The Visa Hassle

The most stressful part of any travel for me is about getting the Visa. First of all so many documents are required, it is exhausting, filling up forms and arranging for the documents. Last week of May we have planned a family holiday to Japan. Me and hubby applied for our Visa from Muscat and my Son applied from Mumbai, since he is there. Our Visa came within a week here in Muscat and it was not much of a hassle, the process was smooth. In Muscat we could directly apply at the Embassy, so the process was quick and we received the visa within 6 days.

For my Son, he had to apply through VFS as in Mumbai the Japan Consulate does not directly deal with applicants for Visa processing. Since he is travelling as a dependent with us, there were more documents required. First of all to get VFS appointment is a big pain, you have to factor a waiting time period of 2 to 3 weeks just to get the appointment and after that another 2 to 3 weeks to get the visa. If you are sure about the trip and the flight tickets are booked then it's best to apply for any visa at least 3 months in advance. He applied almost 2 months before the travel date, got the appointment 3 weeks later and then it took another 2 weeks to get his visa.

Source

Finally his Visa has come last week, but then there is an issue, the name on the Visa is wrongly spelt. And with a name mismatch the airline staff at check-in can deny boarding, so again he reached out to VFS, they called him, took his passport back and mentioned that the correction will be done and sent. Now we have only 10 days at hand before our travel date, so hoping it will come on time. Just can't imagine the kind of stress to get the Visa. It's not only about this visa, it's about all the visas. Rather this one was issues in a good period of time. Schengen visa takes 3 to 4 weeks to be issued. It is like you can never make a sudden plan to travel to some parts of the world.

Thank you for visiting my blog. 👼🏻👼🏻💖💖🌹🌺🌸