for visas for China, Mongolia and Russia. This is particularly useful if, like us, you are a UK citizen planning your trip in New Zealand.

China

To obtain a Chinese visa in New Zealand, you will require the following documents:

• One completed visa application form (V.2013)
• A passport photo glued onto the visa application form
• Your passport with at least six months left until it expires
• Print-outs of flight bookings, accommodation bookings and, if travelling by train, your train bookings to show your movements around the country
• NZD$60 for a single entry tourist visa, to be paid by credit/debit card upon pick-up of your visa (fees correct as of February 2019).

Visas take five working days to process, not including the day the application is lodged.

Mongolia

To obtain a Mongolian visa in New Zealand, you will require the following documents:

• One completed visa application form
• A passport photo glued onto the visa application form
• Your passport with at least six months left before it expires
• Print-outs of flight bookings, accommodation bookings and, if travelling by train, your train bookings to show your movements around the country
• NZD$160 for a single entry tourist visa or NZD$210 for a double entry tourist visa, to be paid via bank transfer before submitting the visa application (fees updated and correct as of February 2019).

Visas take seven working days to process, not including the day the application is lodged.

Russia

To obtain a Russian visa in New Zealand, you will require the following documents:

• One completed visa application form (these are completed online and then printed out)
• A passport photo glued onto the printed visa application form
• Your passport with at least six months left before it expires
• EITHER 1 x visa support document from a registered tourist agency. I’d recommend using Real Russia for this. Prices start on their website from £15 for documentation, plus shipping costs.
• OR 1 x detailed itinerary on your tourist agency’s headed paper. This is required if you do not pay for the original visa support documentation to be shipped to you.
• NZD$60 for a single entry tourist visa, payable via debit/credit card. Due to time restrictions, we chose to fast track our visa application and the cost was therefore NZD$120 each (fees updated and correct as of February 2019).

Visas take 10 working days to process, not including the day the application is lodged.

NB: Although British citizens need to provide bio-metric data when applying for Russian visas in the UK, we did not have to provide this when applying in New Zealand.

Be Vigilant

Despite our concerns, with vigilance, patience and attention to detail, we were actually granted our visas with surprising ease. I reiterate – you do need to be really anal about the form filling process. Make sure you read the question twice before writing your answer and be sure to check you’ve provided all the information they require. I honestly think our attention to detail is what helped to turn this process into a relatively easy one, without any major problems.

We submitted our Chinese visa application first, followed by the Russian one and finally the Mongolian application. All three embassies had different approaches and we found the experiences at each embassy varied significantly.

The Chinese Embassy

The consular (visa) part of the Chinese embassy in Wellington is located on 4 Halswell Street, Thorndon, 6011. The embassy is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 9-11.30am and 2-4pm and on Tuesdays and Fridays 9-11.30am. You do not need to book an appointment.

We showed up at 11am and were seen within minutes. The man behind the counter checked the information we were providing, ticked off a few things and told us to come and collect our visas five days later. We were out by 11.15am. When I collected the visas, I was in the embassy all of five minutes, and that included paying.

The Russian Embassy

By contrast, when we showed up at the Russian embassy, we were met by an imposing building with an electronic gate that we had to be buzzed into. There was no one in the office when we walked in and we ended up waiting for about an hour to be seen. The man behind the counter (when he eventually came) again checked the information we were providing, ticked off a few things and told us to come back the following Wednesday. We paid there and then.

When I collected the visas, I waited half an hour to get them. The embassy in Wellington is located on 57 Messines Road, Karori and is open Monday – Friday 9.30am-1pm. You do not need to book an appointment.

The Mongolian Consulate

The most bizarre experience was at the Mongolian Consulate. When we got our visas in 2016, the consulate was located at 30A Avalon Crescent, Lower Hutt, 5011. Office hours were generally Monday to Wednesday 10am-3pm and all ‘in person’ visits had to be by pre-arranged appointment. We phoned ahead to book ours.

Initially, we couldn’t find the building we were supposed to be going to! It turned out that the Mongolian Consulate was really just a massive house, hidden down a long driveway behind another house in a quiet suburb of Lower Hutt. The consulate met us at the door and she proceeded to check our documentation right there and then on the doorstep. We didn’t even go into the building!

It was a strange experience and very informal. Eventually, after a few questions about my double-entry visa, she waved us goodbye. I returned two weeks later to pick up our visas.

Note added February 2019: The Mongolian Consulate in Wellington has now closed, since the woman who ran it has retired. The consulate is now based in Auckland. You can find out more on their website.

In Conclusion

All in all, the application process for all three visas took us about five weeks from start to finish. That included all the form filling, bookings that we needed to make to complete itineraries, trips to the embassies and application processing times. The whole thing wasn’t as arduous or as stressful as I had thought it would be.

Don’t let the thought of complicated visas put you off travelling to places you’ve always dreamed of visiting. Take a deep breath, do your research properly to ensure you get everything you need and just do it. It probably won’t be as bad as you imagined, and you’ll get to go somewhere amazing!

NB: Some images were added in February 2019. Amendments were made to information around visa costs and embassy locations and opening times.